Image description: Fuze with horrified expression on his face. Rimuru with a pleasant smile on his face.

IMPORTANT NOTE: please use a VPN whenever visiting Blorptube, or anywhere else on the internet, for that matter. Protect your privacy.

For this edition of Saturday Anime Night, we’re returning to the much-beloved anime adaptation of Hirohiko Araki’s legendary manga, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, with episodes 13 through 18 of the sixth part, Stone Ocean. This one stars a lady, but she still does the usual poses and fights a bunch of muscley guys in ever-more-convoluted ways.

Next is Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), a cel-animated drama from Dreamworks about a horse who is captured by humans, manages to escape, and goes on a grand journey across the plains to rejoin his herd. Maybe he’ll also find love along the way? Who knows. This flopped at the box office at the time, but got good reviews, and it has a high rating now on Letterboxd, so let’s give it a whirl. Director Kelly Asbury was also one of the creative leads on Shrek 2 (2004), along with, uhh, Gnomeo & Juliet (2011).

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.zapto.org/ /o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: https://letterboxd.com/film/jojos-bizarre-adventure-stone-ocean/
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: https://letterboxd.com/film/spirit-stallion-of-the-cimarron/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/768593
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/11348

CWs for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean:

• Death of dog.
• Stalking.
• Gaslighting.
• Child abuse.
• Deaths of animals.
• Animal cruelty.
• Death of cat.
• Death of pet.
• Spiders.
• Bugs.
• Sexual assault: a creepy man gropes a teenage girl’s breasts.
• Implied pedophilia. Not depicted.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Self-harm.
• Cutting of flesh.
• Someone struggles to breathe.
• Amputation.
• Squashed head.
• Genital trauma.
• Broken bones.
• Tooth damage.
• Finger mutilation.
• Torture.
• Death of child.
• Death of parent.
• Kidnapping.
• Cheating.
• Ghosts.
• Shower scene.
• Possession.
• Trypophobia.
• Vomiting.
• Someone soils themselves.
• Audio gore.
• Hospital scene.
• Violent mentally-ill person.
• Suicide attempt.
• Misophonia.
• Suicidal ideation.
• Crying baby.
• Ableism.
• Someone is hit by a car.
• References to sex.
• Blood and gore.
• Gun violence.

CWs for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron:

• Deaths of animals.
• Cruelty to animals.
• Sad animals.
• Someone is physically restrained.
• Cutting of flesh.
• Shaving.
• Asphyxiation.
• Unconsciousness.
• Finger mutilation.
• Torture.
• Suicide.
• Kidnapping.
• Natural bodies of water.
• Razors.
• Spitting.
• Incarceration.
• Underwater scenes.
• Sudden loud noises.
• Crying baby.
• Someone is watched without their knowledge.
• Babies.
• Childbirth.
• Hate speech.
• Gun violence.

Links to movies:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 19: https://tankie.tube/w/fCaductBYJbkr2zJwSe8v5
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 20: https://tankie.tube/w/9KZogi3gKJG32dNWwvcKgk
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 21: https://tankie.tube/w/t4b9Laj41bP832xTCYrFay
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 22: https://tankie.tube/w/kVYsY7NLdveiH9bASDWGFQ
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 23: https://tankie.tube/w/oezhV2Y6HyfUXaVpYoTU7g
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 24: https://tankie.tube/w/i5fy5iStz4p9kbtoWSFxTB
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: https://tankie.tube/w/mS81bNyjUBdzo1oeu9qcht

Visually it's just kind of falling flat, between the low-contrast, desaturated color palate, the kind of low-energy, stiff animation, and the "not the worst, but still unnecessary and bad" CGI. The musical score is just sort of subdued and bland and doesn't really accompany or elevate the scenes well most of the time. The writing is... not great so far and the pacing feels bad, with relatively little happening and lots of over-long bad-CGI scene transitions to pad time. The characters feel sort of lifeless and just sort of there, which could have been tied into the idea of people being deadened by hapna except it's very clearly not going for that at all in any way and that would have also needed contrast and hints of resolution to land.

