Review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
For the longest time I was hyped for this particular part of JoJo to be animated. Part 5 is one of my favorite JoJo parts; it has the coolest Stand abilities and the most colorful characters in the entire series in my opinion. I was so damn excited for it, that I even went to AnimeExpo 2018 just to see the first episode super early. The first episode was fantastic and I couldn't wait to see more when it released on October. Fast forward to finishing the final episode, I believe Golden Wind was one of the best animes in both 2018 and 2019. The storyisn't quite as interesting as Diamond is Unbreakable, but it's still superior to the first three parts. It's a crime drama centered around the drug trade and the Italian Mafia, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise when I tell you that this part is easily the most violent and bloody part in JoJo. The art is easily the best in the entire series so far. It's so vibrant and colorful that it's hard to dislike it at all, and this isn't even the Blu-Ray cut. The sound is also the best in the entire series, the voice acting is top notch- major props to the voice actors of Giorno, Bruno, Narancia, and the Boss in particular. The sound effects are wonderful and satisfying, and the soundtrack is pure gold.
The fight scenes are some of the best as well. As stated above, I think the Stands are the most unique and versatile in this season and it makes for energetic and bloody fights that also involves a lot of strategy.
The flaws I have are the constant flashbacks in the first half and the characters. Each of the main character gets a flashback from their past (and since some of them aren't in the manga it's basically filler) and it takes up half of an episode each time. It gets pretty tedious and some of them don't give enough reasoning for why the characters are the way they are. True, some are good. Bruno and Fugo have excellent ones that characterizes them, but the others not so much.
The characters aren't as great as Part 4's. They're just not as interesting, and honestly some of their quirks are kind of annoying. For example, Mista's abhorrence towards the number 4 or Narancia being dumb as hell. This is practically blasphemy within the community, but I just didn't enjoy it. It's good meme material I suppose. Giorno isn't exactly the most engaging JoJo either but he's pretty entertaining to watch in a fight so there's that. The best character by far is Bruno Bucciarati, who is easily one of the best supporting characters I've ever seen in an anime. He has good motives, he's interesting, and you sympathize with him the most. He's considered to be one of the best Jo-Bros in the entire series and I agree wholeheartedly. Many of the emotional scenes are because of him. He's selfless without being self-righteous and he's not perfect but tries his best.
The villains are also pretty great. Think of the Stardust Crusader villain cast, give them powers that aren't completely boring/stupid and have them be tightly knit with each other and it makes for a more engaging villain. La Squadra isn't the Phantom Troupe by any means but it makes the villain of the week formula a lot less tedious to go through. The Boss however, is where I think is the best part of this season. I feel like he's a highly underrated villain just within the JoJo community, let alone the anime community. He's intimidating, powerful (honestly he's dummy overpowered), and for reasons you'll see in the show, he's extremely complex. I won't say anything more though.
Definitely give this season a shot, it doesn't quite live up to its hype but it's still a great time. 8/10.