JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 5: Ougon no Kaze

In the coastal city of Naples, corruption is teeming—the police blatantly conspire with outlaws, drugs run rampant around the youth, and the mafia governs the streets with an iron fist. However, various fateful encounters will soon occur.

Enter Giorno Giovanna, a 15-year-old boy with an eccentric connection to the Joestar family, who makes a living out of part-time jobs and pickpocketing. Furthermore, he is gifted with the unexplained Stand ability to give and create life—growing plants from the ground and turning inanimate objects into live animals, an ability he has dubbed "Gold Experience." Fascinated by the might of local gangsters, Giorno has dreamed of rising up in their ranks and becoming a "Gang-Star," a feat made possible by his encounter with Bruno Bucciarati, a member of the Passione gang with his own sense of justice.

JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Ougon no Kaze follows the endeavors of Giorno after joining Bruno's team while working under Passione, fending off other gangsters and secretly plotting to overthrow their mysterious boss.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Giovanna, Giorno Main

Ono, Kensho Japanese

Bucciarati, Bruno Main

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Mista, Guido Main

Toriumi, Kousuke Japanese

Ghirga, Narancia Main

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Diavolo Main

Konishi, Katsuyuki Japanese

Abbacchio, Leone Main

Suwabe, Junichi Japanese

Fugo, Pannacotta Main

Enoki, Junya Japanese

Una, Trish Main

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Kuujou, Joutarou Supporting

Ono, Daisuke Japanese

Polnareff, Jean Pierre Supporting

Komatsu, Fuminori Japanese

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Kasama, Nobutaka Producer

Hayashi, Toshiyasu Producer

Miyagi, Souji Producer

Reviews

Jul 28, 2019

Stark700

Recommended

As I sat and finished watching the 39-episode saga of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, I had a small tear in my eye. It’s aftermath result of this extraordinary adventure. Crafted from the mind of Hirohiko Araki, he managed to bring his ideas to life with brilliance, charisma, and beauty. For how this show turned out in the end, I can easily say that the 5th part of the iconic Jojo franchise is one to welcome with open arms.

A journey into the Jojo franchise may take some time for newer viewers to get used to. Luckily at this point, any fan jumping into Golden Wind ... should be familiar with the Jojo experience. David Productions managed to bring their A-game into the show with fluid choreography and stylistic action scenes. Almost every fight feels unique with the mind games, Stand abilities, and occasional trash talk. Dialogues added in makes the fight feel engaging because let’s face it, who wants to watch a dragged out battle filled with nonsense? Some shows with similar genres fall for this mistake but Golden Wind makes the best of it. Plus, you can be sure to experience some awesome battle music such as Bruno’s theme song in the anime.

With another 39 episodes, you may wonder the overall direction of the story. Jojo has been known to be faithful to its fans when it comes to adaptation standards. The previous Jojo anime series followed a formula of adapting each arc at a careful pace. Golden Wind compresses approximately 155 chapters to work with and the roadmap seemed like it would be difficult to fit into 39 episodes. In fact, this show actually inserted some anime original scenes to flesh out the overall tone of the story. Mind you, accomplishing this feat is not easy as it would require omitting some content. Thankfully, the show managed to stay intact. Some of the more prominent battles (such as against King Crimson) makes a huge impact to show how dangerous the antagonists can be while making the protagonists looks strong at the same time. Speaking of which, who are the gang of characters joining this season?

One of the most prominent characters is none other than the Stand user of Gold Experience, Giorno Givanna. Now I’m not going to lie but compared to other previous Jojo protagonists, he stands out more as a lesser heroic guy. With his tactical mind and colder personality, Giorno can take some time to get used to at first. Comparing to other Jojo characters, he is also much more serious and thus have lesser time to make jokes in the show. Luckily, this season still has a lot of room for entertainment with its balanced cast. The most important one consists of the group led by Bruno Bucciatari. This group consists of mainly outcasts and in general, characters who wants to bring a purpose to their lives. Their main mission is to protect a young woman named Trish Una. The group itself consists of a unique character cast of various personalities. What really sells their characters is how each of them are carefully developed with their background stories. Their presence in the show got me invested into each of them for not only their roles but how they became who they are in the present storyline. This list includes the Leone Abbacchio, Guido Mista, and even the childish Narancia Ghirga. Even Bruno’s right-hand man, Pannacotta Fugo becomes an important figure despite being a side character. Trish’s character also develops throughout the story that sees her growing up from a spoiled brat to a courageous companion in the group. At the end of the day, it’s easy to pick out at least one or two characters you can relate to or find likable.

