This page explains in detail the fictional character appearances from the story arc "Bohemian Rhapsody" of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure part 6, "Stone Ocean".
Stone Ocean story arc "Bohemian Rhapsody"[]
Licensed cameos[]
March 04, 2002
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Listed series
Starting on Chapter 104 of Stone Ocean, the character Weather Report and Narciso Anasui are under attack from a Stand (a unique ghost-like entity used by characters on the setting, granting a wide range of unique and often bizarre abilities and powers) known as "Bohemian Rhapsody", whose primary power allows it to bring fictional characters to life. For the duration of the story arc (chapters 104 to 110) the two characters are attacked by several fictional entities not only from popular IPs, but also from generic fairy tales and even artistic statues and paintings. The latter are not listed here as they are either public domain characters or not actual fictional series.
While all characters are stated to be fictional in the story, they are explicitly brought to life by the power of the Stand, and so per the Toy Story rule this wiki considers them Type 1 links between all series represented. Four manga series are featured in this capacity during Chapter 106 (published March 4) and Chapter 107 (published March 11) of the story arc:
- During a panel in Chapter 106 (part 3), the characters observe three figures flying across the sky. Though they aren' named, they are visibly recognizable as being Mazinger Z, Astro Boy and Tetsujin 28, three classic manga characters. Right below the panel one can see copyright notices for the studios owning each series' rights: "Dynamic Pro" for Mazinger, "Tezuka Pro" for Astro Boy and "Hikari Pro" for Tetsujin 28 ("pro" stands for "Productions"). Even still, JoJo's publisher Shueisha has also been involved with all three series in the past, making these officially licensed cameos.
- At one point in Chapter 107 (part 4), a TV news report speaks about an incident in East Shinjuku where Kenshiro defeated Raoh after he killed several other fictional characters, with eyetwitness declaring that the incident went according to the original story; this clearly is referring to the characters from the classic manga series Fist of the North Star. Although the characters are never properly seen and the series is not referenced, since Fist of the North Star was serialized by Shueisha it makes this an official cameo as well.
Non-licensed cameos[]
February 18, 2002
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Listed series
There are two characters who make a brief, mostly off-screen cameo during the story due to Araki having no authorization or license to include them. As explained by Araki, he wanted to include other characters but the editing department told him to only draw non-copyrighted characters. So Araki instead drew the characters almost entirely off-screen and not visible as a way to get around copyright issues. As these are not authorized cameos they can't be accepted as Type 1 links even under the Toy Story rule, so they remain Type 2 fictional links in this instance. The two characters are:
- Around the beginning of Chapter 104 (part 1, February 18) Anasui and Weather Report are traveling through Florida, and at one point come near Disney World. Finding no image of Mickey Mouse in a guidebook or in the road signs (an effect of the Stand), Anasui complains about it "not being Disney" without Mickey. He then notices someone scurrying around the truck they are in, but can't catch it in time. What he sees is Mickey's tail as he's later identified by name, but nothing else of the character is shown.
- At the beginning of Chapter 107 (part 4), several kids are around one who's about to shake the hand of Spider-Man, before his ladder is struck by a running Anasui. Only Spider-Man's hand is ever visible, and it slightly resembles the superhero's costume in appearance and color.
Besides these, there are also four more characters being implied or mentioned in dialogue:
- In one panel in Chapter 105 (part 2, February 25) the truck the characters are driving in pass by a billboard with E.T. on it and a white silhouette where there was likely an image of the main character, indicating he has become real.
- In Chapter 105, one of the dwarves from Snow White respond about who's their favorite character by citing the Terminator. The dwarf mentions the T-2000 as being his favorite, but there was no such Terminator at the time, so this was either a mistake or an indirect nod to the second film's T-1000.
- In the same chapter another dwarf mentions Chewbacca as his favorite, one of the characters in the Star Wars film franchise.
- At the end of the story arc (Chapter 110, April 1), Spider-Man and Snoopy (from Peanuts) are name-dropped as fictional characters that have returned to normal.
Stone Ocean anime adaptation[]
December 01, 2022
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Batman, Looney Tunes
The anime adaptation of the Bohemian Rhapsody story arc, covered in episodes 25 and 26 of the Stone Ocean anime, made a number of alterations to some of the cameos and references in the story:
- All references to Disney and Mickey Mouse are removed entirely, with the infamous Anasui rant about "not being Disney without Mickey" being excised, the scene with Mickey's tail not being adapted and all other mentions of Disney removed from the dialogue.
- The dwarf's reference to Terminator is corrected and he now names the T-1000 as his favorite character.
- The Spider-Man cameo is replaced by Batman: the scene is similar but the kid is standing on the street instead of climbing a ladder and, while he shouts about finding Batman, the fictional character is never visible and remains off-screen.
- The fictional character Ungalo observes outside his plane is a character based on the tale of Aladdin instead of Peter Pan. This Aladdin is seen wearing a white costume with a purple vest as he flies on a flying carpet, and is accompanied by a green genie. It is possible he was very loosely inspired by Disney's rendition of Aladdin.
- The news broadcast at the end of the story now namedrops Batman and Looney Tunes' Tweety instead of Spider-Man and Snoopy. In a similar case to the Kenshiro and Raoh reference, since Warner Bros. has production rights over the anime and owns both the Batman and Looney Tunes rights, these two mentions can be considered official cameos.
License[]
All four manga series appearing in this story arc had been published by Shueisha before, allowing them to make official small cameos in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, also published by Shueisha. In addition, copyrights from the studios owning the first three series are included as well, further confirming their status as licensed cameos. Also, the two characters mentioned only in the anime are owned by Warner Bros., which owns production rights to the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime and allows these mentions to be authorized.
The other cameos and mentions in the story arc are not authorized by their owners, and as such they can't be considered proper appearances of the characters and remain fictional inclusions instead.