JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo S04E27 Review: Saint Anger

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind, Season 4, Episode 27: King Crimson v.s. Metallica

This feature almost wholly features the fight between Doppio and Risotto Nero, and it's... it's definitely one of the highlights of Part V as a whole, for the simple reason that it's one of the few times we've seen infighting between two different antagonistic forces, while also showcasing and building up Doppio as a distinct entity from King Crimson.

I will admit that it's sort of bullshit that Doppio is able to use a completely different set of powers compared to the Boss, with the fragment of powers that he is able to use being the ability to look at "what happens 10 seconds in the future". You could, I guess, twist it to mean that it's just an extrapolation of how King Crimson can ignore segments of time and move around freely in it, but I've always felt like it's yet one more power that's thrown into the Boss's power set that is just there to make things extra complex or whatever.

Doppio, meanwhile, not aware that the Boss is sharing the same body with him, is more than determined to stand and fight and defeat Risotto despite the Boss's orders, which is a neat twist on the two-bodies-sharing-a-body thing. The Boss himself is noted to take 10 seconds to manifest full, and I do really like just how panicked the Boss persona is at the idea that Doppio might very well get the two of them killed. The first part of the fight is pretty simple, though, with Doppio deciding to allow himself to get stabbed by Risotto's Stand to try and figure out where he's attacking from and the specifics of his Stand, while trying his best to get a strike in with King Crimson's arm.

The fact that he's prepared for the scissors manifesting in his own throat means he's able to rip it out before it does too much damage, causing Risotto himself to start realizing the extent of Doppio's powers. Doppio then basically realizes that he's been going about the fight the wrong way, puts down the frog that he's been "communicating" with the Boss with, and realizes that Risotto's Stand is the ability to use the iron within living creatures and turn them into blades.

Doppio then lobs the scissors towards where Risotto is hiding in his bizarre usage of metal manipulation to make himself invisible, slicing off Risotto's foot... which then gets stapled back on by Metallica, which manifests as creepy little metal babies. Risotto quickly figures out what's going on, particularly with Doppio gaining confidence, and puts two and two together. We get a brief flashback to how his old Assassination Squad was looking for information to bring down the Boss, and he has to keep telling them to not take things personally, lest they lose focus.

It's then a bit of a battle of attrition, as knives form and launch themselves at Doppio, King Crimson's arm manifests to protect Doppio, and then Doppio collapses because his blood has ran out of iron and he can't bring oxygen to his organs anymore. In true anime logic form, though, this still means that despite him likely going into hypovolemic shock, Doppio is still able to monologue, noting to himself that Team Bucciarati (with Abacchio!) has arrived near the mansion.

Doppio then sees a vision of his own head exploding, and the Boss keeps yelling that Doppio should just stay put, because he's incoming and he's going to use King Crimson to erase time... and Doppio ends up trying to prevent this by trying to figure out where the huge magnetic field is coming from, and attacks there... but apparently Risotto can manipulate which parts of his body gives out magnetic energy, and has left behind his severed leg as bait. But as Risotto gets the advantage and gloats in triumph, apparently Doppio's impaired breathing and Risotto's excitement has drawn the attention of Aerosmith, causing it to riddle Risotto Nero with bullets and killing him. Apparently, instead of aiming for the foot, Doppio had thrown the knife in the direction of Bucciarati, in order to attract their attention.

And... and it's definitely a close victory, as it's very, very close defeat -- Risotto basically only needed to not gloat and attack to kill off Doppio, but as the (I think anime-original?) flashback to how Risotto was admonishing his squad to not let emotions get the better of them, it's when Risotto starts gloating and enjoying his triumph that he actually fails, making it actually pretty dang ironic that Risotto dies for failing to follow his own advice.

And, of course, apparently the "head exploding" vision ends up just being the invisibility blood-cloak splattering on Doppio's face, which is honestly kinda sorta a cop-out... "Future sight" is something that honestly works in smaller, more light-hearted doses (Oingo/Boingo, anyone?) and it's nowhere as fulfilling as a narrative structure when it's in a more serious fight light this.

Still, this is a pretty interesting battle episode, the animation is spectacular, and both Risotto and Doppio have a lot of great moments. It is genuinely interesting to see how much of a determinator Doppio is, and how he's not just a pussy alter-ego of the Boss or anything. The visuals with Metallica's abilities are also great, both the invisibility and the random metallic objects sprouting, so even if chunks of the fight doesn't make the most sense (even by JJBA standards), it's still a very pretty fight to watch.

The JoJo Playlist:

• Risotto's Stand is called Metallica after the American heavy metal band, a personal favourite of mine. Standout singles include Enter Sandman, Nothing Else Matters, The Unforgiven, St. Anger and Master of Puppets.
• Doppio's segment of the Stand is called Epitaph, named after the King Crimson song Epitaph.