My fumbling around in the world of Anime continues this evening. Flip flopping between video games and anime as I write these has been more tricky than I had expected it to be. One more lesson to go into the pot of things I’ll probably forget by the time I get around to doing this again next year.
Today’s entry is another late season show. I dabbled with the idea of leaving this show off my list entirely, with how little of it I’ve seen. But with each passing episode, I find myself enjoying the show more and more. I felt like I needed to give it some recognition for how much enjoyment it gives me. That being said, I really will have to figure out a better way of organising these lists next year. Hey, if any other anime bloggers out there want to give me their thoughts on it, feel free to do so.
Like in my video game lists, I’ll list and link my previous days entries before getting onto today’s:
#9: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Began airing on October 5th | 39 episodes | Written by Yasuko Kobayashi | Action, Adventure, Shounen, Jojo
It’s only been on a handful of episodes, but I already adore this weird show. The only reason it doesn’t make it higher is because it’s still so early in the series.
Golden Wind feels like it picks up right where Diamond is Unbreakable leaves off in a lot of ways. The show feels like a continuation in terms of its style, animation and the structure of episodes. Part IV was a mystery in many ways, trying to find the serial killer in a small town, Part V feels almost the same. Despite being about the Italian mob.
While technically, this series has more in common with Part III, it feels very similar to the previous one. A basic episode will have a member of the main cast attacked by some threat. They’ll spend half of the episode trying to figure out what their opponents powers are, the next part trying to find a way to beat them, and then eventually doing so. With style. I guess that’s been the structure since stands were introduced though.
Speaking of style…
I need to point how how God Damn ridiculous all of the characters look in this show. I mean, everyone in Jojo has had a unique style to say the least, but the way these characters are dressed is silly in the extreme, and it’s hilarious. It’s hard to take a man seriously when he wears a suit full of holes and a necktie with no shirt.
The Jojo of this series is Giorno Giovanna, a member of the Joestar lineage only because he is the bastard son of DIO after he stole the body of Jonathan Joestar. The whole Joestar family aspect of the series feels like a forgotten relic at this point. As the series has gone on, it has become less of a swashbuckling adventure with vampires and demons, and become a show about, what if the mafia had super powers.
I wonder if Giorno will ever display any evidence of being the spawn of a super vampire… Man this show is weird.
It’s still highly recognisable as being Jojo all the same though. The Stands, the multicoloured filters over action scenes, the ridiculous poses and the fact that my favourite character in the series isn’t the the primary Jojo. Bucciarati’s character turn after his face licking intro is very within the tone of the series.
Each series of Jojo has been very different than the one that came before it, Part V is the first one that feels like it could have been a part of the series that came before. It’s not to say I dislike it, and hey, it’s still pretty early on in the series. Giving it some more time it might surprise me and I’ll kick myself for not putting it higher on my list. It’s Jojo at the end of the day and I loved it straight away. I’ve even come to love the opening song, which I hated the first few times I heard it.
It’s got a ton of style, original action, interesting characters and a tone all its own.
A Richard Wood Text Adventure 