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Forum - View topicWhy Stone Ocean Could Be the Most Important Part of Jojo Yet
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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I can't help but think this article was made in response to all those people bitching on the JoJo teaser article this week about how they doubt they'd watch Stone Ocean just because it was gonna be on Netflix, even to the point of claiming it was in Netflix Jail, when that wasn't the case an it was gonna be released worldwide before the usual TV broadcast in Japan a month later.
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Touma55
Posts: 231 |
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While I'm glad we got Jolyne Araki's editor was kinda right. Part 6 Is one of the least popular parts over here in Japan and I have heard some people say that they were not a big fan of her or that they couldn't connect to her. Of course that isn't the only reason for its unpopularity. Part 6 has some good stuff in it, but it is pretty meh when it comes to a lot of stuff. While I definitely don't think that it's the worst part I'm not surprised the series popularity fell so hard during part 6.
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ryboom
Posts: 18 |
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The thing is there are a gazillion shows with all-female casts where all they do is fight. Shonen label seems completely arbitrary
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Whitestrider
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Stone Ocean is good only because it made possible the far superior Steel Ball Run.
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ANN_Lynzee
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 2948 Location: Email for assistance only |
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I mean, any editor worth their salt knew that a big JoJo announcement was coming up and would have commissioned some kind of JoJo-related piece before the announcement was made so they could have something ready to go up by the time the news dropped. |
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5471 |
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Uhhh, so what are those shows? Because there aren't many all-girl action shows that broke into near geek mainstream popularity and sustain them unlike ones found in Weekly Shounen Jump which the Jojo series are in. |
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getumbuck
Posts: 198 |
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Does Foo Fighters even count as a woman? "She's" basically spoiler[ sentient bacteria, using the dead body of a female prisoner, as a meat puppet.
I love that character, because "she" constantly has to stay wet as a result of this, and Araki never forgets about this little detail.]
Yea, part 6 isn't even an all girl show either. If we're talking about party members it's basically 3 and 3, when it comes to guys and ladies, though I think one character was gender swapped in the manga, for some daft reason, because Araki was scared that there were too many female characters in this arc. This will probably be an easy fix for the anime though, since the character in question, is only portrayed as a lady in one chapter, in which he/she really doesn't do anything. |
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Scion Drake
Posts: 941 |
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Incredibly 3 major female characters is a lot for a shonen.
Most generally do the whole "2 girl per team" thing to my knowledge. |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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Yeah, I wanna know which ones are those "gazillion shows" too; besides Stone Ocean, I can think of only 3 other "shonen" manga/anime where there's that kind of action headlined by girls/women. |
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Horsefellow
 Posts: 262 |
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I don't think that's a Japan-only mindset. "Stone Ocean sucks/It's ok to part skip Part 6" is kind of a meme in the western fanbase as well. I saw a lot of people blaming Stone Ocean for why the anime stalled after Part 5 and Part 6 was never announced. Also saw a lot of people even saying David Productions should just skip it and adapt Steel Ball Run, which I think is dumb and thy should adapt everything not just the 'good' stuff. But yeah, Part 6 seems plenty divisive. I thought it was fine myself, but it's definitely not my favorite. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2007 |
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I dunno, this is more like Dr. Who, where you havd a long running series established and led by a male cast and now a female lead is introduced. Not that I care, but it's not really indicative of how a female lead can carry a shonen brand any more than any spinoff series or OVAs where a female supporting character already established gets a spotlight, like what Sword Art Online has done with Asuna, or given its female characters equal footing as leads as much as Kirito in the gun one. So it is simply that fans already invested in your franchise will also gladly be interested to see more things from your franchise regardless of the lead. And while it's more of an ensemble cast, there is the Major from Ghost in the Shell. GITS already proves woman can carry a genre that is heavily geared towards men. And more guys were fans of the Vision of Escaflowne, so Hitomi Kanzaki already