English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind: “The Final Mission from the Boss”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

As team Bruno arrives in Venice via speedboat to fulfill what they’re told is their “final mission” from the boss as instructed on the data disc. They must now head to the San Giorgio Maggiore church South of Venice, and if those instructions aren’t oddly specific enough, Trish is to be accompanied with one person only at the top of the belfry, without weapons or communication tools while the rest waits inside the boat. Given that this could be their only chance to confront their mysterious boss, Giorno gives a brooch to Bruno to act as a tracking device in case he does encounter him, but on their way to the belfry via-elevator, and it’s here when Trish finally expresses fear and apprehension at the idea of meeting the father she never met but Bruno does his best to reassure her it’ll be fine, but this is when shit gets genuinely real…

As the elevator descends down to the meeting point, it suddenly shifts gears by delving into Bruno’s origin story in another flashback. Out of all the members within Bruno’s circle, it’s kinda refreshing that we now learn more about Bruno’s past for once, but it paints a picture that Bruno in his youth despite making some brutal and bloody decisions he wasn’t particularly proud of, he still valued and loved his father above all else, and later learned the hard way that the very organization he joined that promised him and his family protection were trafficking and plaguing his hometown with illegal drugs which eventually lead to meeting Giorno and vowing with him to clean up their Mafia branch from within.

When we cut to the present, Trish disappears in the most disturbing way imaginable, with Bruno coming to the horrifying realization that their Boss is a ruthless asshole who intends to personally kill his own daughter all for the sake of protecting his own identity. Utterly disgusted, Bruno decides to kill the Boss and gives chase. But, when Bruno attempts to hide in an effort to ambush his now ex-boss, the latter somehow knows where he is. Bruno tries to attack, but his every move is foiled. As he sees a reflection of himself, the episode ends on a very intense cliffhanger as the anonymous Boss reveals his Stand known as “Emperor Crimson” and explains his power to erase time before possibly delivering a killing-blow to Bruno.

Our Take

The tension suspense and pacing in this episode were on point and manages to keep topping itself in terms of intensity. That whole scene in the church was so well-executed and seeing the boss and his Stand gave me chills. In the previous episode, they just finished thwarting yet another dangerous gang-member from stealing Trish, you’d think that’d sort-of be the end of it only for her to be put in danger once more by the last person she’d expect…

Normally, I’m mildly annoyed towards flashbacks that abruptly cut in the middle of a huge moment in the present, but here It seemed thematically relevant as they really helped showcase Bruno’s convictions, and the divorce scene in Bruno’s flashback involving his parents felt grounded in reality and kinda hits close to home for those who have experienced a parental fallout. But what really stuck with me most would have to be the transition from Bruno’s backstory to him in the present raging about the Boss’s disregard for his own teenage daughter which was emotionally effective.

While the episode itself had some really relatable human moments that excelled in selling the drama, it doesn’t forget to remind us that this is still a Jojo story, and while we still don’t know the bosses identity, we do get the appearance of his “Emperor Crimson” stand (or King Crimson in Japan) who looks downright terrifying and to make things worse it has a form of time manipulation that isn’t properly explained which applies to Jojo creator Hikohiro Araki’s philosophy that the most powerful characters in Jojo are usually ones who can control time and space. I’m now curious to see what to happens next or if Bruno and Trish will survive this at all.