From the buzz leading up to it I was really just expecting better.

Edit: I just want to add, I'm complaining a bit about the music and lack of style and I want to highlight that both the intro and outro are phenomenal in both of those respects. It's like every ounce of style and energy they had for the whole project got poured entirely into those.

The God's Knights bring the fight

What did you think of this week's chapter?

No break next week!

We love them folks. So many great comics out there to peruse thanks to people that care about others!

Like last time, these plot descriptions are based on those from Anilist, and you can use things like the structure of the title, the character names, and the occasional numeral to help you figure things out. You can also use the word-for-word translations from the previous quiz to help you figure out some of the more common words.

~~1: Ňav Zuzǒ~~

~~Kyertev R**e kot́iv ani ňey na yatazey, šo Huźisaňe ňa sinj́eskev vuśkede. Kyertev N*****ǒ na gvajera kot́iv ani tey, šo Huźisaňe ňa sinj́eske. Kav anskagunska he, R**e u N*****ǒ ńederinet́e, u xi he yéne so yegune kot́i ňey, so šo yont́i koy-rámene u žent́i yerezine.~~

2: Hay Hiḱey to yaRoyčoḱiya!

Pe-1-e A. M***ŕe ňa anime-dećti : kyertiv xaíde lo še na dećte ňa "sule : buhe" čay. Suliv daŕi to yeruňevše ko yecigempoĺevše, no še la nay nat́e yekoḱev anske hiḱev anime-dećte, na fe šo še ňa dećte dum aniḱe nay može čay. Rine K. S****é ňa ariḱe so yerokev roynasinćke : yénske, šo nat́e zede na yeydrestev M***ŕe. Ńesint́ev hazoske, šo sokruňeynevńe, yesnij́iḱev biśe so M. C****ye iḿej́eske ňa hoževše xaye : dećke he, ńehke čoḱiya na dećte va pset́e "yalanav lobuha" to yerokivńe.

3: YaVaňgleynav Buhčonska

Yaceyv vaňgla ňa keyn udet́e he, noževše u dent́e bone so ogestev ranske čay. Yažalav vaňgla ňa dot́e bone ko randogiyey so šo moḱiḱe še dum bonev gune. Yaceyv vaňgla ruňet́ey yežalevfe, no može pet́ede lo yaceyvfey so bonev so "yeKődev yeTruňeyne" iḿej́eske. Jaḱav so E. E****a iḿej́eska ňa si žari he vaňgleynav marka dent́av ŕusulska bene so yatǒvša so A*****a iḿej́eska. E****a so vaňgla ŕaza u hira va sot́a yarǒv yatǒvša na čoniya. So šo, yavaňgleyneyv 2 kot́a yőravńa va udet́a yaboneyvńa anskey, u yeKődev yeTruňeyne to yaradaxey.

GQuuuuuuX is director Kazuya Tsurumaki's (FLCL, Diebuster) pet project: from interviews it seems like all the impetus for this collaboration between Studio Khara and Sunrise can be attributed to him.

However, this episode? The lovingly rendered shot-for-shot recreation of the the first episode of the original 0079 Gundam (minus some alt timeline shenanigans), complete with remixed versions of the original bgm and sound effects? This is all Anno, and probably the closest we'll get to a Shin Gundam.

Anno's major contribution to this project has been on the scripts, with him fleshing out this alternate timeline while Youji Enokido (Revolutionary Girl Utena) wrote the "modern" segments of the story. To say that the staff list for this is kinda cracked would be an understatement.

