Enter the Drake’s Dream
Episode 17 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean Part II begins with a similar montage to the previous episode. This montage details Pucci’s desire to recover Dio’s bone and Emporio going over Jolyne’s plans with F.F. Meanwhile, Jolyne has defeated Westwood and his Stand Planet Waves. While on the ground, Jolyne assesses her situation and wants to find the prisoner who was playing with Dio’s Bone. She points out the numerous corpses around her. One of the prisoners dies in front of her due to bloating. She argues that there are more Stand Users in this area. She spots two suspicious men standing amongst the dead. She’s unsure who they are but has a hunch that they are Stand Users. Jolyne’s determined to find that mysterious child-like prisoner and stands up. A short older man advances toward Jolyne and reveals that he is a Stand User. He shows interest in Jolyne’s thread ability and praises her for her battle against Westwood. He finishes his miniature warm-up session and reveals his name to Jolyne. His name is Kenzou, and he wishes to be Jolyne’s next opponent. The other man doesn’t say a word and stands aside. Jolyne accepts his challenge and humorously gives him the middle finger (in multiple ways). Kenzou reveals that he drowned many of the surrounding prisoners. Although he’d like to fight Jolyne, he tells her she’s not his prime target. He strikes a man’s elbow, and it punches another corpse. F.F. leaps out of that corpse and shoots at Kenzou with her iconic plankton pistol. However, another corpse blocks F.F.’s projectiles to F.F.’s irritation. She denounces that as dumb luck and proceeds to fight Kenzou. Anastasia arrives at the battlefield soon after. F.F. rushes at Kenzou with all her might. Kenzou retaliates by summoning his own Stand. His Stand looks like a metallic ring with an arrow decorated with a dragon head. Kenzou uses his stand like a compass and can single out any point in space. He advances toward F.F., expecting her to open her mouth. She shoots several bullets at him, but they all miss. He puts his arm inside of her mouth and fills it with water. Kenzou explains that humans can drown if a few ounces of water can block their respiratory system. Kenzou wounds F.F.’s cervical and stimulates her adrenal glands. This causes F.F. to suffocate in the process. She falls to the ground and begins bloating. F.F. pierces her throat to escape and attacks Kenzou when his back is turned. Kenzou avoids her attack and the situation while sustaining a slight injury to one of his legs. He retaliates with a kick, but F.F. squeezes between some handrail bars to avoid it. This makes Kenzou question F.F.’s humanity. At the same time, Anastasia rushes to Jolyne’s aid and tells her to observe the fight. He analyzes Kenzou’s fighting style and confesses his love for Jolyne. Jolyne’s taken aback by his words. Anastasia switches the topic back to Kenzou and shares some knowledge about him. Kenzou is a 78-year-old-man who’s been in prison for forty years. He used to be a cult leader, but the authorities caught him. He had thirty-four followers who he drugged and murdered by lighting a building up in flames. He managed to survive the excursion. Meanwhile, Kenzou looks at F.F. and has been affected by Survivor’s stand. He uses Survivor’s powers to distinguish between the Stand and plankton in F.F.’s body. He finds out that she’s not fully human, thanks to the plankton but remains confident that he can defeat her. Kenzou summons his Stand “Dragon’s Dream” to the battlefield. He slowly slides his feet toward a specific spot while a dragon-headed arrow appears behind F.F. She senses the object’s presence and shoots at it. The bullets don’t impact Dragon’s Dream, though. The Stand begins talking to F.F. and warns her about Kenzou’s next attack. He tells her that he can’t interfere in the battle, and Kenzou takes the opportunity to strike at F.F. However, F.F. manages to dodge his attack. She counters his kicks with a barrage of punches, but Kenzou blocks them easily. Kenzou plunges his arm into a bubble surrounding Dragon’s Dream, and it ends up tearing it off. Kenzou feels no pain and orders his severed arm to strike F.F. from behind. Fortunately, Jolyne tells F.F. to dodge the attack. F.F. manages to shield herself from a fatal attack but is sent flying a good distance. F.F. shares some crude remarks toward Kenzou, who yells at his Stand for helping her out. At the same time, a group of mice hampers with a control board, causing each cell room’s door to close around them. One of the doors crushes a man’s head in. This causes his glasses to fly and pierce F.F.’s mouth. F.F. tries opening her mouth to relieve the pain, but Kenzou attacks her. She managed to evade his strikes. Jolyne’s bewildered by the coincidental outcome, but Anastasia guesstimates that Kenzou is using a form of martial arts called “Feng Shui” to attack F.F. According to Anastasia, Feng Shui determines lucky and unlucky spots based on energy flow. Kenzou is using this fighting style to determine the path he has to follow to strike and kill his enemy. Kenzou uses Dragon’s Dream to pinpoint the lucky spots where he can evade attacks, too, he argues. Kenzou praises Anastasia for figuring out his tricks. He