JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

I really fucking like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Back when I first watched Jojo's, only the first four parts had been adapted yet. And at the time, my taste in anime were still so unformed that I genuinely wasn’t sure how to process it. It’s such a vastly different anime property from pretty much anything your could compare it to, charting its own path in valiant defiance of common tropes, common praxis, and even common sense. It throws caution to the wind and struts out on the runway dressed like a 80′s glam rock cover, proceeding to seduce the audience with a bombastic, jowl-flapping lecture on everything from aerodynamics to basic chemistry to full-on nonsensical mythmaking. It’s a garish, unreasonable spectacle of excess and lunacy... and that’s why I can never stop watching it. I find myself drawn in by its confidence, its self-assuredness, its utter, sincere belief in the ridiculous pantomime display it puts on. How can you not love the spectacle of countless burly, masculine pretty boys affecting their best David Bowie cosplay to smack each other in the face with over-complicated magic ghosts that range from “Hits Real Good” to “Makes Sound Effects In Real Life And Also Gravity For Some Reason”? I can imagine some poor fool walking up to Jojo’s to timidly tell it that its antics are childish and garish, only for the show to pat the deluded simpleton on the head with a condescending smile and flounce away with another flourish of its bejeweled cape. How can I not want to emulate that level of give-no-fucks earnestness?

Which brings us, finally, to Golden Wind, Part 5 of this epic ongoing saga of vampires and psychics and bloodlines and a tenuous grasp on logic. It’s some time after the events of part 4, and as is Jojo’s tradition, we completely junk the old cast, setting, and even genre, completely switching gears to focus on yet another descendant of the venerable Joestar lineage with his own trial to overcome and his own path toward heroism to walk. This time, the name of the game is mafia gangland drama; set in a road trip crossing all the major tourist spots of Italy, our protagonist is Giorno Giovanna, a direct descendant of none other than Dio himself, back when the Most Extra Motherfucker to Ever Extra was prancing around in Jonathan’s body. Which means not only is our boy a Joestar with your expected Stand power (Golden Experience, an Apollo-looking pretty boy who can give life to inanimate objects), but he’s also got a streak of vampire ruthlessness in his blood. Despite that, he’s still a noble, righteous avenger by trade, doing his best to keep his city’s streets clear of gangs and their influence. But that quest becomes a lot bigger as his actions put him right in the crosshairs of Passionne, the most powerful gang in all of Italy. They begin flooding the streets with dangerous drugs, and soon it becomes clear that for the city and its children to stay safe, the entire massive organization has to be brought down. Recognizing an opportunity, Giorno forges an alliance with Bruno Bucciarati, a crooked member of Passionne who shares his dream of tearing the organization apart. Together with the expected Jojo’s motley crew of outlandish personalities with even more outlandish stand powers, we embark on a quest of skullduggery and misdirection to uncover the identity of Passionne’s mysterious boss and end his sorry life.

From that premise, Golden Wind hops right back into the saddle of delivering what you’ve come to expect from this franchise. Our heroes clash with countless minor opponents in monster-of-the-week battles, with each challenge becoming about how to overcome their opponents unique and dangerous stand power with their own unique and dangerous stand powers. Countless minutes are spent on tactical-exposition-by-verbal-fire as the characters detail the ludicrously intricate ways they’re utilizing their powers to overcome their opponents’. There are plot twists and shocking deaths aplenty, and everyone poses with so much vim and vigor you’d swear they were modeling for Michelangelo. If you’ve stuck with Jojo’s this long, you know how it rolls, and if this is your first exposure to the franchise... well, for what it’s worth, I’m increasingly of the opinion that Golden Wind is the best entry point for newcomers hoping to jump on the bandwagon without plowing through almost 100 episodes of catch-up beforehand.

I recognize that opinion might seem heresy, but just take a moment and think. Looking at it objectively, I don’t think Jojo’s has ever been as at home with its own brand of lunacy as it’s been with Golden Wind. Let’s be perfectly honest, no matter what you thought of previous parts, they all have various sticking points that can make them difficult to latch onto if you’re not prepared for this show’s unique style of storytelling. Phantom Blood is, to put it charitably, not the most compelling narrative in the world, and both it and Battle Tendency don’t yet have the level of animation polish to fully escape feeling like the baby steps they are. Stardust Crusaders is where the Stands show up an the franchise really begins staking out its identity, but it’s also uneven and has its fair share of boring episodes and half-baked ideas. Diamond is Unbreakable is solid all the way through, but its slice-of-life storytelling is a big departure from the franchise’s usual MO, so it doesn’t give you the best indication of what it’s all about. But now, we have Golden Wind, which crystalizes the Jojo formula down to its best, most exciting and entrancing incarnation yet. The animation is more dynamic and textured than ever, managing to capture a real sense of space and weight amidst the haptic posing. The Stand powers are more creative than ever, with too many iconic match-ups and too many imaginative applications to count. The story moves along at a strong clip, rarely spending too much time before advancing to the next major plot point. And pretty much every single encounter has its own unique, worthwhile flair, making for a level of consistency that Jojo’s has never really reached before.

And it’s for all those reasons that while I’m not sure if Golden Wind is the best Jojo’s anime yet- Diamond is Unbreakable still holds pretty high in my estimation- it is definitely my favorite Jojo’s anime yet. Because this is by far the strongest application of this franchise’s core strengths that we’ve gotten thus far. It’s goofy and ridiculous, but also bombastic and exciting. It’s a story of outsized characters and even more outsized emotions, bouncing off each other with the bravura confidence of circus acrobats without a safety net. It’s consistently entertaining, consistently fun, and consistently leaves you waiting eagerly to see how our plucky underdogs are going to Macguyver their way out of whatever latest scrape they’ve gotten into. I remember so many individual moments from across this season, so many little quirks and details that bring it to sparkling life. I remember Mista’s hatred for the number 4, Formaggio’s terrifying virus powers, the ingenious ways Giorno uses his Stand to out-think his opponents, Bucciarati’s quiet confidence in the face of overwhelming odds. I remember the epic battles against the likes of Grateful Dead, Green Day, Talking Head, and Babyface. I remember the heartfelt confidence that goes into building this found family of outcasts and rejects, lost children finding themselves again in the comfort of a place they can finally call home. And when things officially cross the threshold of insanity for the final, epic smackdown, well, let’s just say it gets so utterly bonkers in such completely nonsensical ways that I can’t help but love it on principle. Why else do I go to this franchise if not for brazen ridiculousness like that?

Are there flaws? Of course there are, this franchise has never been perfect. But if you’ve stuck with it for this long, you’ve come to accept them as part of the ride. So yes, the logic by which some fights conclude pushes the boundaries of suspension of disbelief, involving stupidly improbable applications of powers that are never brought up again. Yes, the characters don’t show much character outside of a new designated Important Plot Moments, relegated at most other times as vessels to exposit plot details and narrate their battles. Yes, the pacing is still weird at points as the anime takes manga panels that would breeze by in the space of a second and stretches them out ten times over to fit in the absurd amount of dialogue everyone has to say. But when the overall ride is this entertaining and this unpredictable, it’s easy enough to set them aside. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure is a franchise I respect more and more as time goes on; anime needs more properties willing to be this self-assured and original. And Golden Wind is perhaps the best display of its strengths yet, giving me confidence that this utterly ridiculous journey still has legs to stand on for years to come.