To be Continued (jojo)

📖 What is the “To be Continued (jojo)” sound?

This sound is the opening acoustic guitar riff from 'Roundabout,' a 1971 progressive rock track by the British band Yes. Within JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's 2012 anime adaptation, the riff played under a freeze-frame ending with an arrow sliding across the screen and the words 'To Be Continued,' signaling a cliffhanger at the close of an episode. The clip runs under 22 seconds and consists purely of the plucked, rhythmic guitar intro, without vocals or narration. Online meme culture repurposed this pairing of sound and freeze-frame graphic to punctuate any real-life or video moment that resembles a dramatic, unresolved cutoff, regardless of its original anime context. The format gained heavy traction through Vine remixes around 2016, notably a 'Danksmash' edit combining it with the Squidward Dab meme, which helped cement the sound as a stand-alone reaction clip separate from its source show. It is now used broadly across platforms to comedically mark abrupt interruptions, awkward pauses, or ironic 'epic' moments, often layered over a freeze-frame edit mimicking the original anime's visual style. The humor relies on the mismatch between the dramatic, suspenseful tone of the music and the often mundane or absurd footage it's applied to. Its widespread reuse has made it recognizable even to audiences unfamiliar with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure itself, functioning purely as a meme shorthand for 'this is where it gets interesting, but we're cutting away.'

🧭 Where it comes from

Origin: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2012 anime), using the 1971 song 'Roundabout' by Yes (2012) — well documented

The clip derives from the acoustic guitar intro of 'Roundabout' by Yes (1971), used as the end-of-episode freeze-frame transition in the Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency arcs of the 2012 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. The meme format spread through Vine and YouTube remixes starting around 2016, with an early parody traced to a 2012 Nicovideo video using footage from Madoka Magica.

🎬 How to use it in your edits

Drop this in right after someone trips, fails, or says something awkward, then freeze the frame to mimic the classic anime cliffhanger effect. It also works well appended to the end of a clip that builds tension but resolves in something anticlimactic, reinforcing the ironic 'to be continued' punchline.

Download the file above, then import it into CapCut, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve — or straight into TikTok / Instagram. The sound is free for your videos.

💬 Questions about this sound

ℹ️ Sound details