Review of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 5: Ougon no Kaze Review Story (8/10) Very Good More Specifically (8.75/10) Very Good+ The story in JoJo's Part 5 is very good, particularly the beginning. We go from Part 4's Japan to Part 5's Italy. From Joseph's Son to Dio/Jonathon's son. I feel the overall plot was very good and this adaption by David Production was well done. When I read the manga I felt the pacing was a bit on the slow side and I gave it an 8.50/10. I feel the pacing was a bit better this time around in anime format although nothing really changed withthe it, I guess a different format can do that. From a story stand point like I said in my manga written review of this, Part 5 revealing of the origin of Stands was welcomed since it had always been a lingering mystery of JoJo's since their introduction in Part 3, I know some people might not like the explanation behind it but I didn't find it that bad. But Araki still drops a certain story plot with a certain character that I still think to this day is unforgivable, I'll talk about that more in the character section. Everything else though from a story standpoint was very good.
Art and Animation (8/10) Very Good
More Specifically (8.75/10) Very Good+
The Art and Animation I thought were very good. Many cool character designs and stands. The animation was very good although I feel they did cut corners from time to time in both art and animation where certain drawn faces on stands (Like Gold ER) didn't look consistent and the whole colored slide show action scenes from time to time are thing I feel that hold it back from reaching a 9 to me, (especially if you are watching the currently airing Fire Fore by David Productions right now and saw what they are doing over there). Nonetheless it's still very good and does the manga which I thought was one of Araki's weaker drawn parts justice.
Sound (10/10) Outstanding
David Productions went all out when it came to the music of JoJo's Part 5. The first opening Fighting Gold is one of my new favorites I never wanted it to change. When it did change I didn't like it at first but it quickly grew onto me. And this is the first time as far as I know they changed the opening twice and music along with it, that was a double treat. The first outro music had the entire community on the floor in laughter by how out of place but ridiculously awesome it was at the same time and the second one was laid back and good enough after having such crazy episode on a weekly basis. The piano theme song for when Giorno is about to beat someone up is probably the best Joestar theme song now and all of the JP voice actors did phenomenal job with the character they were hired to play.
Characters (8/10) Very Good {Spoilers}
More Specifically (8.75/10) Very Good+
The Characters in JoJo's Part 5 although I feel they were very good. When I wrote my written review about the character section I initially gave a 9 saying that "majority of them have some of the best backstories I've read in any JoJo's part up to now" which now as a JoJo's veteran, sure from an anime standpoint this statement probably still holds up, but having knowledge of all of JoJo's all the way up to Part 8 has definitely changed my opinion a bit on the characters of Part 5 and felt I was a bit too generous with that 9. I do feel David Productions did a great job adapting the characters and bringing them to life and I feel with that it allowed me to understand them better and see they aren't as good as I thought from when I first read about them in the manga their interactions with each other are probably the best thing about them and individually they still hold up just not as much as I initially thought. My thoughts have changed a bit from when I first read them.
Firstly Giorno Giovanna I think is actually a very good character now, when I completed the manga I said "he in my opinion just lack a unique personality enough for me to enjoy majority of anything about him from a personality stand point. You would think for who his father is he would have been a little more exciting to follow, but even Jotaro's laid back and dull personality was more enjoyable than Giorno's." I do not feel this way anymore, I feel that Giorno's personality from the start of the series where he was basically just a pretty boy punk looking out for himself and if you think about it that was Dio as a child also. Unlike Dio though he wouldn't do anything necessarily evil but he wasn't clean as a whistle either. Going with the crew quickly gave him into some very good character development and turned him into an ambitious leader, a gentlemen like his other father (the Jonathon side) and the most powerful mc in all of JoJo's. Sure he's not as entertaining as Joseph or Josuke. But I feel Araki wasn't going for that with Giorno so to compare him to those two characters I feel isn't quite fair. Giorno wasn't trying to make the reader/watcher laugh like those characters did. He's definitely a combination of Jonathan and Jotaro if anything and should be compared to those two and when you do that I feel it's better and deeper than both of them.
Everything else about all the other characters I felt about the same way so I'll copy and paste what I said about them in my manga review here with some additions.
