I didn't love this volume. The translation here is getting kinda sloppy, with some poor wording and entire words being left out. Lang Wrangler's costume is just horrible. And Weather Report really frustrated me with that space suit business. Like, at first I just took it as a visual representation of how Weather Report was using his stand to move all of the air in the room to surround Jolyne. But later, it turns out that he actually just made a solid cloud space suit, complete with cloud glass visors that can be cracked. That's not how clouds work, dude. At that point, I tuned out for the chapter and a half left in this volume. If you're going to ask me to read 8 chapters straight of one fight scene, you need to keep the rules consistent. Why should I hang on for 6 chapters of tension, only for a character to do create a solution that follows no coherent logic and just works? That "cheated in your heart" thing with Marilyn Manson also bothered me for similar reasons.
At least we good some Cool Space Facts about how a zero gravity environment effects your bladder and how a vacuum effects your blood. And Jolyne gets some cool moments. Her beatdown of Marilyn Manson's user was awesome. And she did the extendo punch. Forget running away, the extended punch is the real Joestar secret technique. The stuff leading up to the zero gravity shenanigans was pretty good as well. Weather Report is a pretty interesting guy, even if it feels like he has most of his quirks just for the sake of it.
Araki's art continues to slowly but steadily improve. The linework is better, the issue with lack of flow between panels hasn't come up in a good while, and the color team imbues the whole thing with as much vibrancy as you can get within the walls of a prison.
So far, I have to say that Stone Ocean has been getting a lot right with regards to characters and story direction. Strangely enough, it might be the stands that have been a lowlight. Stand battles have always been hit or miss with me on a case by case basis. But I can't point to a single stand battle out of the 6 so far that I've wholeheartedly enjoyed. Maybe Goo Goo Dolls? I wasn't in love with that one, but it was solid. Really, what's been carrying this part for me is everything else. I hope we continue to get more stuff about the characters and prison life, rather than a Part 3 style bout of stand grinding.