JoJo vs. The Ultimate Lifeform (Episode)

JoJo vs. The Ultimate Life-Form (JOJO vs. 究極生物) is the thirteenth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It is also the fourth episode of Battle Tendency. It covers Chapter 58 through Chapter 61 of the manga.

Summary
Santana has escaped from his cell and is now confronting Joseph, Stroheim, and Speedwagon. Despite the danger, Joseph prefers to playfully make peace with the Pillar Man. For his part, Santana ignores Joseph, preferring to study his environment; he effortlessly dismantles a machine gun and begins to study the lights. When Joseph annoys him too much, Santana tries to kill Joseph by growing sharp ribs out of his body, which Joseph blocks with the Ripple. This power then interests Santana but when the Pillar Man tries to harm Speedwagon, Joseph becomes serious. However, Santana's skin is too resistant to the Ripple. Contorting his body to evade an attack, Santana seemingly kicks Joseph into unconsciousness and begins to absorb him. Thankfully, Joseph has only faked it and is now in direct contact with Santana's inside. He sends a devastating Ripple attack which cuts Santana in half.

With the Pillar Man cut in half, Joseph chains Santana's chest and tries to drag him up to the entrance of the base to expose the body using the sunlight. Unfortunately, Santana grabs hold of Joseph's leg and immobilizes him just before reaching the door. When Stroheim comes to help and is ensnared, the German shows a remarkable spirit by telling Joseph to cut his bound leg. Joseph reluctantly obliges and Stroheim then opens to the door to the exit, exposing Santana to the sun. However, Santana avoids the sunlight by crawling into the stub where Stroheim's leg was cut off. Stroheim walks on one leg into the sunlight and pulls out a grenade. From there, he tells Joseph that the Germans had uncovered other Pillar Men in Europe and that he must go to Rome to learn how to defeat them. With that said, Stroheim ignites the grenade and destroys his body.

As a last-ditch effort, Santana attacks Joseph, and the two go flying into a well. But then Joseph reveals that he exactly timed the jump so that the sunlight would reach the water of the well and get reflected. Being hit by sunlight from two directions, Santana turns into stone and is defeated.

Commentary
"At the end of 2012, there was a tight timing for Episode 13. The series' director Kenichi Suzuki, made the second half of the episode. Thanks to him, we managed to finish it in time, and even made it look great. Masahiko Komino managed the first half and put in it his mark. It's a lot of tired muscles. There were only a few characters, but the ensemble was balanced. The tension is kept high by Speedwagon and Stroheim who compete to deliver their explanations aloud; they're really noisy here (laughs).

Anyway, the episode was really great between Stroheim's bravery or the last sunray vanquishing Santana in the well, such great moments. The composition is exemplary, Suzuki applied himself with the layout.

I think that with all of these together, we got many good scenes at the end."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries