JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E05 Review: Piss On You

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo,  Episode 5: Find Polpo's Fortune

A bit of a simpler episode, honestly, and one that's more of a mission statement and a mass introduction of Bucciarati's little cell. After a bit of an exposition dump regarding how the structure of Passione is, Bucciarati then tells Giorno that their plan to rise among the ranks and replace the ever-enigmatic Boss is going to have to have its personnel be kept to a minimum, which leads to the introduction of Bucciarati's group...

And they're a quirky bunch. I'm also a bit surprised that none of them are named, because I distinctly remember them having their names revealed in their introductions in the manga... but I guess their amazingly distinctive designs will make them distinguishable and memorable pretty quickly. And they're quirky fuckers for sure. One of them, Leone Abbacchio (purple suit, long white hair) spends a good chunk of the scene just being quiet and listening to earphones. Guido Mista (dude with a blue shirt and white crisscrosses and a wacky hat) is very suspicious about the number four which he insists is extremely unlucky. Narancia Ghirga (younger looking boy with a tank top) is apparently an idiot in maths, and Pannacotta Fugo (green suit guy) is tutoring him... and they get into a fight where Fugo slams Narancia's face onto the table, insults him ass a "rot-brained miso" and they nearly stab each other.

Also, god, those Higashikata children from Part 8 really look very similar to the Passione gang, don't they? I've never really thought about it all that much until now.

I'm also really taken aback by Mista's aversion to four. Living in Asia, I know it's a thing that many Asian people have due to how the Chinese and Japanese pronunciation of the word 'four' and 'death' are very similar, but Mista is an Italian. So, um... okay?

As Giorno himself points out, these four members don't really respect Giorno and won't treat him as one of their own just because Bucciarati likes him, and in a pretty... strange scene, Abbacchio pisses in a teapot and serves it to Giorno, while also making it clear that not accepting it would be rude. It's one of the more memetic scenes from Vento Aureo -- though I've personally forgotten it until the moment I watched this episode -- and Giorno basically changes one of his teeth into a water-absorbing jellyfish. It's honestly kind of weird.

One thing that I do enjoy about the anime adaptation of Part 5 is how much more comfortable the animation studio is in adding extra scenes and reordering them, something they did a fair bit of in Part 4. We get a lot of scenes of random civilians being polite and recognizing Bucciarati as a sort of a local pillar of community (which was, IIRC, set in a completely different sequence of Bucciarati walking around town by himself), and we get the scenes of various random Passione gangsters reacting to Polpo's death before Bucciarati finds out about it. This includes the discussion between Sale and Zucchero, the latter who is the villain of this mini-arc, and we get to see Zucchero apparently teleporting out of the car he's in, which is actually kind of hilarious. 

The final part of the episode is basically the Bucciarati squad renting a yacht, and we get some wacky interactions between Mista and Narancia with the Sprite Sparito, as well as Mista insisting that they must NOT TAKE THE NUMBER FOUR YACHT. Mista's funny. Also, for those who actually know Zucchero's ability, I do like the subtle nods that they added to the scene of Bucciarati renting the yacht -- a scene that, again, wasn't present in the manga.

Bucciarati then tells the group his plan -- that he's going to take Polpo's gigantic stash of funds in Napoli, and it's something that only Bucciarati knows about since he's the one Polpo sent to hide the money. However, suddenly Narancia gets dragged out of sight and disappears, and we episode goes straight into a horror film trope as one by one Mista and Fugo disappear as well, leaving Bucciarati, Giorno and Abbacchio. It's clear that we're going to set up these side characters one by one, and this mini-arc is Abbacchio's spotlight. Abbacchio makes it clear to Giorno that he doesn't give a rat's ass about Giorno's assessment that Narancia is still alive (using some Gold Experience shenanigans), and he's not going to reveal his ability in front of someone he doesn't trust. It's kind of an asshole thing for Abbacchio to do, of course, especially considering that three of his friends are possibly dead or at least under the threat of dying, but it does lead into a pretty badass moment of Giorno leaping into the path of the enemy Stand in order to prove his loyalty to Bucciarati, causing Abbacchio to summon his Stand.

Again, while I've always noted how competent and faithful the adaptations of the first three Parts are, I'm always a big fan of how the Part 4 and 5 adaptations really do their best to add to the original source material, adding and rearranging scenes without eliminating anything. The introduction of Bucciarati's squad is... it's interesting since the four of them are sort of just "those four quirky guys", but the Passione gang is definitely and inequivocably my favourite supporting characters in all eight Parts of JoJo, so I'm definitely happy to see them.

The JoJo Playlist: Dictionary:

• Not so much of a playlist, but the names of most of the Passione gang members are actually names of food in Italian -- something I completely forgot about. Bucciarati is named after bruccelliati, a seasonal Italian fig cookies traditionally served during Christmas. Narancia is named after arancia, the Italian word for orange. Panna cotta is a popular Italian dessert. Mista is named after insalata mista, or mixed salad. Abbacchio is lamb meat in Italian. Zucchero is sugar in Italian. Also, Polpo means octopus in Italian. Do everyone in Passione take food-based codenames?