JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

This fifth instalment of JoJo tells, of a group of boys in search of justice and a world that, thanks to them and their heroism, will begin to change for the better. Boys who live, sacrifice themselves, fight against an apparently incontrovertible destiny, bringing with them an resolute spirit, a golden wind that blows away the injustices from the world. The review may contain spoilers. The story is set in Italy, precisely in Naples, a city where crime unleashed and the state is absent most of the time. Giovanna Giorno, raised by a childless mother and a violent father, suffers all kinds of bullying. Everything changes whenthe boy one day saves the life of a "mafioso" and the latter, to thank the young man, solves all the problems giorno has found in his life. His personal dream is to become the head of a criminal organization called "Passione". The Golden Wind story is more intense than that of Diamond is unbreakable, which had generally more relaxed atmospheres due to the fact that it showed a lot of the daily life of the characters in their city and developed the plot in a very slow way. Giorno, thanks to his stand, "Gold Experience" (which transforms inanimate objects, into animates) and the usual group that is created, he has to face so many adventures, fights, travels. Compared to the third and fourth series, in "Vento Aureo", Araki finally inserts a supporting storyline and the characters are all characterized. These characters, designed in a weird way, with these ambiguous poses, with a strange look, with flashy clothes, made-up and dressed up in an almost feminine way. The bizarre atmosphere, typical of the entire franchise, here is amplified even more. In addition to Giorno, the group of supporting characters composed of social outcasts, who like the protagonist in the mafia have found a secure foothold. We have Bruno Bucciarati, leader of this group, who despite not having a powerful Stand, with Stincky Finger manages to invent versatile strategies, so much so that many times with his charisma, he even obscures the protagonist. I think it's worth pointing out the obvious, that, Abbacchio's death was legitimately the saddest, in all of JoJo. I cried! I legitimately cried! The fights between stands is always more ingenious and their duration grows more and more, so much so that we will have to see more than one episode for a single opponent. Unfortunately, not all the fights are clear in their performance and also some stands such as "Gold Experience", at a certain point it is no longer clear what powers that stand have. The final clash with the boss suffers a lot from this flaw, so much so as to be indecipherable and left mostly to the intuition of the viewer given the lack of explanations. JoJo's fifth instalment does not disappoint, proving to be the best of the three series with stand powers. The protagonist is one of the best Jojo, who unfortunately was not understood and for this reason, he is very ill-treated by fans, but his character is consistent, with the experiences of life lived. If you liked the previous instalments, then "Vento Aureo" is a must.

I'm a sucker for a good Jojo anime, but this would be the first one I have formally reviewed. Vento Aureo is outstanding. I've only seen bits and pieces of the original manga, but I've heard that the anime is a fairly impressive adaptation. It even goes as far to flesh out scenes that were considered "relatively minor" in the manga as they were sort of like Araki's personal joke 'easter eggs' as it were. I mean, the Torture Dance? Oh my goodness. I was not prepared for a full length sequence of that. An immaculate work of beautifully crafted storytelling. Gorgeous visuals (though prone to David Production's occasional oddartstyle choices from time to time.) An extremely memorable and even addictive soundtrack that really sticks with the viewer long after watching. I'm not entirely sure if there was a part of this anime I didn't like. It's one of the extremely rare exceptions to "I will never give a 10/10 rating to something" rule. So please. Araki, David Production, congratulations. You have earned this 10 from me.

