JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E09 Review: Connie Corleone

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Episode 9: First Orders From The Boss

An... an interesting episode, really. The first half of the episode is the introduction of a major plot point for the rest of Vento Aureo, which is the fact that the Boss has trusted Bucciarati's cell with the protection of his bastard daughter, Trish Una. We get the revelation that Bucciarati has been hiding Polpo's money with Sticky Fingers inside an urinal in a random bathroom. It is interesting that Polpo would trust Bucciarati with putting all his money in what's essentially something that only Bucciarati can access, but eh.

Meanwhile, Bucciarati's cell is observed by two janitors -- one of them being a Capo called Pericolo (explicitly not a Stand user) who is basically one of the closest men to the still-unnamed Boss. Pericolo promotes Bucciarati into the rank of Capo himself, and then tells them that they have one mission to do, something that Polpo was supposed to handle before his untimely death. The protection of the Boss's daughter. Apparently Trish Una never really knew her father, and her mother Donatella passed away recently. However, the fact that Donatella had named "Solido Naso" as her lover and Trish's father is basically a confirmation of Trish's parentage, because that's one of the Boss's alias. Not his real name, mind you.

And Trish has to be protected, because she's being hunted by some Passione renegades, for "about a week" until Passione can deal with the traitors. Trish is immediately introduced as... not the most likable character. Despite seemingly a pretty cool, competent character that can jam a knife into Narancia's face, Trish is also an extremely spoiled girl, demanding that Fugo take off her jacket... just to wipe her hands there. She also delivers the pretty memetic line of how she would rather die of thirst than drink "mineral water that is not from France".

As we have a brief timeskip, we get a pretty cool montage of some future antagonists communicating via text message or whatever, with names like Ghiaccio, Illuso and Prosciutto name-dropped, and I've always found this to be cool! One of the bigger problems I had with Stardust Crusaders is how utterly bland and seemingly disorganized the villains-of-the-week are. In Vento Aureo, even if they do engage Bucciarati one or two at a time, I always love the little details that tell us that these future villains are actually doing things in the background and not just twiddling their thumbs until their number is called.

We then get to see one of the villains, Formaggio, whose first scene is to plop a cat inside a glass bottle, which... huh, it's not dog brutality for a change.

We get a pretty fun scene of Narancia and Fugo fighting and arguing over the right way to buy supplies and get to their hideout, with Fugo being a complete control freak, and Narancia being kind of a dumbass. So after Abbacchio and Mista, we're getting the Narancia arc. It's a bit unfortunate that due to how Vento Aureo is mapped out we are kind of light on Giorno focus until like the midway part of the season, but it does result in what is hands-down the most engaging and fleshed out secondary cast.

Narancia is approached by villain-of-the-week Formaggio, who asks him where his boss Bucciarati has been, since he's been MIA ever since Polpo died. Narancia tries his best to improvise and claim that he's just driving around Bucciarati's rental car just for shits and giggles, but he clearly can't lie or improvise worth a damn, causing Formaggio to attack Narancia with his Stand, Little Feet, which slashes Narancia's cheek.

Narancia's Stand is finally revealed, and it's Aerosmith. Or, as he calls it, EAROSMISUUU. And I absolutely love Aerosmith. It's just a goddamn toy plane that shoots out bullets! And Narancia's usage of Aerosmith is gloriously direct, just riddling the car with bullets and dropping a bomb while he jumps out of the car. Formaggio disappears, though, and while Narancia is baffled, it turns out that Formaggio's ability is shrinking (and the ability to talk without Narancia hearing, it seems). While Narancia is baffled, Formaggio gives this long speech about how the other members of Passione often mock his Stand Little Feet, but the determinant of how useful a Stand's powers are is one's brain... which is definitely something that Part 5 and 6 is going to explore a fair bit of, eschewing just overpowering everything with ORA-ORA barrages. Not that those aren't entertaining, but it does make the fights in these later parts far, far more entertaining.

Formaggio quickly determines that the things that Narancia buys -- high class stockings and women-wear -- are indications that the Boss's daughter is probably with Bucciarati's cell, and the only way that a woman wouldn't buy those herself is if they can't leave home for some reason. And thus the episode ends with Formaggio activating the shrinking ability on Narancia after that cut.

Overall, it's a pretty fun episode. Not the most eventful, but the buildup to Formaggio as a villain, as well the introduction of Trish as a spoiled rich bitch, are both pretty fun. I also do like the little world-building bits surrounding Passione, too. Not the most exciting episode, but a fun one nonetheless.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Aerosmith, Narancia's stand, is, of course, based on the American rock band of the same name, and one that I'm actually a big fan of! One of their most well-known songs is I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, and other particular highlights include Crazy, Cryin', What Could Have Been Love, Janie's Got A Gun, Dream On and Angel. One that fits Narancia Ghirga particularly well? Dude (Looks Like A Lady). 
• Interestingly, in practically every other depiction of Aerosmith (coloured versions of the manga, video games, tankobon covers) it has been consistently coloured blue and purple, instead of the anime's pink.
• Formaggio's Stand, Little Feet, is a corruption of the American rock band Little Feat, another band I'm reasonably familiar with. Among their work include Spanish Moon, All That You Dream, Skin It Back and Long Distance Love.
• Trish Una is apparently named after Trish Goff, an American model. Her family name, "Una", means "one" in Italian.
• Continuing the trend of most of Passione's members being named after Italian words for food, we have: Formaggio, Italian for cheese. Ghiaccio, Italian for ice. Prosciutto, an Italian ham dish. The only ones to not follow this naming scheme are Pericolo (Italian for 'danger'), Solido Naso ("solid nose" in Italian), and Illuso (Italian for 'illusion').