English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind “Bucciarati Is Coming”

(Possible Spoilers Below)

While the first episode set the tone and gave us an idea of Giorno’s personality and the world he lives in, The 2nd episode begins with a narrated flashback, which delves more into Giorno’s past which reveals that despite Giorno being the son of the Vampiric supervillain Dio Brando, it’s a miracle his mother survived at all due to Dio’s disregard for human life and sociopathic nature, or the fact that his mother wasn’t exactly a role model due to her all-night partying bar-hopping lifestyle, but when Giorno reached the age of 4, his mother eventually got married to an Italian guy who secretly abused Giorno and it also didn’t help that he was bullied by the other kids due to him being a foreign half-Japanese kid in Italy.

However, all that changed when he started being treated with more respect after saving an injured mobster who was hiding from his enemies, giving him a reason to live despite what kind of person that specific gangster was, he ironically learned to trust people which is something, not even his parents taught him to do. It’s a short & simple flashback but it gets the point across that while Giorno didn’t have a perfect childhood, his kindness was still rewarded even in the eyes of this particular stranger. Cutting back in the present, Giorno is faced against Bruno Bucciarati’s Stand, Zipper-Man, and decides to level the playing field by using his “Golden Wind” Stand to defend himself after some unpleasant interrogation methods from the last episode. Upon striking Bruno, the latter’s senses begin to go berserk, giving Giorno the upper hand. Bucciarati creates a dimension-distorting zipper portal to try and escape inside another person, but Giorno tracks him down by putting his unusual stand powers into action in possibly one of the more clever and well-written moments within the episode.

Now in the open, Bruno is forced to directly confront Giorno. Golden Wind jumps into a follow-up on the attack, but Bucciarati surprisingly retaliates and opens up zippers all over Giorno. Indeed, Bucciarati has baited Giorno with the arm of the civilian he attached to himself via his Stand’s zippers. When Bruno drops the stranger’s arm and pauses for a moment, Giorno uses the opening to attempt a last-ditch attack. Bruno, wasting no time moves in to finish Giorno off before Giorno does something unpredictably badass that catches Bruno off guard. Vulnerable, Bucciarati sees with dread the boy approaching to finish him off, but Giorno stops his attack. Puzzled by this act of mercy, Bruno asks why, but Giorno recognizes that Bruno was disturbed by the arm of the civilian, full of track-marks due to drug use despite the arm he used belonged to a 13-year-old. Consequently, Giorno has understood that Bruno is a decent dude who felt conflicted about selling illegal drugs within their town. Explaining his reasons, Giorno claims that from now on, Bruno will become his ally in trying to get rid of the drug trade. He finally and boldly announces his intention to overthrow the Boss of the gang, take over the organization and cleanse the city to become a “Primo Mafioso”.

Our Take

This was quite a suspenseful episode with the proper balance of intensity and sympathy. Seeing Giorno’s history was pretty sad yet uplifting, and I really dig the fact that he was able to see the joys of life from one of the most unlikely of people and is now trying to do something good for his city via becoming like the man that saved him (I’m more curious of where this man is today)….I don’t see much love for him in the community but I’m starting to slowly like Giorno a lot more already and think he left a stronger impression this time around. It does make me both wonder and laugh regarding how Giorno’s neglectful mother managed to sleep with an unrepentant monster like Dio and live to tell the tale. Haha

Also, the twist ending involving drugs helped give weight to Giorno’s goal and highlights why he has such an introverted nature compared to previous JoJo protagonists. Also, Bruno himself seems conflicted about his boss selling Drugs to kids and left me to wonder why he joined them in the first place if he knew what kind of person his boss was, or knew if he’d do something harmful to the Italian community. The animation and direction were top-notch, and while the Opening theme “Fighting Gold” by Coda was decent and everything you’d expect a Jojo theme to be. (heart-pounding, intense, well-animated, colorful, etc.) However, the ending credits theme which is “Freek’N You” by Jodeci feels hilariously out of place and somewhat clashed with the concept of Mobsters with Stand powers.

I can’t wait to see what direction this goes next just to see if Bruno will comply with what Giorno wants and help him with their mutual goal.