English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind: “White Ice”

 

(Possible Spoilers Below)

As the battle against Ghiaccio and his “White Ice” Stand continues. Having driven into the sea, Giorno hopes to slow down White Ice’s freezing powers with saltwater and tells Guido to get away while he stalls Ghiaccio. When Ghiaccio proceeds to freeze the sea to demonstrate his power, Guido and Giorno cooperate to transform some car parts into piles of frozen grass for Guido to use as a makeshift snowboard which is both a comical yet effective scene but it allows Guido to approach the shore.

Since Giorno’s Stand powers have an on/off switch, he then proceeds to turn the grass back into car parts, which at first, gives Guido the upper-hand in the battle against Ghiaccio by damaging his helmet which stuns him to some degree, but you’d think Guido would straight up run to get the “disc they were sent on a mission to go after” in that moment but instead Guido decides to fight Ghiaccio, discovers an airhole on White Ice’s neck area and shoots into it. But Ghiaccio activates his technique “Gently Weeps” to create a barrier of frozen air, rebounding the bullet back at Guido. Now on solid ground, Guido confronts Ghiaccio again. Giorno then purposely injures himself exposing White Ice’s weaknesses in the frozen air. Since Ghiaccio’s Stand powers take the form of a protective bodysuit, he simply shuts his airhole, using the frozen air as an oxygen reserve.

Nonetheless, Guido continues to impress in terms of fortitude even when things seem decidedly bleak until Giorno intervenes to save Guido in a cathartic burst of violence, that leads Giorno’s Golden Wind Stand to take Ghiaccio out once and for all in one a brutal wince-worthy moment. After getting the disc for their mission which supposedly reveals the location of their boss, Guido and Giorno have won the battle and gained a level of respect for one another and then Giorno attempts to heal Guido’s wounds to some degree with Golden Wind’s Powers leading to an awkward and comedic moment which at first I thought would’ve been this episode’s ending, but after the credits, there’s a reveal that the last living member of the Hitman Team “Risotto” has also made it to Venezia with the information he attained on his own regarding their yet to be known Boss who’s also expecting him…

Our Take

Within the episode, we also get another flashback into Guido’s past which serves as a “Part 2” to his origin story by delving into how Bruno helped him out of prison and eventually enlisted him in his gang. It’s abrupt yet serves a purpose to also show Guido’s resolve against all odds, as well as the fact that he saw good fortune being part of Bruno’s group only having 4 (Since to him 4 is an unlucky number) and him being added would make him the 5th member. In regards to Ghiaccio’s powers almost having an upper-hand, he was extremely troublesome Stand to fight until they figured out its weakness.

Overall, the 2 on 1 Stand battle of Giorno & Guido vs Ghiaccio excelled in terms of tension, suspense and badass moments while utilizing the clever use of a black and white color filter as foreshadowing that effectively worked in certain scenes as an “I see what you did there” moment, and a hilarious ending filled with an unintentionally awkward moment, while also catching me off guard with how it managed to squeeze in so much plot and character into a well-paced episode without feeling rushed. Now that Team Bruno has made it to Venezia, I wonder who’s gonna get to their unknown boss first? Bruno’s Team or Risotto? I guess we’ll have to find out next week!