English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind:“The “G” in Gozzo”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Despite now being on the lam from their own former mafia branch due to Bruno’s impulsive decision to protect Trish, Bruno’s remaining crew are still in Venice and you’d think their first priority would be to leave immediately, but they stop for lunch leading to a fun and comical conversation about how the Vegan lifestyle works, That is until Narancia causes a small accident that leads to the paranoia of Bruno’s crew violently getting the better of them which gets the point across how on-edge everyone is. Later on, Abbacchio suggests they ask Trish for at least some shred of info about what she knew of her elusive father growing up and it’s here when things take a more dramatic turn when Trish reveals that her parents met on the Mediterranean island of Sardegna (Pronounced Sardinia) with the only closure Trish now wants is information about her father’s identity. With Sardegna as their only clue, they decide to go there as their next destination.

While eating, Narancia finds a metallic shark-like Stand in his soup that suddenly attacks leaves Narancia at one point, figuratively and literally speechless. While this happens, Narancia begins to figure out that this Shark Stand is able to teleport between nearby liquids within its vicinity, but is unable to warn the others. After Giorno uses his Golden Wind Stand powers to fix Narancia’s tongue, Narancia starts to verbally spew out false information to them, forced to do so by the Stand “Talking Mouth” which has latched itself onto the base of his new tongue.

In a big reveal, the group is observed from afar by a duo of Passione operatives from their former Mafia Branch, Tiziano and Squalo, who are ambushing the group, using Squalo’s Shark Stand “Crush” in tandem with Tiziano’s “Talking Mouth” Stand to forcibly compel Narancia to lie and bait them into watery places where Crush will have the unfair advantage. While the others try to figure out what is happening with Narancia, he directs them into a public restroom where he tries to remove all traces of liquid, even his blood, to stop Crush from reappearing. But the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when Giorno figures out what’s really going on after everyone leaves and Crush moves in for the kill…

Our Take

Damn! I felt bad for Narancia throughout this entire episode. Dude got played like a man fiddle up until Giorno was quick to put the pieces together. I really liked the enemy stands and Squalo’s and Tiziano’s personalities so far despite how weirdly close they physically are together in the scenes they’re in. Normally in a Jojo story, nobody is a complete idiot unless they’re supposed to be. But here, nearly everyone within Bruno’s circle becomes an idiot but Narancia because the plot requires them to just force the dire misfortune of Narancia’s predicament.

I should also note that I liked the new Intro and Outro. In the tradition of the Jojo anime itself, a modern real song from an actual band is sometimes chosen for the end credits and for Golden Wind’s 2nd Outro, we now have Enigma’s “Modern Crusaders” which seemingly fits the darker tone of the show a lot better compared to Jodeci’s hilariously out of place “Freek’N You” song which was used during the first 21 episodes.

Aside from some animation problems and bad writing in places. It compensated with tension and suspense and a new goal for Bruno’s now defected team while they’re still on the lam. And I can’t wait to see how Narancia and Giorno get themselves at this dangerous scenario.