English Dub Review: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind: “The Thankful Death, Part 1”

(Possible Spoilers Below)

As the fishing hook from Peci’s “Fisherman” Stand Powers makes its way through Guido’s body towards his brain. Being unbreakable as well as able to reflect energy into the catch, the Carrot-headed Pesci seems to have the advantage and tries to reel Guido in, making the hook draw closer to the gunman’s heart. But Guido manages to use his “Six Bullets” stand to find Pesci and shatter the ice he is using to keep cool and prevent Thankful Death’s aging effect. In a panic, Pesci drops his grip on Guido and exposes his location, but a disguised Prosciutto, having aged himself with his Stand which you’d think would potentially kill him, launches a surprise attack on Guido revealing that Thankful Death’s powers also work through skin contact.

As Prosciutto instantly ages him before firing three bullets into his head, leaving him for dead. Prosciutto and Pesci then head to the driver’s cabin where they find the “vehicle” from the last episode called “Cocoa Large” through the use of and I’m not making this up, animal feces… It should also be noted since I tried to avoid revealing in the last episode that Cocoa Large which is their method of Transport is a small turtle that when placing specific Key on the back of its shell, acts as a stealthy shelter thanks to its Stand powers that create a portal to a well-furnished safe house/room (And yes it’s firmly established since the existence of Stands in Jojo, that Animals can also be Stand Users too).

However, just when things seem decidedly bleak for Trish, Giorno and the rest of Bruno’s Gang. Guido and his bullets manage to pull one of the most clever & badass moments in the series so far as he manages to send Bullet No. 6 to deliver an ice cube to Bruno, while Bullet No.5 ended up stopping Prosciutto’s bullets from penetrating his skull. This allows Bruno to also jump in and save their asses by launching a counterattack against Prosciutto; however, Bruno’s movements in combination with the Trains horsepower warm him up which puts himself at risk while Prosciutto grabs him, but the episode ends on an intense cliffhanger when Bruno quickly puts his Zipper-Man’s stand powers and does something incredibly selfless for the sake of protecting Trish and his crew.

Our Take

Damn! so much was going on in just one location! A lot of tense moments between Guido and Bruno were the standout of this episode, especially with Guido’s near-death experience and Bruno pulling the shit he did to save everyone else’s asses from Thankful Death’s stand powers. The proceedings moved at a brisk pace but also done very well. As a villain Prosciutto is excellent so far. That guy is smart as hell to disguise himself the way he did, and also his the fact he was able to put the pieces together with just animal feces was pretty damn close to killing almost everyone instantly. Also if Pesci wasn’t so grossly incompetent and was more pro-active he could have actually won

I also find it funny when Prosciutto plays with that carrot-headed imbecile’s face and gets closer to him minutes after abusing him by trying to be supportive and bring out Pesci’s confidence without coming across as intimidating. He may not be a top-tier villain but he’s quite smart and manipulative in his methods. But what easily stole the show for me was how smart Guido’s “Six Bullets” stand was. Given that each of the bullets in his Stand is a sentient entity, they’re capable of multi-tasking long enough to inform Bruno what was going on and it also gives us a shred of hope that Guido is still alive since theoretically, If Guido dies, so would his Stand.

I wonder how Bruno is going to carry on the mission and save his crew despite what he just did? And given how this episode ended, I’m really hyped about that cliffhanger!