The theatrical release had the movie start with the footage from this episode, along with another 15 mins or so of extra footage that paced things better. It's a bit disappointing that we couldn't get an extra long episode to get the entire prologue, although I get the feeling that we'll see the events that were cut for time here later on in the show as a flashback. (Also, going from this Gundam Origins artstyle to the rest of the show's hyper-stylized Pokemon-esque designs did induce some whiplash)

(Challia Bull was a "villain of the week" who was easily dispatched in the original show, in episode 39 to be exact- now in 2025 he's experienced twink rebirth via Yaoi fanshippers. What a time to be a Gundam fan, this is the best kind of "fanservice"- Gundam would have died stillborn if not for Yaoi fanshippers keeping interest in the show alive until Sunrise sorted out their merchandising funded model. Thank you Anno for giving the people what they want)

Edit: Also we finally got the opening, and it has a bunch of callback's to Zeta Gundam lmao

Jack Black as Guts

Rhea Pearlman as Casca

Tom Travolta as Griffith

Ron Pearlman as Nosteratu Zodd

Jayden Smith as Isidoro

Gilbert Godfrey as Skull Night

JCVD as Schilke

What arc we filming?

IMPORTANT NOTE: please use a VPN whenever visiting Blorptube, or anywhere else on the internet, for that matter. Protect your privacy.

For this edition of Saturday Anime Night, we’re returning to the much-beloved anime adaptation of Hirohiko Araki’s legendary manga, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, with episodes 13 through 18 of the sixth part, Stone Ocean. This one stars a lady, but she still does the usual poses and fights a bunch of muscley guys in ever-more-convoluted ways.

Next is Rocks in My Pockets, an English-language Latvian darkly-comic surrealist piece about a woman’s journey through her own mind in Lativa from the 1920s through WW2, and the weird stuff she encounters in her headspace as history progress from the Depression, to the Nazi invasion, to her being locked up in a mental hospital after the war. It is, thus far, the best-known and best-regarded work of Latvian animator Signe Baumane. Great reviews for this one, so let’s give it a whirl.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.zapto.org/ /o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: https://letterboxd.com/film/jojos-bizarre-adventure-stone-ocean/
• Rocks in My Pockets: https://letterboxd.com/film/rocks-in-my-pockets/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/768593
• Rocks in My Pockets: Sorry, nothing on DTDD or IMDB.

CWs for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean:

• Death of dog.
• Stalking.
• Gaslighting.
• Child abuse.
• Deaths of animals.
• Animal cruelty.
• Death of cat.
• Death of pet.
• Spiders.
• Bugs.
• Sexual assault: a creepy man gropes a teenage girl’s breasts.
• Implied pedophilia. Not depicted.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Self-harm.
• Cutting of flesh.
• Someone struggles to breathe.
• Amputation.
• Squashed head.
• Genital trauma.
• Broken bones.
• Tooth damage.
• Finger mutilation.
• Torture.
• Death of child.
• Death of parent.
• Kidnapping.
• Cheating.
• Ghosts.
• Shower scene.
• Possession.
• Trypophobia.
• Vomiting.
• Someone soils themselves.
• Audio gore.
• Hospital scene.
• Violent mentally-ill person.
• Suicide attempt.
• Misophonia.
• Suicidal ideation.
• Crying baby.
• Ableism.
• Someone is hit by a car.
• References to sex.
• Blood and gore.
• Gun violence.

CWs for Rocks in My Pockets:

• Nazis.
• Mental illness.
• Mental hospital.
• Unstable reality.
• Meltdown.
• Depression.
• Suicide.
• Age-gap romance.

Links to movies:

• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 13: https://tankie.tube/w/rj9FTN55kd9gReKPoNyst4
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 14: https://tankie.tube/w/eVw2MafFPEfjRREED94u79
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 15: https://tankie.tube/w/kGZ4jXymscXFDhzp9W99Zx
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 16: https://tankie.tube/w/dHtg7Hi5gmwsYfrFoQUac4
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 17: https://tankie.tube/w/cJTQNSYN1Qjvj4c41kM74c
• Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean ep. 18: https://tankie.tube/w/pkfUeAirQhWAYxnhmdJBRz
• Rocks in My Pockets: https://tankie.tube/w/3AeEDmCGwsVCFrpw6F9gbM

The Best Jojo part

Teaser trailer

Potemkins search for indestructible penciles