proved you could have a female lead in an action/mecha show, granted she's not doing the fighting, but she's the MC for a show ironically aimed at girls. And there are plenty of shonen shows where even if the guy is the main lead he's just the milquetoast protag and it's the female character who is the main draw that carries the show. Or the entire female cast in most harems that are the most entertaining. Nobody's watching those shows because of any compelling male leads, so the MC is pretty much a moot point most of the time. Anyway it's just one of thise things where most comedies and laid back shows these days tend to have female leads or all female casts, and action series have male leads, and also significant female supporting cast members. So it's an odd complaint that goes one way - demanding that shonen/action feature more women, while shoujo/comedy or other genres typically dominated by female leads doesn't need to feature more men and nobody is beggng for it to. Manga magazines aimed at young boys with advertisements aimed at young boys want young boys to read it, and young boys by nature prefer male leads. So Araki is taking a risk where readers might start to rate his competitors above him, which is not necessarily a sign that they don't like a change up of a female lead, sometimes drastic changes can see a bump in interest for things like that. But depending on how things go, they may be more compelled by other content with the leads they have a preference for. |
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Touma55
Posts: 231 |
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Oh sorry I didn't mean for that to come off as a Japan only thing. I'm just saying that it is viewed more negatively in Japan than in the West. While it definitely isn't the most popular part in the west it seems to be thought of at least a bit more highly than over here. I also thought it was a fine part, but I do think it was one of the weaker ones. The good thing is that even the weaker parts are still worth watching/reading. |
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The Not so Chosen One
Posts: 433 |
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TBH, the reasons I've seen for disliking Stone Ocean are pretty dumb and reductive, with the main one being spoiler[the ending]. The only one I've read that I can give it the benefit of the doubt is that the Stand powers and battles are pretty convoluted, but even then, is not like the previous Parts had straightforward, understandable battles (the most simplistic ones being some of the battles in Stardust Crusaders). Overall, most of those critcisms are and look like nitpicking to me, specially after the convoluted final battle of Golden Wind. And I've seen some reactions to this Part being animated mostly as, "oh yeah, one more part bEfOrE wE gEt sTeEl bAlL rUn aNiMAtED", which is a stupid thing to ask and pretty disingenuous just because people spoiler[didn't like Stone Ocean's ending]. |
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battle-arc-fan
Posts: 24 |
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Proposition 1: I personally want more female shonen protagonists for reasons that matter to me.
Proposition 2: Everyone needs (or wants) more female shonen protagonists for reasons that matter to everyone. A wide gulf between those two. Given that see rebuttals below. Counterpoint 1: According to a recently posted ANN news item the audience for the latest My Hero Academia movie is 75% female. Similar is true of Gintama, Osomatsu-san and lots of other shonen works. Counterpoint 2: Though the hero is Natsu Dragneel, the actual main character of Fairy Tail is Lucy Heartfilia. Look at how Lucy is drawn and depicted. As the main market for shonen is and will continue to be 11-20 year old Japanese males, that is basically what "more shonen female leads" would be. Prediction: you would prefer along the lines of Nikaido of Dorohedro, Jolyne of Jojo, Nobara of Jujutsu Kaisen, Midori Asakusa of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Winry Rockbell of Fullmetal Alchemist, Mikasa Ackerman of Attack on Titan etc. but there are real economic reasons why this is not going to happen. Counterpoint 3: The real solution to this is for shoujo to do better with series that have crossover appeal i.e action, adventure, military, sci-fi etc. Give us more shows like Dennou Coil!!!. Why are there only 3 shoujo mecha shows - Rayearth, Escaflowne and a failed try at mecha/magical girl fusion - according to Myanimelist? Granted Myanimelist is neither authoriative or exhaustive: Rinne no Lagrange isn't listed for example. But the point is that mecha so popular - and at times dominant - for decades that we even had a "basketball with mecha" anime in Basquash. Yet practically no shoujo authors have taken it on. Worse still: the Pretty Cure franchise was created as a "let's fill a super sentai timeslot with an action series for preteen girls" by primarily shonen veterans like Daisuke Nishio, meaning it would never have been created by the shoujo industry itself. Puella Magi Madoka Magica wasn't from a shoujo creator either. |
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BlueAlf
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I thought the only thing controversial about Part 6 was the final battle and the ending? Even for JBA standards, the weirdness in those chapters really went off the charts.
I thought the premise itself was interesting and it managed to do so much in its relatively tight premise. |
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