walks toward a spot where he feels F.F.’s bullets will be rendered ineffective. Dragon’s Dream appears behind F.F. and points her toward =another unlucky spot. Jolyne warns F.F. about Kenzou’s Stand, and F.F. vows to keep Kenzou from making contact with Dragon’s Dream. Dragon’s Dream tells F.F. that the spot above her ear is unlucky. Kenzou isn’t happy that his enemies are learning more about his powers. Kenzou disappears to throw F.F.’s off and reappears to strike her. F.F. attempts to counter his attack, but Keznou grabs her leg. She responds with a strike to his head, but Kenzou deflects her hand and counters with a left cross to her sternum. This maneuver lets him plunge his hand into F.F’s mouth, but F.F. counters his attack by biting his fingers. Kenzou screams and angrily strikes her liver to force her to release him. Kenzou realizes he must utilize Dragon’s Dream’s full power to take F.F. down. He throws a vertical kick on F.F., pushing her next to Dragon’s Dream. Dragon’s Dream bites her arm and makes it strike another corpse for some reason. Kenzou states that his tactic was successful, but F.F. is taken aback by his claims. She asks Dragon’s Dream what is going on, but it doesn’t know what will happen next. As a result of F.F.’s strike, a couple of flies end up near a ventilator, resulting in a “butterfly effect.”. This provokes a bird to swoop down to eat them. However, the bird ends up killed by the ventilator and breaks the fan. Jolyne warns F.F. to run away, but F.F. stands her ground and summons her plankton pistol. Meanwhile, a piece of metal falls and rebounds to the ground. It eventually makes contact with F.F.’s skull, slicing her head open. The episode ends with Jolyne screaming F.F’s name in fear as we gaze upon an image of F.F.’s lifeless body.
The Episode Review
This episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure had a lot of ups and a few downs. We gain another experienced villain fighting off one of our beloved protagonists F.F., while it’s also full of dialogue and explanation. Thankfully, it also features enough exhilarating action sequences to keep us entertained. This episode also sheds more light on F.F.’s battle intellect and Anastasia’s personality. Like Westwood, Kenzou is an enjoyable villain. His dishevelled appearance blends well with this intriguing fighting style and Stand ability. It’s a pleasure to learn more about him, but I appreciate the anime not spending too much time explaining his backstory. We receive enough information to understand who he is and why he sides with evil. We can say the same when we are given an explanation of his Stand “Dragon’s Dream.” Dragon’s Dream is an intriguing Stand too. It harbors a mind of its own and doesn’t side with anyone. While it shows more favoritism toward F.F., he does fulfil Kenzou’s demands and helps him pinpoint her “unlucky spots.” This Stand has a lot of depth to it, and I appreciate JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s author Hirohiko Araki for taking risks with his creativity. I can tell he put a lot of thought into Dragon’s Dream and Kenzou’s abilities. Besides Kenzou, I’m excited to see F.F. taking on another Stand user. She had it easy with the invisible alligator but this time, her adversary is more fierce, complex, experienced, and humane than her last. Despite getting feedback from the enemy’s Stand, she couldn’t withstand Kenzou’s might. I didn’t expect her character to get wiped out within one episode, but it shows how menacingly powerful Kenzou is. I was happy to see Anastasia finally confess his love to Jolyne since she has the same reaction I had when he announced his affection two episodes earlier. It’s random and humorous. However, this episode spends time characterizing Anastasia. He exhibits this sense of wisdom and calm energy around him. His voice makes him sound gentle despite being labeled as a murderer. Although we know about his past life, I still get this sense of mystery whenever he’s on screen. Hopefully, the anime explores his character further. My gripes with this chapter though stems from F.F.’s arrival at the fight and some wonky animation errors. I had a problem with F.F. hiding within a dead corpse. Although she states she did so to pull one over on Kenzou, it feels like she was here during the peak of Jolyne and Westwood’s fight. It would’ve been better if the anime chose to have her show up on the battlefield in the same vein as Anastasia. This may have felt more natural. While the fight scenes were as gruesome as the previous, there were several moments in this episode where the characters looked off-putting. For instance, there are scenes where F.F. and Kenzou’s bodies looked awkward and off-putting. Sometimes their bodies would appear larger than they should, or characters didn’t look great in motion. These issues cropped up a few times. It ended up taking me out of the experience. Otherwise, I feel this episode holds up well. It took its time introducing Kenzou and his Stand, and I had no issues hearing Anastasia and Kenzou explain its abilities. It appears F.F. may be out of the count, giving Anastasia a chance at the older gentleman. If that is the case, I can’t wait to see how Anastasia plans to defeat Kenzou and his motion-detecting Stand!
