With the premiere of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean on Netflix (sub only), many are being introduced to the series for the first time. However, they’ll quickly realize this is the fifth season and wonder if they need to watch the rest of the Jojo anime first. We’ll take a look at whether viewers should watch the other seasons of Jojo before Stone Ocean or if they can start with Season 5.
Can I start with Stone Ocean, or should I watch the other Jojo seasons first?
The question of whether or not a viewer could start with Jojo Stone Ocean is a complicated one. We recommend that viewers watch the following arcs before beginning Season 5:
- Battle Tendency (Season 1, Episodes 10-26)
- Stardust Crusaders (Season 2, Episodes 1-24)
- Stardust Crusaders: Egypt Saga (Season 2, Episodes 25-48)
- Diamond is Unbreakable (Season 3, Episodes 1-39)
Since each arc is a self-contained story, a person could begin Jojo with Stone Ocean. However, there’s a lot of material from earlier seasons that are referenced continually in it. Skipping earlier Jojo chapters will cause those references to fly right past a viewer, and the whole thing could be rather confusing.
Stone Ocean throws viewers right into the thick of things without taking much time to explain things like:
- Why Jolyne is important
- Why her father Jotaro is a big deal
- What stands are and how they’re manifested
- Who Dio is.
Astute viewers will likely be able to deduce some of these things pretty quickly. However, the majority of people will be very confused when a woman in jail starts trying to get a small man in a hollowed-out bird body to do tricks for her or when Jolyne uses Stone Free for the first time, and her body turns to string.
I personally recommend watching all of Jojo before Stone Ocean, but viewing the arcs above will do a good enough job of preparing people for Season 5.
