JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E06 Review: Rewind Button vs. Deflated Balloons

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Episode 6: Moody Blues' Counterattack

I'm doing reviews for every episode, apparently, due to the amount of stuff I want to talk about. It's really interesting, honestly, comparing Vento Aureo's pacing to Stardust Crusaders, where practically every mini-arc was stretched into two episodes. Vento Aureo really manages to do some really neat, condensed storytelling while also expanding upon the stories told in the episode itself. In particular, without spoiling too much, the anime staff has moved a particularly significant flashback from much later in the arc into this episode -- it's the first episode where Leone Abbacchio finally gets some spotlight, and the flashback focusing on him ends up opening this episode -- and it gets expounded upon a fair bit, too! It really manages to make Abbacchio feel more like a character so much earlier in the story, and puts into frame just why he was so moved by Giorno jumping in the way of the figurative bullet that is Soft Machine.

Abbacchio's story isn't the most original backstory, honestly, but it's executed well enough that I don't really mind. Abbacchio's a once very idealistic police officer that ended up being utterly disillusioned with his work due to the horrible law system where criminals basically bribe their way out, while all the civilians are gigantic assholes. Abbacchio's logic ends up becoming "is there a difference if they're paying me or a lawyer?" which... yeah, I can't really honestly blame Abbacchio for entertaining those thoughts. When he does accept a bribe, however, it ends up being disastrous as the criminal scum ends up going around on that same night robbing people's houses and shooting people in the head.

Abbacchio confronts the dude, and is torn between doing his job and risking his bribe-taking getting exposed, and that hesitation ends up causing him to freeze in the midst of a gun standoff, causing Abbacchio's partner to die and take the bullet for him. Thus ruined and driven to the edge of despair,  this was where Giorno shows up to recruit Abbacchio as someone abandoned by society, but ultimately wanting to work and make it better. (I'm not sure if the exchange of words about how "it's not the result, but the journey" really needed to take place at the end of the episode after the credits, though).

The figuring out of Zucchero's Soft Machine ability takes up the majority of this episode, and while I still remain "okay, that barely makes sense" as to the explanation of how Soft Machine manages to 'hide' the deflated bodies, it's still sort of makes sense enough for me to not really complain about it. If nothing else, seeing it animated allows me to visualize Soft Machine's wacky powers and the boat-on-boat overlay a wee bit better.

There's some really great animation using Abbacchio's Stand, Moody Blues -- it's a Stand that replays, without fail, the actions of someone, and the aniime team do a really, really good job at using weird mechanical static dial-up sounds, as well as general visual electrical static, to make Moody Blues really end up coming alive as opposed to "just another Stand". It's genuinely well-done, and the fast-forward animations are definitely well done as well. Also equally well-done (if horribly gruesome) is the animation of the deflated Passione members just flopping down onto the floor.

Of course, figuring out the ability of Zucchero's Soft Machine just tells them how Giorno, Narancia, Fugo and Mista got abducted, and a good chunk of the episode has Giorno trying to un-zip the boat and find out where Zucchero has stashed his teammates' deflated body, getting more and more confused as both Moody Blues and the fly created by Giorno's Gold Experience keeps moving around the ship.

Abbacchio ends up figuring out the trick at about the same moment that he was attacked by Soft Machine, using his blood trail to mark a little oddity with the boat, which is kind of a shame since he ends up falling into a JoJo bad habit of never really letting any of the B-list cast members shine. Still, it's a badass moment nonetheless, allowing Bucciarati to figure out that Zucchero's overlaid a deflated boat over the other, and is hiding the other members of his cell in-between the spaces of the two boats -- something foreshadowed in the previous episode if you pay attention to boat numbers. . It's... it's bizarre, and I'm not sure just how Bucciarati manages to flood one boat while keeping the other one unharmed, but.... eh, okay. It's a bit of an iffy scene, but I'll let it pass.

Bucciarati pretending to be desperate and Sticky Fingers-ing the deck of the boat when he's actually setting a trap is well-done. I'm not the biggest fan of actually making it look like Zucchero is talking through the fly, which... which just doesn't make sense? I'm 99% sure this wasn't from the manga.

Anyway, Lagoon 1 sinks, Zucchero is forced to restore the deflated Lagoon 2. We get a badass moment where Zucchero threatens to kill the weakened Abbacchio, but Bucciarati just replies with a nonchalant "I'm a gangster, do you think threats like that will work on me?" before transforming one of his fists into Sticky Fingers' fists, and then unzipping the entire first like a thread to punch Zucchero and full-on detach his head.

Okay, that's pretty fucking badass. Ultimately, even after giving it some time to think,  I really do think the mechanics of the 'space between two boats' plot twist of Soft Machine seems to genuinely weirdly handwaved about, but the genuinely badass moments for Abbacchio and Bucciarati still stand particularly well. Not the best fight in Vento Aureo, but the episode is definitely a damn great adaptation that really sells the tension and the "what the fuck is this enemy Stand and how does it work" feel very well.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Moody Blues takes its name from the English band of the same name, known for their hit singles Your Wildest Dreams, Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon. I admit I'm not the most familiar with their work, though. 
• Soft Machine is also taken from an English band of the same name, which itself is named after the William S. Burroughs novel of the same name. Some of Soft Machine's more well-known works include Moon in June, Slightly All The Time, Joy of a Toy and Love Makes Sweet Music.
• When he first meets Bucciarati, Abbacchio is holding the "Cronenberg Irish Whiskey" that Dio Brando was drinking all the way back in the second episode, which, of course, is a reference to horror moviemaker David Cronenberg.