It’s been two days since JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean premiered, and fans are still raving about the debut. There’s a lot to love in the newest arc, an adaptation of a decades-old shonen manga, but it’s this season’s new protagonist that’s stealing hearts.
Jolyne Cujoh is the first woman to lead the series and inherit that enduring feud between the Joestars and DIO. Jolyne, the daughter of an absent Jotaro Kujoh, inherits the Stone Free Stand from her father when disciples of DIO plot to kill her, setting the events of Stone Ocean into motion.
Jolyne is voiced by Ai Fairouz in Japanese and by Kira Buckland in the English dub. Buckland said in a Tweet on Wednesday that the casting “ is the biggest honor of my life…My dream has finally come true.” The tweet has received over 60,000 likes in two days.
Anime fans love seeing the cast and crew of anime be huge dorks for their favorite series, and Buckland is a big fan of Jojo’s. They famously cosplayed Jolyne at cons years ago, sharing pictures from 2016.
Mike Toole, editor at Anime News Network, shared a touching story of meeting Buckland in such cosplay in 2015.
And Buckland courted praise from fans and colleagues alike after sharing her appropriately butterflied fit from the season’s first recording session. Matthew Mercer, the voice of Jolyne’s father, Jotaro, sang her praises.
The sentiment is shared by Fairouz, who said in a 2019 interview that Jolyne is personally significant to her and that her dream role would actually be to voice the side character Foo Fighter — so that they could support Jolyne. It was announced in April of this year that she would voice Jolyne.
Of course, fan art is already out in full force for the occasion. Jolyne is the primary focus of the drawings, which feature some surprising crossovers.
You can stream JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean now on Netflix.