Similar to previous Jojo series, Golden Wind has a diverse range of antagonists and groups. The Italian mafia gang known as “Passione” is easily the most dominate group led by Diavolo. With a large amount of operatives and secrecy, Passione tests the limits of how powerful a group really can be in the Jojo franchise. The boss Diavolo himself is also a mysterious character whose secrecy makes him one of the most intriguing characters in the show. As the owner of one of the most dangerous Stands, he’s no pushover and in fact becomes the biggest threat to the main characters. Other prominent members of Passione such as Polpo, Zucchero, and Luca brings unique problems in each of their arcs. While it may feel redundant at first with the familiar “monster of the week” adventure formula, Golden Wind makes the most of its villains to make them as memorable as possible. This also extends to the assassins from La Squad Esecuzoni as each arc feel like an adventurous thriller with the antagonists trying to kill Trish. However, we shouldn’t also declare the protagonists in the show as caped heroes. Honestly, it’s easy to see the main protagonists as anti-heroes. If we take a look at some of their actions, they include killing if it means getting the job done. This is a take on a darker version of the previous Jojo protagonists but also brings in a refreshing side of the show. Whether you agree with their actions or not, it stands firm that Golden Wind contains some questionable content. I’m just glad the anime adapted the content for what it is and didn’t fall victim to dreaded censorship.

Golden Wind hits the ball out of the park with its technical elements. The art style looks fantastic with its character details. In particular, the Stands in this show are all decorated with unique characteristics that makes them stand out. The camera angles of the battles scenes also makes every fight feel impactful. Even the close up frames and character expressions are captured with importance. Director Yasuhiro Kimura makes a strong impression with its art direction and deserves praise. Similarly, the music in the show carries a great amount of charisma with its OST. Fighting Gold became one of my favorite OP songs of the year for its fighting lyrics and choreography. Keeping in pace with its other bizarre elements, “Uragirimono no Requiem” also hits the mark with visual dynamics.

After weeks and weeks of bizarre adventure, we’ve finally arrived at the end and it’s been an unforgettable journey. Following Giorno and his comrades together is more than just a golden experience. Having read the manga, I had high expectations for this adaptation and it left me with no less than being impressed. This show may be over but the Jojo universe is still open for exploration. And when the anime adaptation of Stone Ocean inevitably gets announced someday, we can relive another bizarre adventure again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 30, 2019

Injenss

Mixed Feelings

I wasn't terribly impressed with Golden Wind, to be honest. The primary driver of this season was figuring out who the Boss was. But, once you find out who the Boss actually is, the anime is pretty much exposed. The primary problem is that the cast of characters this time around was pretty weak.

The biggest problem with the cast was Giorno himself. Giorno was so overpowered it was ridiculous. You might not notice it, because the way he is overpowered isn't in the typical way an OP character works. Instead of just raw power, his Golden Wind ... ability sucks out 90% of the suspense of the threats in weird ways. Giorno is a guy who can heal any wound, heal (almost) any ally, turn any inanimate object into a creature, control time, has the IQ of Einstein and can out think any opponent. He created a feeling that "Nothing is going to stop this guy, ever. There's no real threat. He's just going to cruise to his goals and the antagonist is just going to be a speedbump on his way to becoming the Pirate King/Hokage."

It also exposed the weakness of the rest of the crew, once the mystery of the Boss was solved. Trish was really more irritating than anything else through 80% of the anime, although she became less irritating at the end. Narancia was too childish to even be a believable gangster. I didn't care at all about Fugo. I didn't even like Abbacchio, nor did the anime give you any reason to like Abbacchio. The only likable characters for me were Buccarati and Mista. I will say that Buccarati was a pretty awesome character. He felt like a true gangster.

The odd thing is that the plot itself kept jumping around. It seemed at first that it was going to be covering Giorno trying to rise through the ranks to become the leader of the mob. (Which I think would've been a much better story, watching him try to work his way through the ranks without anyone knowing his ultimate goal.) But, it suddenly switched into a find-the-boss mystery. Then, at the end, it was like they were just fighting Dio all over again. But, a far less interesting Dio. And really, Dio is what this anime needs. This series hasn't been truly great since Dio died. It hasn't been bad, but it hasn't been as stellar as it was when the Joestars were fighting Dio.

But, probably the most shocking and disappointing aspect of this season, is that it was actually predictable. The ending was predictable. The deaths were predictable. The entire progression of the anime from the midpoint on was predictable. Nothing really swerved you, even when they tried to swerve you, because the swerves were predictable. I don't know if Jojo is going to have a season 6. But, if it does, they need to rethink the predictable formula. Jojo is supposed to be synonymous with "unpredictable", but this fell far from the mark.

However, this season of Jojo did have one thing going for it: The battles. You can clearly tell that they put a lot of importance in thinking up the strangest abilities they can and putting a fight together with them. And in that regard, the battles, as usual, were crazy and entertaining. In fact, probably one of the best fights of the whole series happened in this season between two characters fighting on a cliff near the beach. That entire sequence was pretty awesome.

