JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo S04E15 Review: Zipper Action

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, Season 4, Episode 15: The Grateful Dead, Pt. 1

I'm splitting the Grateful Dead two-parter as individual episodes because I genuinely do have a fair bit to talk about both parts. It's a pretty fun little fight, and honestly, this entire train sequence has been pretty great. We follow up immediately from the previous episode with Mista being 'reeled in' by Pesci's Beach Boy, and we do get a pretty tense bit where Mista doesn't seem to be able to do jack shit about the fishing line while he is simultaneously being dragged bodily through the train, while the hook continues to move up his bloodstream. Really do love the pretty creative usage of Beach Boy -- how the fishing line can move through walls, but Mista is just dragged bodily through the train, Looney Tunes style.

Mista then gets the great idea of basically just shooting the little Sex Pistol sprites off on their own. Not to hunt Pesci, but to hunt down any glass of ice and just shatter it, with the logic that Pesci would be cooling himself down to resist the effects of the Grateful Dead's ability. This ends up causing poor, poor Pesci to panic the shit out and dismiss Beach Boy instinctively.

We get a pretty badass sequence of Guido Mista advancing on Pesci, with an ice cube onto his face and a gun pointed at him, demanding that he tell him where his partner is. Throughout this entire sequence, one of the aged-up passengers is just being confused and interrupts both Pesci and Mista... and we later get the revelation that this old man is, in fact, Prosciutto, who has disguised himself as an old man by affecting himself with his own Stand's powers. It's... it's kinda cool when it happens, but I really didn't like how he apparently sees that it's necessary to bother a panicking Pesci earlier in the fight? I'm genuinely not sure what that is supposed to accomplish, and Prosciutto really doesn't seem like a character to dick or troll around.

Mista and Sex Pistols get old and fall to the ground after being touched by Prosciutto, who reverts back to normal, and fucking shoots Mista multiple times in the side of his head. It's... it's kind of obvious that they aren't killing Mista so early on, but at least the story didn't drag it on as much as they did Avdol's death in Stardust Crusaders.

I really do like Prosciutto and Pesci's dynamic throughout the episode, though. The way that Pesci keeps calling Prosciutto his big brother (well, 'aniki', which is more of a gangster thing, but still) and just acts flustered and panicked, while Prosciutto is angry at Pesci not in the way that a bad guy is angry at his incompetent minion, but more of in a mentoring way, is pretty interesting. Prosciutto is more disappointed than angry, telling Pesci that he would've still won had he not panicked and dismissed his ability when the glass of ice was shattered. We get a repeat of the Execution Squad's "we don't say we're 'going to kill' someone" motto just as he shoots Mista, which is honestly pretty cool. It's more of a supportive tough love bit, and even if Prosciutto and Pesci are trying to kill all of the characters we like, I do very much appreciate that they took the time to craft a fun little friendship between the two.

Prosciutto even tells Pesci that despite the harshness that he shows Pesci, it is still okay for Pesci to be confident in his own abilities, noting that he had said that Beach Boy detected two living things in the driver's cabin, and had gone back on it because of his own self-doubt. It's... it's a genuinely interesting direction to take the villains in, especially since Prosciutto and Pesci are glorified villains-of-the-week. Normally in JoJo we just get a pair of assholes working together. A more confident Pesci then looks under the seat and finds animal droppings, and Prosciutto figures out that they're hiding within the animal and breaks the cabin's furniture to find the turtle lurking in the shadows.

Of course, though, Mista isn't really dead. Apparently, Sex Pistol #5 had hidden inside Mista's hat and... blocked the bullet? And kept him relatively young with a piece of ice? Not sure how the blood splatter caused by the gunshot ended up happening, though -- that was a bit of an ass-pull for the sake of drama. But Sex Pistol #6 had gone on ahead to warn Bucciarati, who's hiding with the power of Sticky Fingers. And after nearly ten episodes of Bucciarati doing nothing but be the man in the background, it is so awesome to see him summon SUTIKKI FINGAZU once more, complete with the badass zipper sounds. Honestly, that might probably be my favourite sound effect from the entire season -- Bucciarati's Sticky Fingers.

We get some pretty awesome fighting between Prosciutto and Bucciarati as Sticky Fingers and Grateful Dead get a pretty badass ORA ORA exchange. The fact that Sticky Fingers just rips zippers open in Prosciutto's body is also pretty creepily awesome. Poor, poor Pesci freezes up at the order to crush the turtle, and ends up being kicked in the chin by Bucciarati, which is pretty freaking badass. A particularly badass sequence in this smooth and beautifully animated sequence is when Bucciarati unzips his own head to let Grateful Dead's punch pass harmlessly through thin air.

Of course, we get more of the wacky JoJo pseudo-science when Prosciutto notes that Bucciarati has been too intent on finishing things immediately, and by exerting himself and burning calories, he is increasing his body temperature, which, in turn, causes Grateful Dead's effect to manifest more -- and thus weakening Bucciarati and Sticky Fingers.

And then, in typical advantage switching in a JoJo fight, Bucciarati gives a badass speech about the responsibilities of a capo, that he has to make sure the mission succeeds by any means... and then fucking unzips the train, fully willing to take Prosciutto down to his death with him by falling down onto the speeding ground outside.

I'm not the biggest fan, ultimately, of the Mista death fake-out, but that is honestly not dragged out for that long. Really do adore this episode, from the badass Bucciarati/Prosciutto showdown to the brotherly interaction between Prosciutto and Pesci. Probably one of my favourite story segments of Vento Aureo, honestly.