Review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Story: 6/10 Art: 10/10 Sound: 10/10 Character: 7/10 Enjoyment: 6/10 Overall: 7/10 --------------------------- Golden Wind disappointed me. This arc is more of a straightforward battle shonen with a serious, tragic narrative (that has basically nothing to do with the rest of the universe). It's still a fun watch, with a killer soundtrack and amazing art/animation, but it lacks the charm and humor of the prior arcs. If you mostly view this show as a comedic parody of the shonen genre, like I do, then I think you will also find Golden Wind underwhelming. Spoilers ahead. This arc is different for a few reasons. Most notably, it doesn't revolve around a Jojo character. GiornoGiovanna is by blood a Joestar, but I can't consider him the true main character. That's because the story really revolves around an Italian gangster named Bruno Bucciarati and his gang's quest to... clean up the neighborhood? What? Anyway, Bucciarati's story arc is quite good when it finally hits its stride, but the buildup to that point is boring. There's also an unfortunate issue where the Stand names are all references to artist/album/song names, so the subtitles differ drastically from what is being said on screen. This was a huge immersion killer for me, and I know it's not fair to hold that against the show, but I can't help it.

What was I talking about again, Italian gangsters or whatever? Yeah, I guess there's a real problem in this universe with children buying hard drugs like heroin. The plot makes no sense, but that won't stop all the characters from acting like it's serious business. The Stand powers in this arc are way less creative than the previous ones, and the fights are unfortunately much more typical of other shonen anime. The fights in Battle Tendency and Stardust have such a distinct quality to them; they're less of a physical fight and more of a chess match where the opponents are trying to figure out exactly how their powers interact.

I hope you don't like those style of fights, because there's precisely none of them in this arc. There are moments that evoke the metaphysical Jojo weirdness I love the series for (e.g., there's a turtle who has a Stand that allows it to carry people and things within it), but it's mostly typical battle shonen ass pulling and overpowered nonsense. Speaking of OP bullshit, the primary antagonist Diavolo possesses one of the most ABSURD and STUPID powers in all of anime. The Jojo series is usually good at putting limits on ridiculous powers, but I guess Araki couldn't be fucked to balance King Crimson. The way he's defeated is also bullshit.

It might sound like I think GW sucks or I hated it, but I promise that's not true. It's still good and memorable, but it just doesn't FEEL like JJBA. There's not even any gratuitous animal abuse (although there is a frankly hilarious scene depicting domestic abuse). I think this arc just really disappointed me compared to Diamond is Unbreakable, which I hold to be the high point of the series.