Other than the fights, however, there just really wasn't much of the excellence I came to expect from previous seasons of Jojo. You can't win them all, I guess.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 28, 2019

gabrielrroiz

Not Recommended

You know, I will be relentless when writing this review, but I do feel compassion for Araki’s situation when writing this story. Coming out of his enormous success with previous Jojo’s parts, having a huge follow up by fans, and probably being laurelled by praise of his editors, it would be simple for him to accommodate. To stop trying, challenging himself and coming with ways for improvement. This movement is something Araki does not fall into, though to the expense of failing hard the ceiling of his own works above him.

The general premise of a Jojo part, is no brainers for anyone familiar with the ... series, we have our megalomaniac villain to defeat, a group of idealistic heroes, the clear distinction between good and evil. And, of course the oldest way of resolving conflict, proving your rightness, by simply eliminating the other guy, and his objection. Fighting and beating the crap of bad guys is the main element of Jojo, with its bombastic, masculine fights and weird powers. To an extent I am not much of a fan of mega complex power systems in general, those are simply endless rules, limitations, specific powers, which mean nothing, and just amount for the author playing really complicated logistic chess with himself in every battle (with endless exposition). Nevertheless, I respect the variability, and immense number of circumstance those create.

Really, there is nothing wrong with this premise; it can amount to some of the more interesting works of fiction. Araki himself, has already proved repeatedly, he can spun this mold, to something at least interesting. Playing such stupidity earnestly, filling simple narratives with energy, a grand scope, and comprehensible dramatic and logistical stakes, can generate great entertainment.


This was sadly not the case here. Araki takes out most of his dry stupid humor, the situation awareness, and pleasure in indulging in baffling scenarios. There was always a tendency at looking at the humorous, seeing conflict, world and the general scenarios as a joke in Jojo’s, the climax of part 2 being exactly about how nothing makes sense, and the protagonist poking fun at the antagonist, and chain of events. There was always an unbelievably childish humor, filled with eschatological occurrences (fezzes everywhere), pointless gore (lots of killed animals), endless sadistic unbelievable murders, waiting at every corner. The characters were smartasses, just throwing one liners, and witty dialogue at one another, overreacting to everything in the most enjoyable way possible.

Now most of this is gone, or toned down. The bizarreness remains in name, but is sadly lacking in attitude. Those were replaced with more drama, serious naturalistic reactions, and long moments of people staring at another, rationally thinking the best course of option. Or in the endless joyless fights, that comprised most of any specific episode. Levity is kept to a minimum, self-importance of specific situations and conflicts raises to unbelievable heights. Character interactions, witty dialogues and bouncing personalities, that were mandatory in any episode of parts 3 or 4, are barely here.

A shame none of this serves to make a more meaningful narrative. Characters are barely anything more than skilled stand users, which fight really well. There is strange case to be made for them, because they seem to make the impossible, start to get less interesting the more the story progress. It is as if you know less about this people at the end of the line, than at the end of first quarter. The flashbacks and introductions are promising, presenting group dynamics, personalities, their wants, needs and troubles in life. When finishing their specific episodes, any main character narrative is over, their motivations go nowhere, development is nonexistent, ideals are barely there, specific quirks and attitudes are so rarely remembered they barely count as there. There is no one with a comprehensible, well-developed mentality, and specific mindset. The cast mostly consist of the same guy, all mechanically dealing with the next enemy of the week most of the time, with not much else going on.

However, those pale in comparison, to the disastrous structure. Events and objectives come and go, with seemingly very little progression, or any meaningful change. There is no reason for the climax to not have happened maybe 15, or even more episodes earlier, and nothing occurs of substance in most of the side quests. You have these awful character deaths being sold as grand twists, when they actually mean nothing in the grand scheme, change nothing, and are not even culminating or cathartic for the characters themselves (with one exception). Those amount only to sappy excuses for everybody to get sad for a moment, and then quickly move on as if nothing happened. This ends in a climax, where the main conflict is resolved with no internal change, or the protagonist learning something, but by being granted the ultimate bullshit power up, and everybody stands (including the audience) having no idea what the fuck it does. Of course, there is an even better epilogue, about a minor story before the events of the main series, which helps not to inform or close character or story, but just to give a better sense of the brilliant recurring theme of destiny. Those priorities are just so completely wrong.

Despite still considering Araki a good writer, there is no other label than disappointment to part 5. Because of overextending a simple story, while removing everything that made it fun. While some individual moments, and battles are actually enjoyable (Araki is a master at twists, constantly changing and messing a fight scene), those are completely eclipsed by a messy whole. Obscuring the weirdness and coolness of narrative, in cloth of self-importance and pretentions is a mistake I did not expect from the man, and found nothing in his vision to compensate.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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