JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Episode 14

We've got two new villains emerging to take a crack at Team Bucciarati in the form of Prosciutto (Italian for "ham dish"—an appropriate name for just about any JoJo character) and Pesci (which means "fish", but I can't help but think of the Joe variety), wielders of the Stands 'The Grateful Dead' and 'Beach Boy' respectively. Grateful Dead provides the episode with its primary source of conflict, since it has the power to accelerate the age of anybody in the vicinity, and Beach Boy is a fishing hook that can permeate walls.

The charm of this episode resides in the little details. I was pleased to learn what the recent Pompeii fetch-quest was for, since the acquired key doesn't open a conventional lock. Instead it lays perfectly in the grooves of a little turtle friend's shell, much to the gang's surprise. The turtle's name is Coco Jumbo, and its Stand is 'Mr. President.' I cannot even begin to describe the joy in saying those words out loud, because turtles rule. Mr. President is the ability to create a luxury room in a pocket dimension where our heroes can rest in peace as Coco Jumbo hides on board a train heading to Florence. I really like that the boss's mysterious plan for transporting Trish is finally making sense, albeit through weird JoJo magic, even if that doesn't stop the bad guys from sneaking onto the train and trying to hunt them down anyway.

So far, our heroes and villains haven't been able to interact directly in this new battle. Ideally the gang would just lie low and wait for the train ride to be over, but Grateful Dead is trying to gas them out. Prosciutto and Pesci don't know where their targets are, but if they use their Stands sparingly, they don't have to. The aging has several unexpected side effects on our main characters, since they're all aging at different rates. It's gobsmacking that for two episodes in a row, Giorno is explaining dumb Stand mechanics that have to do with body heat. Was body heat just on Araki's mind at the time? It's so specific! Apparently women's body temperatures tend to fluctuate less because they have more body fat (I'm not even going to worry about the science on that one), and Grateful Dead is specifically trying to spare Trish while killing everybody else. However, the men who had something cold to drink recently are less susceptible. The few cubes of ice left in Mr. President's room are all that's standing between our heroes and death.

I think the train setting does a lot to keep this fight interesting. Not only does it confine movement and provide plenty of walls to give Pesci the upper hand, but it's also a semi-public place where innocent people's lives are at stake. It's a race against the clock where the clock is a literal melting ice cube, so if nothing else, this show is still delivering on the quirk factor. I have a hard time imagining that I'll remember much about Prosciutto and Pesci once they're defeated, despite Pesci's remarkable scrotum neck. Even seeing our cast as a group of decaying old men isn't really hitting the way it should, but there's still plenty here to be amused and entertained by all the same.

Rating: B

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw