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 DIO is empowered by the blood he got from Joseph, becoming able to stop time for longer periods, Jotaro sees a vision of Joseph's soul, encouraging him not to lose his cool. Unable to relinquish his anger, Jotaro is put into deeper trouble as DIO stops time and brings down a steamroller on top of him. However just when all hope had faded, to DIO's surprise, Jotaro manages to stop time himself at the last second and escape, giving DIO a taste of his own medicine. With one final blow, Jotaro manages to smash The World apart, destroying DIO in the process. Following the battle, Jotaro works with the Speedwagon Foundation to transfuse the blood DIO stole back to Joseph's body and revive him, after which they expose DIO's corpse to sunlight and destroy it. With their journey finally over, Polnareff returns to France while Jotaro and Joseph return home to Holy, who has recovered from her illness.

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 doesn't play the cassette tape for "Get Back" by The Beatles at the airport; instead, the tape is unmarked.
 * 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.