FULL SPOILERS FOR JOJO PARTS 1-3 AHEAD
Ive been thinking about doing this post for a while now, and now that Stardust Crusaders has finally concluded, here it is. Forgive me if this is a bit messy, I had this mostly done before episodes 47/48 when things were added to the OP. I want to talk about the second opening, Sono Chi no Kioku ~end of THE WORLD~. Now personally I think all four OP are great, song wise and visual wise. If I had to rank them
Song Bloody Stream (2)-> Sono Chi no Sadame(1) -> Sono Chi no Kioku(4) -> Stand Proud(3)
Visual Sono chi no Kioku -> Bloody Stream -> Sono Chi no Sadame -> Stand Proud
So I pretty definitively think Stand Proud is the weakest. But lets focus on Sono Chi no Kioku. This OP is fucking amazing when it comes to visuals. I dont think a lot of people liked Kioku when it came out, because of the lack of a real hype moment (like SO NO CHI NO SADAME, JOOOOOOOOOJO or YA~ MI~ WO~) and the fact it keeps building up to something then resetting it, and the ORA ORA ORA at the end are kind of limp. Sadame and Bloody Stream might as well be classics by now and are extremely good in their own right, but Kioku does something amazing and that is slipping in constant foreshadowing and spoilers right under the nose, sometimes in extremely subtle ways. Sadame gives away the whole plot of Phantom Blood, having the OP filled with iconic moments like Dio kissing Erina, Dio being shot by the cops and living, Jonathans father dying, Dio walking up the burning mansion, etc. Bloody Stream is worse on that front, as it spoils Caesars death extremely obviously. Now its not like they were incapable of being subtle, Bloody Stream sneaks in Hermit Purple, even. And even in the obvious Caesars death part, the last bubble that flys by the screen is red, Caesars blood bubble he used to deliver the antidote to Joseph.
Stand Proud also did it having Iggy as the sixth star at the beginning way before he shows up, briefly showing Hol Horse, showing the group camping after the plane crash (you can see the plane on the right) and hiding things like the Joestar mark on Jonathans body at 0:50.
Right after that, the background shows the order of the fights plane for Tower of Grey, a boat for Dark Blue Moon and Strength, the cable car for Temperance and so on, which is cool. But I mostly want to go over all the little things in Sono Chi no Kioku an anime viewer or even a manga reader wouldnt have picked up on, and there are A LOT so get ready for images!
First off, the obvious motif of the clock and pendulum. The theme of time is all throughout this opening, foreshadowing the big reveal of The World's abilities and that the group is running out of time to save Holly. The pendulum is also supposed to represent The World itself, as in the final episode's OP it turns into The World.
You can also hear a heartbeat thats Jotaros. Its a reference to the scene where Jotaro has to use his Stand to stop his heart to trick DIO into thinking he died. It could also be Josephs at the epilogue when Jotaro restarts his heart doing the same trick.
It cuts across the desert, filled with gears - more things pointing toward time. It flies past the crew, ending on Polnareff's Silver Chariot using two swords - a reference to the Anubis fight, the same pose as well.
Next we cut to the group on the stairs, with silhouettes of the Egyptian Gods flying past, the theme of the enemy Stands in the second half. I checked, and they are in order and accurate. It ends with a shot moving downward, everyone frozen in time, ending on Jotaro, who looks up and summons his stand, foreshadowing his ability to fight against The World's time stop. Polnareff is also at the top of the stairs, a reference to him discovering DIO on the stairs. It's also split into the two groups, Polnareff, Iggy and Avdol then Kakyoin, Joseph and Jotaro. It also appears homage to the OVA (this scene never happened in the manga, obviously as two of these people were dead at the time) where they are all climbing the stairs. Credit to Jexhius for helping me remember this scene from the OVA.
In the final episode's OP, the World's fists are what make cracks on the screen you could see before.
After the stairs, it cuts to the group on the roof, you can see the sun setting in the background, and various lights popping up. You can also see the Pyramids in the background and the clock tower Kakyoin uses to show Joseph what The World does, and I think that is DIO's mansion they are looking at. The best explanation I have for the lights is the scene when DIO is on top of the radio tower, pulling down an electric cord and causing a light to flicker. Polnareff is also the only one who moves his body, I dunno why though.
A pendulum swings by and we see Avdol reaching his hand out to Iggy and Polnareff, as if trying to stop them. He is actually pushing them away from Cream, Cream swoops in, splitting the screen, turning Avdol's half red, signifying his death.
In the same scene, right after, the floor shifts to stairs, and you can see Polnareff move down it, a reference to his encounter with DIO when he moved Polnareff down the stairs. Credit to EmCeeGramr because I actually didn't notice this.
And added in the final episode's OP...
Look who you can see at the top of the stairs.
It shifts to Kakyoin, surrounded by string. This is the trap he laid for DIO using Hierophant Green. A pendulum swings by and it breaks, when DIO shattered his net and then killed him.
And in the final episode's OP...
The World cuts in to shatter it.
Cut to Joseph, hand outstretched, and the point going for his neck, the knife DIO used to "kill" him.
And in the final episode's OP...
The knife is replaced by The World's arm going into Joseph's chest, pumping slightly to show he is absorbing his blood.
Cut to Jotaro, stopped in midair, and dozens of the points come at him, the knives DIO throws at him.
Here is a real subtle one - if you look really hard, you can see Jotaro's finger wiggle, which is what stopped DIO from killing him out of shock he could possibly move when time was stopped.
And in the final episode's OP, that comes to fruition as Jotaro summons his Stand while time is stopped.
After that, a star shoots across the sky, splitting into the group. I'm not sure on this one but the only thing I think this could be referencing is when they jump out of DIO's tower and fly down, but I'm probably stretching it.
Cut to Jotaro at the top of the stairs, using Star Platinum to shatter some glass. In the reflection, if you look very closely you can see who is hidden there for just a frame...
Which allowed us to have this amazing scene -
Episode 47 special OP
Where DIO stops time for exactly nine seconds. Fucking DP, man.
Lastly, the final scene where Jotaro shatters the glass and DIO appears behind him, over his shoulder in time stop. In the actual series, it is the opposite, Jotaro appears behind DIO's shoulder in time stop.
...and finally ending on the ORA ORA ORA ORA barrage. But despite that you can make out someone else's fist...
That's The World's fist on the right, hidden in the barrage in a few frames.
And that's it. That's Sono chi no Kioku, a visually outstanding opening in every way in my opinion.
I was also going to grab some manga panels but that would have been a lot of work and hard to format, and the TV anime shots are pretty much the same. One thing I'm surprised they didn't try to reference was the iconic steamroller DIO drops on Jotaro, though.