[Spoiler Warning] I am a fan of JOJO, a big one at that, but this part, i.e. part 5 is kind of overrated. Now, before you guys unleash the 7-page Muda on me, let me address this first - overrated does not mean bad, it just means that while the show is good, people put it on a pedestal reserved for the greats. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get started. JOJO Part 5 aka “Golden (Experience) Wind” aka “How does King Crimson work?” aka “Araki flexes on you with his awesome taste in music” aka “Girono’s piss drinking adventure” is the fifth instalmentin the Jojo franchise. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is one of the few shounen that does something which most other shounen don’t, that is, it’s actually manages to be interesting. This season we follow Giorno Giovanna as he has a dream in which he pledges to become a gangster and kill the reigning mafia boss. The plot is as simple as it gets but the way it is crafted is what makes Jojo an amazing series. The characters are colourful and flamboyant as has been the case with previous instalments of the franchise and each character brings something new to the table. There are many characters that have been introduced thus far in the series and no two characters feel the same. They all have their unique personalities and powers. That being said, many of the characters in this season are quite boring. Comparing the characters in part 5 to those in part 4 or part 2 makes me feel like there’s something missing with the characters in this part. The characters in part 4, along with being awfully stylish and making me self-conscious of my own image, had their own distinct personalities and received immense characterisation which helped solidify their place in the overall narrative, but Golden Wind decides to not have as much depth to the characters and instead gives them some kind of unique trait, which, when applied to minor antagonists works to some extent but, when the same strategy is used for main characters, it falls flat. There are 6 main characters this time, viz Girono, Buccellati, Mista, Narancia, Abbacchio and Fugo. Girono is a great main character and so is Buccellati. Both are well characterised and I really enjoyed their backstory, I really wish I could say the same for the rest of the characters. Mista is a character who religiously believes that every person in this world has a destiny set out for him and a man cannot deny his destiny no matter how hard he tries. He believes this because he was sent to prison and then got out. That is all it takes for him to follow his religion of fate. Abbacchio is a dick to Girono for some reason and only trusts Buccellati because he has “lost faith in humanity” due to him, with his own volition, receiving a bribe from a criminal which ultimately resulted in the death of his partner. Can you find the logic in here, because I surely can’t. Fugo and Narancia can be described as 150 IQ and 50 IQ respectively and that basically sums up their character. Any attempt to flesh out their characters via backstories felt cheesy and banal. Instead, I would’ve preferred if they’d developed throughout the show’s run. I am admittedly shitting on the characters but I can’t deny the fact that watching these characters’ dynamics with the plot and each other was a Golden experience (heh, see what I did there?). Anyway, I don’t hate the characters, but I don’t LOVE them either; I just wish more care was put into the characters. The main antagonist, Divolo, is great. His end goal is to completely erase his existence so that no one can trace him, but he acts in pretty questionable way in order to achieve his target. Questionable not in the sense, “Oh boy, that was a pretty evil thing to do”, no not that, but questionable in the sense, “wtf is he doing?”. The next few lines have to be spoilers in order for me to explain my statement. --------------------------------------------Spoilers Start----------------------------------------------- He wants to kill his daughter Trish with his own hands in order to protect his identity as she could be a mean to uncover his past, and thus he cannot entrust this job to anyone. So, Girono and the gang take his daughter to a secluded island and are ordered to take the girl into an abandoned building accompanied by a bodyguard. Why didn’t he call his daughter in by herself? I’m pointing this out because this is the crux of the second half of the show. Had Buccellati not gone with Trish, he never would’ve found out about the true nature of Diavolo and the second half would’ve been about 50 episodes long or maybe would’ve never happened. --------------------------------------------Spoilers End ------------------------------------------------ Now, let’s get to the two main appeal of Jojo which is the fights and the stands. Araki really let out his creative genius in this part as almost all the stands are unique and have a very specific set of abilities which give rise to some great fights in the series. The stands in this part are my favourite as even though there are a ton of characters in this part who posses a stand, no two have the same abilities or even remotely feel the same. Girono has a stand that can give anything life, Bucellatti has a stand that can create zippers on any material, Abbacchio’s stand can replay any past scene etc. There are many great stands in this part; I can’t explain them all due to spoilers but trust me when I say that the stands are absolutely majestic and better than they’ve ever been, at least when viewed through a creative perspective. Now, the fights. The thing I like about fights, especially stand battles, in Jojo is that no matter how outlandish or cheesy they get, they are never boring. Battles are won through wit and shrewdness, not with “nakama” power and boy are there some great fights in this part. Since every new minor villain our heroes encounter has a different stand than the last, the Jo-Bros have to come up with new tactics every time in order to ensure their victory. No two villains are defeated in the same way and the stakes are higher than ever. All the fights in this part are great…, which is what I would say if they were. The stands themselves are great and utilised to almost their full potential, but the same is not true for the users’ brain. I could feel myself being irritated during some fights especially the one in which Narancia’s tongue was replaced with a stand and he was spewing nonsense. Instead of realising that they’re under an enemy attack, the protagonists start an argument among themselves. This shit goes on for two whole episodes until the enemy is finally defeated. I said that the stands in this part are my favourite, but there is a stand, an important one at that, which is just ridiculously overpowered and admittedly was an asspull. Gold Experience Requiem is Girono’s Gold Experience evolved and it comes out of a shell like any other non-mammal baby and that stand’s abilities are more broken than the shell it came out of. Before good old Gold Experience evolves, the protagonists are being overpowered, then literally 2 seconds after the appearance of Gold Experience Requiem they have the upper hand. I might be nitpicking, but it did take away from the overall experience of the boss fight. The art and animation are godly. Even though I prefer Diamond is Unbreakable’s art style, the art of this part has gradually grown up on me. The background art is fantastic and the whole show is vivid and vibrant. Every colour palette chosen for a particular scene is probably the best it could’ve gotten. The music is amazing as well. The first opening, Fighting Gold, is just pure epicness and the character themes are pure perfection. The sound that the stands make while doing stand stuff is well suited for each stand. The voice acting is great and there isn’t an insipid moment. What I like about JOJO is the fact that it does not try to be something that it’s not. The characters adopt the Robin-hood ideology but it’s not forced upon the viewer as is the case with many other anime. The characters simply are the way they are, they follow their own philosophies and are not brought down by or question the ideals or morals of others. Most of the fights are great, the stands are amazing and even though the characters do fall flat at times, it’s still an enjoyable ride and has probably the best villain you’ll see this year. All in all, Golden Wind is another great addition to an already great franchise. Tl;dr Go watch it.

MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA~!!! LA first seeing that the next Jojo will be the illegitimate son of Dio made LA skeptical and curious in many ways but by the end of it all, LA very much liked Giorno Giovanna mainly thanks to the core cast and is an even more upgraded but detrimental version of Josuke's Stand that lands to alot more creative and BIZARRE Stand fights. If there was a way of saying what Golden Wind is like, well it's like Stardust Crusader's roadtrip to travel around this time mostly revolving around Italy and get to the Big Bad amalgamated with Diamond's are Unbreakable's Big Bad's motives to awhole new level, WITH both having cameos from BOTH with the main protagonist being a Jonathon Joestar feel to it but giving his screentime to his friends instead... Let's start with Giorno voiced by Kensho Ono, mainly his Stand and well it was slightly played around with, what with him able to create life from inanimate objects yet with humans, it gives their Stands "a boost" but then latter on he's essentially the All-Cure of the main cast, but to this OPness, even latter on his All-Cure is given consequences. Giorno as a main protagonist, well he's a pretty cool guy and being the son of Dio but heck even THAT isn't really touch upon, he's the son of Dio and has a mission of getting drugs off the streets (no seriously). Giorno's main problem as a main protagonist is that he's not really developed besides his ambitions and his camaraderie to his gang, he's essentially Josuke but ALMOST stripped of his main protagonist status and being pretty much regulated to support. "This taste... is the taste of someone who's LYING! Giorno Giovanna!" So to Giorno's gang or to be more precise Bucciarati's team and let's start with Bruno Bucciarati voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura who more or less takes the main protagonist seat as even though Giorno and Bruno have the same motives, Bruno takes the lead and goes into WAAAY more fights in the process (heck his Stand does the "ORAORA", or in this case "Ari-ari-ari" MORE than Giorno does), he was LA's favourite character in all honesty, we get to know him ALOT with his backstory, his sense of camaraderie and leadership to his team and even his Stand Sticky Fingers' use was immeasurable. MEEEEEESTAAAAAAAAAAAA~!! Next is Guido Mista voiced by Kosuke Toriumi the gunslinger of the team and a serious superstitious person hating the number 4, he along with Bruno and Giorno goes through the majority of the fights in the anime and has a bad habit of getting his bullets to..well come back to him in a bad way. Which on speaking of which Mista's bullets Number 1,2,3,5,6,7 are a small ensemble cast of themselves and well are adorable...even if they are Stand BULLETS! Narancia is Aquaman Narancia Ghirga voiced by Daiki Yamashita is the genki hyper of the team and like the team has a tragic backstory, but his Stand Aerosmith gets into alot of fights in the anime, though for LA, not as much as Mista. Abbacchio joins in the beatdown M0:00DY BLUES Leone Abbacchio voiced by Junichi Suwabe has to more distrust to Giorno and has admittedly a cool Stand Moody Blues that allows him to replay ANY event if he's there. Cheesy boi is mouldy Pannacotta Fugo voiced by Jun'ya Enoki is...the least developed of the cast ONLY having ONE fight in the entire series and though he even gets a tragic backstory, due to his slim to none screentime that makes Giorno seems he was ALWAYS in the gang Fugo literally up and quits his screentime for Giorno. LA would had wanted to know more about him BUT considering his Stand doesn't exactly gel well with the core cast, LA does get but even still. Well how about the enemy Stands? Taking cues from Diamonds are Unbreakable and taking it in strides, Golden Wind actually shows more screentime, backstory and development from it's enemy Stands than the core cast, sure the core cast DOES but it's in more equal terms especially the Hitman Team and the Big Boss of the anime. The Hitman Team were actually the most well-liked and interesting, be it through their battles, their Stands and how uniquely they use it and sometimes used together or their own camaraderie to their own members and their development were great to certain members of the Hitman team, especially Pesci, Prosciutto, Ghiaccio and ESPECIALLY Risotto Nero (mostly for his simple but morbidly awesome use of his Stand). Now there are enemy Stands that are just pieces of shit for being