Diavolo I have mixed feelings about because one part of me wants to like him and another just sees a villain with wasted potential, he was technically the only main villain so far that understood every detail about the ability his stand has but still felt like he came short AS a villain in comparison to previous JoJo main villains. After his full reveal his presence as a threat didn't last nearly as long as his predecessors. His stand was cool but Diavolo isn't, especially after he's fully revealed. His characterization when thinking about it can be seen as unique but that's from a character standpoint which is good since that's what this section is called, but is it that unique? No not that much, I feel he as a villain he was a bit one dimensional and kind of paranoid for no apparent reason just for the sake of the plot. His reasoning behind why he wanted to cut ties with anyone that knows about him made sense but it was also a bit too similar to the previous villain's Kira Yoshikage who also wanted to basically be invisible to society and do his dirty deeds in the shadows yet everyone I talk to feels that Kira Yoshikage was definitely a better villain. Either way I don't think Diavolo is horrible but as it stands now in my opinion he's not all that amazing coming off of Kars, Dio Brando and Kira Yoshikage, he's below them all. If there's one thing you can give him credit for is the fact that he more than any villain before him killed the most of the Joestar's crew coming in with 3 kills (Dio didn't kill Iggy that was Vanilla Ice, so Dio only killed 2, Kira and Kars 1).
Speaking of character deaths when first read the manga I felt the character deaths felt out of no where and just a bit unnecessary. That's not the case anymore as if I give Diavolo credit on anything he stragetically took out each of his kills the smart way, separated and individually. Even at the very end when he was was outnumbered his first insticnt was to retreat know it that fighting them seperately is what had gotten him that far also, so at least the consistency in his character was well done to the very end if anything.
The one specific character (Fugo) just pussied out on the crew 60% of the way through this Part I didn't think was very cool either and was wasted of potential. And it was because if you didn't know Araki intended on using that character in a far greater role. He intended on bringing Fugo back as an antagonist to fight against the crew, this is the reason why Fugo had anger issues and had such a deadly poisonous stand that was only shown once and was considered very powerful. It was all suppose to be setup for him when he came back to fight against the crew. Araki scrapped this idea because as far as I remember him saying, "He didn't want the readers to hate Fugo a former crew member" but sadly what he had not predicted by doing this is the fact that (and I feel confident saying this for everyone) we actually hate him for pussing out and basically disappearing from the series vs if he had come back and fought against them. Him coming back and fighting probably could have lead to not only a great fight and something that has never been done before in a JoJo's part which would be a crew betrayal. But it also would have given Fugo the opportunity to further explain his stance and possibly lead to deeper characterization. All in all I felt as a writer Araki pussied out of the initial idea he had setup up. This isn't the first time he had done this (if you remember Josuke's backstory) and sadly it isn't the last if you know about future parts of JoJo's.
Other characters were entertaining and good enough nothing worth going super deep into when it comes to them.
Enjoyment (10/10) Outstanding
JoJo's Part 5 has made my fridays worth it every single time a new episode dropped. This series probably more than any other is so satisfying watching it on a weekly basis, you can tell it was built that way after Part 2. Like I said in when I wrote my manga review I felt the character interactions between the crew were definitely one of the most entertaining things of this part. By the end of this part I felt this crew was far more connected to each other than any other crew that came before them. With unforgettable scenes like the "torture dance" or "the crew stomp" in anime format it's far more remember able than it was in manga format to me. My favorite fight in the manga was the fight against White Album and I'm so glad it was done justice in the anime. And fights I weren't too fond of in the manga like ""Notorious B.I.G." and "Green Day"/"Oasis" were far more entertaining in anime format than they ever were in manga format, especially "Green Day/Oasis" which I considered kind of boring when I read it even with the 7 Page Muda. Like I said in the music part the change of the openings not once but twice also was a very good treat.
Overall (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.25/10) Great
When I wrote my manga review for this back when I read it almost 4 years ago. I struggled to figure out which I thought was better Part 3 or Part 5, now with a lot of hindsight on both Parts. I would say that I still like Part 3 more but Part 5 is better. The first half of Part 3 I did not find as good as the second half of Part 3 (The First and Second Season of Stardust Crusaders anime is what I'm referring to). Looking at both of them as one I'd give it to Part 5 but separately I'd say I still enjoyed Stardust Crusaders Season 2 over all of Part 5. If Araki went through with the Fugo plot I'd probably put it over Part 3 S2 but I feel that removal was worse than the ass pull of Star Platinum getting the ability of The World right at the end of Part 3 or the Josuke Flashback in Part 4. Either way I still feel this adaptation is superior to the manga which is all we can ask for. Many people initially when the manga first came out considered Part 5 to be one of the worse parts. I remember when the manga had like a 7.90 when I first read it on this site but I feel that narrative is long gone as I can see many people considering this to be their new favorite part which doesn't sound too far fetch to me.
(Mine is still Part 7 of course but you don't know nothing about that do you :P)