JoJo vs. The Ultimate Life-Form

Free from his cell, Santana confronts Joseph, Stroheim, and Speedwagon. Joseph, ever playful, tries to make peace, but the Pillar Man ignores him and studies his surroundings instead, casually taking apart a machine gun and examining the lights. Pushed past patience, Santana grows sharp ribs from his body to skewer Joseph, who blocks them with the Ripple. The power intrigues the creature, but when he threatens Speedwagon, Joseph turns serious, only to find Santana's skin too tough for the Ripple to pierce. Twisting to slip an attack, Santana appears to knock Joseph out and starts absorbing him, yet Joseph has faked it and, now touching Santana from within, unleashes a Ripple surge that cuts the Pillar Man in half.

Splitting Santana apart, Joseph chains the torso and hauls it toward the base entrance to expose it to sunlight, but Santana grabs his leg just short of the door and pins him. Stroheim rushes in and is caught too, then shows fierce resolve by ordering Joseph to sever his ensnared leg. Joseph reluctantly complies, and Stroheim throws open the door, flooding Santana with sun, though the Pillar Man escapes into the stump of the severed leg. Balancing on one leg into the light, Stroheim tells Joseph that the Germans have found other Pillar Men in Europe and that he must go to Rome to learn how they can be beaten, then triggers a grenade and destroys his own body.

In a final gambit Santana lunges at Joseph, and the two plunge into a well. Joseph reveals he timed the fall so sunlight would strike the water and reflect back up, hitting Santana from two sides at once. Caught in the double blaze, the Pillar Man turns to stone and is finished.

Joseph fakes being absorbed to strike Santana from the inside with the Ripple, cutting him in two. Stroheim orders his own trapped leg severed and then sacrifices himself with a grenade, but not before revealing that more Pillar Men wait in Europe and directing Joseph toward Rome. Joseph defeats Santana by timing a fall into a well so reflected sunlight strikes the Pillar Man from two directions, turning him to stone.

The thirteenth anime episode is the fourth of Battle Tendency, adapting chapters 58 through 61. The main change from the manga trims Joseph's musings about whether female Pillar Men exist and how they reproduce. Director Naokatsu Tsuda's Blu-ray commentary recalls the tight schedule at the end of 2012, crediting series director Kenichi Suzuki with the second half and Masahiko Komino with the first, and singling out Stroheim's bravery and the final sunbeam in the well as standout moments. The opening is BLOODY STREAM and the ending is Roundabout.