まいにちの せいがつ

マクミランさん Watches: ジョジョの奇妙な冒険: 黄金の風

During break I was extremely excited to watch the new anime adaptation of the 5th part of the Jojo's Bizarre Adventure series, known in English as "Golden Wind". The series is extremely long running (the series as a whole starting in 1987, and Golden Wind lasting from 1995 to 1999) and is beloved world wide for its eccentric style (see the main cast for this part above) and its "bizarre" fighting system. The story is a shonen adventure, with many intense fights designed for a young teenage boy audience. Every main protagonist for each part is a "Jojo", related to the brave Joestar family and possesses supernatural powers. Even though the series is old, because there are many parts, there were only a few adaptations (mainly OVAs) prior to the recent production by studio David Production. It follows a standard T.V. anime format of a 30-min time slot counting advertisements. Over this past week, I watched episodes 2 and 3 for a total of approximately an hour. I believe the episode release sometime Saturday in Japan, as they are available every Friday for western audiences who are a day behind Japan.

As for the contents of the series...I am afraid it is a little complicated to explain, especially because this is the 5th part of this long-running series. However, I will try to give the summary to the best of my ability! In Naples, Italy in 2001, a blonde 15 year old "Giorno Giovanna" (his real name is Haruno Shiobana) who is half Japanese and possesses a strange ability: a supernatural being he can summon (see picture above) which can turn non-living things into living things! This being is known as a "Stand", his is called "Golden Experience". Thats not all though, as any harm done to those now living creatures is brought back to the attacker. Giorno uses his ability to act as a hustling gangster on the streets, robbing those well off and giving to those worse off (he was inspired by a similar gangster during his child hood). After getting in trouble for messing with a gang known for selling drugs to children, Giorno gains a new ally (after fighting each other in shonen fashion of course) in Bruno Bucciarati, a gangster with a "Stand" that can literally unzip people apart, who worked for this evil gang. Giorno decides to join this gang on Bruno's recommendation in order to rise up the ranks and become the head to protect the children of Naples and to only rob those with too much. However, his initiation into the gang has been extremely difficult, and episode 3 left off on an exciting cliffhanger into Giorno's fate! Also, the way this part ties into the others is EXTREMELY complicated, but essentially, Giorno is the son of the series' main antagonist who, at the time, was occupying the body of the series protagonist from part 1, meaning Giorno is technically a Joestar! For this reason, the Jojo from part 3 enlists a protagonist from part 4 to spy on Giorno to make sure he does not use his "Stand" for evil purposes. That is basically all you need to know going in, but there is a lot to the series I could not cover because well...it would take way too long! I extremely enjoy shonen series, so a classic such as this one appeals to me greatly. I am excited to watch this story as it plays out into next year!