JoJo's Bizarre Adventure S04E07-08 Review: Do The JoJo Dance

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Episode 7-8: Sex Pistols Appears, Pts. 1-2

Well, this is the first episode of Vento Aureo that I'm doing the two-in-one episode format. I'm still doing the "one antagonist per review" format whenever possible, and this one works.

Anyway, episode 7 starts off with Narancia, Fugo and Abbacchio beating up Zucchero's body and basically torturing the poor bastard while his head is detached and his mouth zipped. And this leads to one of the most memetic scenes in Vento Aureo, which is the dance torture scene. Simply a couple of panels in the manga that's just bizarre as Narancia starts dancing, and later on Fugo and Mista joins in, in the anime it's expanded to a full minute-long dance number complete with a fun background music (that is a fun little copyright-friendly of a Prince song, I think?) and psychedelic imagery.

Honestly, I... I just love this dance scene. I can't really express into words just how wacky and surreal this ended up being, and I'm a huge, huge fan of how absurd it is.

Meanwhile, the adults -- Giorno, Bucciarati and Abbacchio -- are trying to figure out if Zucchero is working with a partner, and just how their situation is at the moment. Team Bucciarati has been taking a roundabout way to Capri, meaning that Zucchero's unseen partner would have been able to arrive there before them. And with no way of really guessing or understanding what Zucchero's partner's Stand is, it's very interesting just how afraid and cautious the Bucciarati team is, a nice, sharp contrast to the more gung-ho attitude that the Part 3 or 4 cast have.

I also do like the fact that while Abbacchio has had a better opinion of Giorno, fighting together against a common enemy doesn't make him suddenly BFF's forever, and Abbacchio still demands that Giorno look away when he's using Moody Blues. After a "I have a dream" speech from Giorno and a bit of a recap of the situation, Giorno and Mista end up going off to the island using Gold Experience, and take out Zucchero's partner.

Of course, the framing of this mini-arc is obvious -- each of the four Bucciarati members will have their turn to showcase their poewr in an arc focused on them and their personality, and this time around it's Mista's turn. Mista, so far, has sort of been memorable mostly for his very loud outfit and his superstition on the number four, and this episode showcases his quirkiness even more. While Giorno is spying on the docks, Mista... spends a significant amount of time eating lunch, pulling a fancy table and lunch course seemingly out of nowhere. Mista then shows of his Stand, Sex Pistols. Which, in addition to being a band reference, is a reference to there being six little golden gremlins, and they all work for food. (Mista stresses that there's no number four among his Sex Pistols, with the 'fourth' member having number 7 instead).

There's a fun little tense moment as Giorno and Mista pretend to 'call' Zucchero's partner, Sale, with neither of them knowing which one of the many people in the docks Sale is. It's not a moment that lends much for me to describe, but it's a genuinely tense moment as Giorno realizes that Sale is already in the communications building all along, while Mista isn't aware. We then get to see Mista show off the powers of Sex Pistols, where the revolver's bullets are ridden by the Sex Pistols, who scream pass-pass-pass as they kick the bullet and alter its trajectory.

And the episode 7 ends with a bullet from Sex Pistols catching Sale in the leg. A theme that some people observe is kind of ongoing in Vento Aureo is how a fair amount of the Stands are similar to older ones (Sex Pistols being equivalent to Hol Horse's Emperor, for one) but done in a far more wacky and creative way.

Episode 8 does the same thing that episode 6 does, and moves a character-defining flashback from way later in the manga into being shown earlier, to really inform us about Guido Mista's backstory. While it's not quite as necessary as Abbacchio's story was to the enjoyment of the Soft Machine arc, this one does help inform a fair bit about Mista's superstition and goals. Mista is just a simple-minded man who just wants to live freely, although he's definitely had some experiences where he realizes might be just up to fate. During a fight with a rapist and his gang, Mista somehow manages to dodge every single bullet fired at him. Yes, Mista and the narrator details how it's just sheer chance, nerves and the darkness of the alley affecting it, but that experience is enough to make Mista be pretty superstitious about things in his life.

And then the rest of episode 8 is just a tense game of cat-and-mouse as Mista faces off against Sale and his Stand, Kraft Werk, on top of a moving truck. Both Mista and Sale's powers are shown off pretty well -- Sale's Kraft Werk "sticks" things in place, like sticking some of Mista's bullets in air (including one stuck onto his forehead at the time of impact), or to stick Mista's hand onto the truck to prevent him from jumping off or reloading normally. Of course, the Sex Pistols are able to reload the bullets on their own, allowing Mista to get a shot in.

We get a hilarious bit where Mista refuses to put four bullets into the chamber because it's bad luck. Silly Mista, carry more bullets!

And later on, we get to see the sheer bizarreness of Kraftwerk, with Sale sticking rocks in place in the air, forming his own 'ladder' to scale up a mountain, and later pulls off a Breath of the Wild-style Stasis ability -- hitting one of the suspended bullets multiple times to build up kinetic energy before 'releasing' it towards Mista. It's a pretty fun display of the creativity of the Stand's power, and I am definitely a huge fan of this part of the fight.

It leads into a bit of a mind-games style Mexican Standoff between Mista and Sale, where Mista tells Sale that because of his superstition, he now only has one bullet left in the chamber, and that whatever the case, "you will let your guard down". Mista shoots Sale and aims for the mouth, but Sale pre-empts this and opens his mouth to basically 'catch' the bullet. Of course, this is all a feint to really make Sale drop his guard, because all six Sex Pistols have ridden the mouth-bullet and jumped onto one of the bullets suspended mid-air, and kicks it into the bullet that was stuck to Sale's forehead.

We get a pretty gruesome scene of the two bullets pushing their way into Sale's brain, which is... kinda gross, actually. All in all, though, it's definitely a pretty fun romp for Mista. A good chunk of this two-parter is basically the fight and the buildup, and it certainly delivers on all fronts!

The JoJo Playlist:

• Mista's Stand, Sex Pistols, is, of course, based on the English punk rock band of the same name that apparently kickstarted the punk movement in the UK. Their most iconic single is, of course, God Save The Queen, and other selected discography include Anarchy in the UK, Pretty Vacant, Holidays in the Sun and No Fun
• Sale's Stand, Kraft Work, is named after Kraftwerk, a German electronic band. Not super-duper familiar with Kraftwerk's werk, but some of their more notable singles include Autobahn, Das Model and Radioactivity. 
• The song that plays during the Zucchero dance torture, while technically an original piece, does bear a fair bit of resemblance to the Prince song Pussy Control. Araki has noted that a good chunk of Part 5's style is based on Prince's unique style, so... yeah. 
• Like all members of Passione, Sale's name is based on the name of a food in Italian. In Sale's case, his name means salt.