Berry’s Impression
We might as well kiss goodbye CG openings, but I don’t mind. Fighting Gold I think is another OP I’m going to have to get used to. The visuals were amazing and again it shows how much better the animation has gotten after a lackluster Part 4. I like Coda and the song itself is fine, but I think I’m going to have to listen to it a few more times to REALLY get into it. But I like it! It’s the ED that threw me completely off that I had to laugh. I really wanted rap, I really wanted Gangsta’s Paradise. I think everyone wanted Gangsta’s Paradise, so I’m a little disappointed. I can’t say this horny R&B song is fitting, but it certainly made Part 5 seem a little more homoerotic.
The episode opens up with Giorno’s backstory and it explained him very well. His mother was a beautiful Japanese woman who had somehow slept with Dio and lived? I’ll get to that later. She has Giorno but she’s a deadbeat party mom that leaves her own two year old infant on his own, in a disgusting apartment. Later on she marries an Italian man and they move to Italy. The stepfather is a physically abusive asshole and Giorno all around grew up harshly with his home life, and with the bullying and racism from the other children. He felt truly alone. Until one day he comes across an injured man in an alleyway that was being chased by some mobsters. Giorno lies and leads them a different direction, and unconsciously he used Gold Experience to make the grass around the injured man to grow taller and hide him. After that, suddenly Giorno’s life turns for the better as his stepfather stops beating him and literally everyone is nice to him. And that’s because the man he saved was a gangster, and he looked out for him from afar! Giorno grew to love this man because this man was the only person that showed him respect, even though they had never spoken to each other. After watching the man deal with an angered boy whose father was killed by him for selling drugs to women and children, it’s then that Giorno made up his mind to grow up and become a gang-star. No, not a gangster. A gang-STAR. This poor boy has gone through a lot and watching his backstory made me extremely sad and want to squish his baby cheeks.
When it comes to Giorno’s mother, it’s a huge mystery. Dio only saw women as food and tools. He would use them for his own gain and then just kill them immediately. How Giorno’s mother was able to leave Dio’s mansion alive is a huge mystery, and it will always be a mystery because Araki never explained why. 😛 So it’s always fun to think about the possibilities, like if maybe for that instant Dio had grown feelings? Or maybe Dio had seen something in this woman that made him want to spare her life? Or maybe he just wanted a good fuck and passed out after and she left? We literally don’t know and we’ll never know so your guess is as good as mine.
Also, food for thought for you anime-only viewers. Remember, Dio’s head is attached to Jonathan’s body. Which means he has Jonathan’s……………………………………….dick. So, who’s Giorno’s real dad? Dio or Jonathan, or both? Another fun thing to think about. 😉
After the backstory, we head straight back to the battle in the cable train. We start learning more about Giorno’s Stand abilities and start getting some answers. Also, yay, we’re back to copyright names for the stands. Golden Wi-ahem, Gold Experience indeed can make anything it touches turn into any living thing. However, Giorno’s in a rut because he’s never used his Stand against an actual human being before, only on inanimate objects. But seeing as he has no choice, he uses it on Bruno. At first it seems like Bruno has gained powers but intead coming into contact with Gold Experience has made his senses go completely berserk. It’s actually pretty terrifying. He gets beaten pretty hard and chooses to escape after seeing all this. Using Zipper Man, PFFFFFFF…Using Sticky Fingers, Bruno creates a zipper in the train and goes through it to escape but Giorno goes after him, afraid he’ll tell the rest of his gang about him.
They run through the city and face off in an alley. Suddenly Bruno disappears but actually hid in one of the guys that were there in the alley using Sticky Fingers. Using Bruno’s tooth and turning it into a fly to send it back to him, Giorno was able to locate him in the body of some kid. They face off with each other again with some clever work on Bruno’s end with switching arms with the kid, but in the end Giorno had the upper hand by being insane and ripping his arm. But he doesn’t kill Bruno.
He knows that Bruno is actually a good man even though he’s in the mafia. He saw the kid’s arm and noticed that he’s been shooting up drugs and took it from him, while also being conflicted because his boss is the one selling drugs to children, as much as he doesn’t like it. Giorno then explains what he plans to do, and that plan is to join the mafia himself so he can face against Bruno’s boss, take over the organization, and be a GANG-STAR!
A really good episode. We’ve really gotten to know a lot about Giorno and a little bit of Bruno too. The music is spot-on, the animation is amazing, and I’m loving this a lot. And just to provide some fun facts because Jojo is chock full of them:
- Giorno’s Stand, Gold Experience, is a reference to Prince’s album “The Gold Experience”.
- Bruno’s Stand, Sticky Fingers, is a reference to The Rolling Stones’ album “Sticky Fingers”.
- Bruno’s last name, Buccellati, is the name of a traditional Italian Christmas fig cookie! Buccellati also seems to be an Italian luxury jewellery and watch company! Fancy stuff~
Hey, at the very least one of you should be checking out karakuri circus. It’s like no one knows it exists.