pieces of shit (LA is looking at you Cioccolata) but with Hirohiko Araki's brilliant ways of utilizing and expanding upon Stand powers (even more from Diamonds are Unbreakable), even getting to a certain location can mean certain death..even IF your main protagonist is an OP healer. It JUST works...RING RING RING RING RING. Boss is that you? Now onto the Big Boss of the anime and really his ENTIRE situation is like Kira Yoshikage on steroids as to how he wants to keep his identity hidden and with his Stand Kin- -on makes things even harder. See even how Bruno's team is able to have ANY connection to the Big Boss is because they have to get the Big Boss' daughter Trish Una voiced by Sayaka Senbongi to him and becomes the direct line of finding out ANYTHING about the Big Boss for both Bruno and Giorno's ambitions. Trish herself is the typical bratty-type character but once the Stands comes into play and how it impacts her let alone her also wanting to find out more about her father, she gels well with the rest of the cast. Back to the Big Boss and really his final battle seems more like you can't fight fate akin to Kira Yoshikage's fate, cept for the Big Boss, seems more like HE had an even more fate worse tha- -ath than Kira! Though LA wasn't kidding that he's essentially Kira Yoshikage on steroids as his final battle is a multi-tier battle with many conditions with a greater scope problem and disaster-level obstacle ALL WHILST trying to defeat him. Heck add in the fact that a HUGE plot MacGuffin comes into play that if you think about it, explains what happened to Kira Yoshikage's Bites the Dust arc now being implemented here and to an extreme degree at that, it's just crazy, bizarre and it's D- -olden Wind because of how serious it is, it's also pretty brutal especially with the MANY deaths in this Part as even the main cast isn't safe from this and man are the deaths BRUTAL. To say that it's much darker is an understatement though the deaths are kinda common in Jojo's, Golden Wind's count is pretty damn high, be it the main cast, villains and heck even bystanders! David Productions once again helms the animation and man they are again on top form....with the occasional derps (Hai Slender Giorno!), though the character designs looks ALOT different from Diamonds are Unbreakable but taken in a more refined and realistic look to it, it still has the same flavour and bizarreness and changing color palette expected from Jojo's and heck taken to the extreme especially with how uncensored and gorey the Stand fights gets as well as the detailed and crazy facial reactions!. Really even though the character designs have been changed but look now more refined, what do you expect from Jojo's animation, it's just fucking fabulous! The voice cast is amazing as well, everyone from Kensho Ono as Giorno, Yuuichi Nakamura as Bruno, Daiki Yamashita as Narancia, Kosuke Toriumi as Mista, Sayaka Senbongi as Trish, Katsuyuki Koinishi as D- -the Big Boss, Subaru Kimura as Pesci, Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Prosciutto, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ghiaccio, Shinshuu Fuji as Risotto, really this is an amazing cast, once again expected from Jojo's. Golden Wind is by the by for LA felt like Hirohiko Araki solidified Stardust Crusaders and Diamonds are Unbreakable strengths while bringing in new weakness' of itself, mainly of Giorno's supporting main protagonist status and the imbalance of certain main cast not getting the development they needed (Cheesy Boi especially), BUT Golden Wind's strengths and Araki really did it again and once again even though LA was skeptical of Giorno as a main protagonist he was greatly helped with Bruno's team AND the villains that becomes obstacles AND Bruno essentially taking up the main character status whilst still keeping Giorno useful and having relevant screentime. Not to mention the entire D- -he Big Boss' finale fight was awe-inspiringly as to how batshit crazy and well...bizarre the final fight becomes and add in a weird druggy trip into the mix and we have LA's jaw dropping, something that rarely happens, heck the only other "current anime" that does that to LA is SYMPHOGEAR. Golden Wind may have it's problems by just damn...Araki did it again, LA loved this part. LA loves Diamonds are Unbreakable but Golden Wind managed to one up it, flaws and all and once again shows Araki's writing being refined even further beyond. KUWA KUWA KUWA ARRIVEDERCI...Can't wait for Stone Ocean!