STORY: 7/10
Golden Wind picks up 2 years after Diamond is Unbreakable. In it we learn DIO had a bastard child named Giorno Giovanni, who becomes a member of an Italian gang named Passione. With them, he seeks to kill their boss and become Top Boss of Italy.
It's a solid story mostly. It delivers a dramatic gangster tragedy. Think The Godfather with Stands. Very unique. The problem is the ending. The ending is anticlimatic, rushed, and results in one of the cheapest asspulls ever conceived. Not only that, there is a very very unnecessary extra chapter that ruins a lot of the dramatic tension in the Part. The rest of it is pretty good, even great.
ART: 9/10
There are lots of zainy brainy characters in Golden Wind. In particular, Bruno, Abbacchio, and Guido carry the Part very well. All 3 are contenders for my top 5 favorite Jojo characters, Abbacchio maybe being my #1. However, Golden Wind also contains my single most hated character in manga history, Fugo Pannacotta. The most useless, shitty, punk ass protagonist Araki ever created, there is literally nothing likable about Fugo. His fashion sense is garage and his Stand is so overpowered he only uses it in one fight and even then he screws up somehow. He's such a nuisance that Araki writes him out of the story early on, he's that bad.
The Jojo in this Part, Giorno, is interesting as he's a perfect combination of DIO and Johnathan. Giorno is noble and down to earth like Johnathan. However, he can also be ruthless, demanding, and even cruel. It makes for a very interesting character. The villain, Diavolo, is excellent as a character but not too strong of a villain, as I don't see what's so evil about him that he deserves to be the main villain. He is kinda just there, and while he's maybe THE deadliest Jojo villain, he is only so because he's defending himself. Excellent character, weak villain.
ENJOYMENT: 6/10
I enjoyed Golden Wind overall. It has some of the best fights in Jojo, and has one of my favorite Stands, KING CRIMSON. King Crimson is absolutely mind blowing and his very presence strikes fear into all, and his ability is so complex many find difficulty in explaining it. My enjoyment is weighed down by the horrendous mistranslation that exists in English, and it really screws up character personalities. I'm waiting for a new translation (Which is taking forever) or the anime adaptation to amend this. Maybe my negatives won't exist after reading it correctly, but nothing can fix the horrible, horrible ending.
OVERALL: 7/10
It's very frustrating reviewing Golden Wind. A lot of the actual content is good,the problem is the horrible translations. The French translation is better, but I'm not sharp enough to coherently read it for comparison. Slowly a new translation is being done, but at the rate it's going we'll probably make it to the anime adaptation before it's finished.Golden Wind has a great set-up and continuously engaging and creative fights. However, the ending is, well, it's terrible, and it really brings down a lot of the truly great content.
