New York's JoJo

Nearly fifty years after Jonathan Joestar's death, an aged Speedwagon and Straizo travel to Mexico to probe a mysterious cavern, where they find a chamber lined with Stone Masks and a body fused into a stone pillar. Over in New York, a foreign tourist has his wallet lifted by a young pickpocket named Smokey, then rescues that same thief from two brutal, crooked officers using the Ripple. The tourist is Joseph Joestar, grandson of Jonathan, newly arrived in America with his grandmother Erina, who raised him after both his parents died.

Back in Mexico, Straizo turns on Speedwagon; coveting the youth the mask once granted Dio, he dons one himself. During a restaurant meal, a mafia thug insults Smokey, and Joseph humiliates him while showing off his gift for reading and outmaneuvering opponents. Word soon reaches the group that Straizo has murdered Speedwagon.

That night Straizo, restored to youth as a vampire, ambushes Joseph outside a cafe, hoping to kill him before he can master the Ripple. Joseph answers by drawing a Tommy gun and blasting Straizo through the cafe window, declaring open war in revenge for Speedwagon. The episode cements the generational handoff from Jonathan to Joseph, reintroduces the Stone Mask threat through Straizo's transformation, and sets the coming struggle in motion.

The adaptation drops the manga panel of Speedwagon showing Straizo a mummified vampire, along with a gag about Joseph wanting to flip up girls' skirts. Several racially charged and slang lines aimed at Smokey and the police were softened for the television broadcast, then restored on Blu-ray, while Joseph's Coca-Cola and Superman comic were swapped for generic stand-ins, the comic changed to Baoh. Series director Naokatsu Tsuda recalled that the crew leaned into pop-art coloring to echo the comic books of the era while keeping JoJo's spirit intact.