Long Journey Farewell, My Friends (Episode)

The Faraway Journey, Farewell Friends (遥かなる旅路 さらば友よ) is the seventy-fourth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime, the forty-eighth and final episode of Stardust Crusaders, and the twenty-fourth episode of the Egypt Arc. It covers Chapter 262 through Chapter 265 of the manga.

Summary
As he expected, Joseph's blood has empowered to DIO to new levels and the Vampire becomes ecstatic to have grown in power agian. Jotaro briefly sees the spirit of Joseph, who tells him to keep his cool as a last piece of advice and confesses that this journey with his grandson has been a very enjoyable one. Joseph's spirit then ascends into the sky. However, DIO then proceeds to completely steal Joseph's blood, desecrating his corpse. Thie makes Jotaro furious and the student rushes to confront DIO one last time. The two clash mid-air as DIO stops time. Counting the seconds, DIO is seemingly overpowered by Star Platinum by it soon freezes, while DIO can now stop time for 9 seconds. Becoming drunk with power, DIO has never felt as good as at this very moment. Tormenting an immobilized Jotaro, he uses The World to pummel him and send him flying into a bridge. He then stops time and declares that his next attack will be the last one. The Vampire disappears, only come flying down on Jotaro with a road roller with the intention of crushing Jotaro. Jotaro uses Star Platinum to try to punch the road roller away, but DIO and The World overpower it and after a last punch, Jotaro is seemingly crushed beneath the road roller. Savoring his victory and the awesome powers he has, DIO declares that humanity will bow to him and plans to drink Jotaro's blood. However, DIO then finds himself unable to move. Jotaro appears behind him, and he reveals that he has now unlocked the power to stop time, doing so at the ninth second to take the advantage. Taking the time to make DIO feel powerless, Jotaro then has Star Platinum kick him in the leg. Jotaro advances on the grounded DIO, demanding a last clash. Instead, DIO splashes his blood into Jotaro's eyes and exploits the opening by attemptng to have The World kick Jotao's head off. Star Platinum intercepts the blow and makes The World explode alongside its User. DIO is definitely vanquished. Afterward, doctors from the Speedwagon Foundation come to help the Joestar Group. Jotaro then asks them to transfuse the blood DIO stole back to Joseph's body and revive him. Joseph awakens, but then pulls a prank of bad taste by briefly pretending to be DIO returned from the dead. The next day the two expose DIO's corpse to sunlight, destroying it for good, and remember their fallen comrades. With their journey finally over, Jotaro and Jotaro have a tearful goodbye with Polnareff who returns to France. Back in Japan, Holy has completely recovered and is expecting her father and son to come back. Indeed, Jotaro and Joseph are already on a plane to Tokyo, Jotaro reminiscing his adventure across the world with he's taken with the group. Stardust Crusaders has ended.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * In the anime, Polnareff further embraces the other two during their goodbyes, as opposed to just placing his hands on their shoulders.
 * Joseph's Walkman isn't explicitly shown to have the cassette tape for "Get Back" by The Beatles at the airport.
 * An extra scene shows Jotaro in the plane, looking at the photo from SC Episode 25.

Commentary
"The last episode happens just after DIO's new evolution. The color of his lips was advised from Mr. Araki himself.

About the pre-opening scene, the composition is a throwback to the Volume 28 cover of the tankobon.

One scene of the final battle uses really particular colors, as DIO is purple here and Jotaro's uniform turns blue. And if we had the color of the aura surrounding the characters, I think that the color scheme is rather good overall.

As for the action, every scene is very energetic and classier than ever. The final nail being the road roller scene, with this completely crazy pummeling.

DIO finds himself cornered, and is heavily bleeding. It feels funny to see him diminished like this. He was such a charismatic man, but even he can only break against the Joestar family.

The last part is a straight dash to the conclusion, while leaving Joseph some time for a bad joke. We can now weep in front of the airport scene.

Jotaro is looking at the group photo while lightly smiling. We had added this final scene during the finalization of the storyboard. It is cut in a manner perfectly closing the long journey. The curtain falls."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * Like the other season finales, this episode's opening added sound effects. This special opening also added various shots of The World, DIO, and Star Platinum throughout it and included DIO's time stop scene from the previous episode's opening.
 * Unlike the final episode of Season One, which included a teaser of Stardust Crusaders, this season ends without the traditional "To Be Continued" or any form of teaser for Diamond is Unbreakable. Despite this inconsistency, a Part 4 adaptation was confirmed later on.
 * Two girls that wanted Jotaro to take a picture for them in the 5th episode of Stardust Crusaders appeared again as passengers on the plane that Joseph and Jotaro took at the end. They were replaced in the Blu-ray release.
 * In the English dub, Jotaro says "if this were the Wild West, the hero would say 'it's high noon'". While the phrase itself is a reference to the Wild West culture in the same vein as in the original Japanese dialogue, this bit was popularized by the popular first-person shooter Overwatch, spoken by one of the game's heroes, McCree, wherein he calls out his special attack by saying the same phrase. At the same time, this is a reference to Jotaro's voice actor, Matthew Mercer, who also voiced McCree.
 * Famous parody singer and songwriter "Weird Al" Yankovic is mentioned near the end of the episode. To figure out whether or not Joseph was really possessed, Jotaro asks him who sung the parody of Michael Jacksons hit song Beat It titled Eat It. Joseph responds confidently with the artist. Shortly after airing, "Weird Al" Yankovic posted a short recording of the subtitled scene on his Instagram account with the hashtag #PointlessCrap.