Heavy Forecast(1)
Episode 30 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part II begins with Weather Report harming a medical worker because he took a patient’s seat. Anastasia tells him to stop. Weather Report’s baffled by Anastasia calling him by that name. Anastasia wonders what happened to him as he struts an entirely new personality. Versus untangles himself as Ermes heads to punch him. However, bubbles come out of her arm, causing her to retract her arm. Versus tells her and Jolyne that they’re all in danger. He warns them not to touch Weather Report’s rainbows because that’s what Pucci sealed up. He reminds them that Weather can control the weather. With his memory restored, he knows he can destroy the ozone layer. Pucci says the rainbows come from Weather’s subconscious. To stop the rainbows, they must murder Weather or extract his memory disc. Pucci flees but reminds the girls not to let Versus escape. Versus deactivates Netherworld and flees. This allows Jolyne and Ermes to reach his patient room and meet with the officers. The children rush into the officers’ arms. The officers notice Jolyne and Ermes look like wanted fugitives and ask them to put their hands up. The officers touch the rainbows and start secreting snails. Jolyne and Ermes enter the hallway and notice snails swarming atop people and walls. The people seemed to be talking and moving slowly like a snail too. Jolyne recalls Weather’s ability to drag venomous frogs from the sky but didn’t know he can bring snails too. She notices that the people who get infected by the snails lose their minds. Jolyne touches a rainbow, and her arm starts bubbling up. However, nothing terrible happens, signaling her that Stand users can tolerate it. Ermes suggests going after Weather now that he’s turned rogue. Jolyne argues against it since she feels there could be a way to excavate his memory disc. She tells Ermes they should focus on exiting the hospital. Meanwhile, Weather wanders around the area while Anastasia tries to get his attention. Versus’s heading parallel to them and plans to retrieve heaven before Pucci. Versus uses his Stand to uncover a memory from Jolyne and Ermes. He overhears Jolyne discussing Emporio. He plans to find Emporio since he holds Jotaro’s memory disc. By reading Jotaro’s disc, he’ll know a way to get to heaven like Pucci. Meanwhile, Jolyne and Ermes break a piece of the hospital’s wall and ride atop the snail path with it like a snowboard. Then, we receive a narration highlighting the history of the world’s oxygen and the ozone layer. After, we see Versus continue hunting Emporio. He aims to head for the hospital since he has a hunch Emporio would come to Jolyne’s aid. Little does he know that he zooms past Emporio, whose more focused on returning Jotaro’s memory disc to the Speedwagon Foundation. He’ll be meeting a rep from the company in five minutes. Versus stops in his tracks and uses Netherworld to find a memory from Emporio. He finds one and makes a false phone call to Emporio. Emporio picks it up and gets attacked by Netherworld. However, Versus runs into a problem. Emporio doesn’t have Jotaro’s disc but knows he can excavate his memories to look for it. He notices Jolyne and Ermes heading in his direction and swiftly drags Emporio’s body somewhere. Jolyne and Ermes spot Emporio getting dragged by someone. They rush to his aid but need to dodge a car that’s about to crash into them. Jolyne and Ermes avoid getting hit but land in a pile of Weather’s snails. They transform into human snails. Jolyne realizes it nullifies her Stand’s thread, so she calls for Emporio to grab it. Meanwhile, a group of Football players rush from that side and drag Jolyne away from Emporio’s direction. Versus says, he dug up memories of Florida’s Super Bowl and the players will drag Jolyne to home base. He uses the chance to dig up Emporio’s memory and realizes Emporio used his Stand to hide the disc. He wonders where Emporio put it. Unfortunately, Jolyne manages to remove her thread from the runner’s foot. Jolyne attacks Versus, but he excavates a memory regarding the ocean’s water evaporating and leaving the salt. Since Jolyne exhibits snail-like features now–her body will start shriveling up because of the salt. Versus finds Jotaro’s memory disc and tries fleeing. He becomes slower and snail-like because Jolyne managed to get Weather’s snails onto Emporio without Versus realizing it. Jolyne grabs the disc back from Versus. Emporio relays news that the Speedwagon Foundation rep can’t meet them within city limits because of the snail pandemic. Jolyne hot wires a car with her thread and plans to bring Versus with them to attain some intel about Pucci. Upon investigating the vehicle, Ermes makes a terrifying discovery. She realizes they’re doomed to be eaten by the snail’s nature enemy beetles. Apparently, they stick their heads inside the snail’s bodies and devour them. Eventually, beetles will grow from our heroes’ shells and eat them. Somewhere in Florida, Anastasia yells at Weather for starting this snail pandemic. Weather tells him to keep quiet since he feels Pucci’s presence. The episode concludes with Weather vowing to settle the score he has with Pucci.
The Episode Review
While it wasn’t as grand as the previous chapter, this one shows how dangerous Weather Report can be at its best. At the same time, it appears the anime’s retracting Weather’s role as a villain. The way he converses with Anastasia makes it feel like he’s under control. This is great news for Jolyne’s side, but it could leave a sour taste in some fans’ mouths. The previous episode built up Weather as if he’d be an uncontrollable monstrosity. Many will find it unnatural for him to have reverted to his original, peaceful self. Once again, there’s always a chance that Weather’s darkened persona could rear its head when he meets Pucci face to face. For now, it’s jarring to see Weather acting normal after portraying rude behavior and killing intent. Jolyne’s decision to keep Versus around is somewhat strange, though. You’d think she’d want to get rid of him now to avoid any strange phenomena from occurring. Besides that, this chapter delivers some excellent action scenes and strategies. Once again, the plot point about Jolyne’s fate tying into her luck-based victories rears its head here. It makes you wonder if Pucci has a backup plan if things don’t go accordingly. As mentioned before, this set piece was fun but didn’t deliver on the expectations it set up from the last episode’s cliffhanger. While Weather causes some mischief, it seems like he’s reverted to being the weather-controlling hero we know him as. Despite this, I’m looking forward to receiving more information about his relationship with Pucci and seeing their fight. It’ll hopefully be an entertaining bout to remember.
