Jojune: Golden Wind: Episodes 18 & 19-The Road to Venice and White Album

While this episode picks up from a critical moment in the 「Baby Face」 battle, the highlight for this daily review will be a confrontation with a certain hotheaded assasino with one cool Stand. This is another one of those sets of episodes I enjoy mostly for the battle, and as always, it doesn’t disappoint…mostly.

We’ll get to that later, but let’s keep things rolling.

Before revisiting the dramatic cliffhanger of the 「Baby Face」 battle, we actually start with two of the members of La Squadra, Ghiaccio and Risotto Nero. While driving, Ghiaccio informs Risotto that he’ll rendezvous with Melone. Meanwhile, Risotto is in an undisclosed location, finding more information about the paper burned at Napoli Centrale. Though by finding more information, I mean threatening and torturing a man into recreating the document.

We then return to the fight with Giorno and 「Baby Face」, which, no surprise, is that Giorno comes out victorious, but not because a piranha guts 「Baby Face」. Having absorbed another severed hand of 「Gold Experience」’s, Giorno reverts the hand to its original state: Melone’s bike. The motorcycle combusts as 「Baby Face」 tries to escape, killing it. This also saves Trish and Bucciarati. The gang leaves shortly after.

Ghiaccio arrives on the scene shortly, only to find several locals worried about their missing cars. Ghiaccio contacts Melone, who’s arrived at Roma Termine, to inform him about the situation. Still, Melone assures his colleague that he can use 「Baby Face」 again to hunt down Team Bucciarati. But before that can happen, a snake imbued with 「Baby Face」’s dead part bites Melone, killing him instantly. Ghiaccio catches this in real time over the phone, furious. However, Risotto immediately contacts him with the restored document.

We then cut to the inside of the turtle, where Bucciarati receives another message from the boss. According to the directive, Abbacchio is to activate 「Moody Blues」 and replay time in the turtle at least 14 hours. When he does this, a replay of Pericolo appears. Pericolo relays the following instructions for the mission: they’re to head to the Santa Lucia Station and retrieve a floppy disc with instructions on how to carry out the drop off of Trish. And after burning the picture of the station, Pericolo commits suicide. This all ties back to the cutscene at the end of Episode 13 at Napoli Centrale. As all this is happening, the boss anxiously awaits for Team Bucciarati to arrive in Venice.

Giorno and Mista are minutes away from Venice when the situation goes wrong. The two notice some intense condensation in the car, to the point where it’s so cold outside that Mista’s finger is ripped clean off. When Giorno rolls down the window, he finds a restored copy of the picture Pericolo burned and their next opponent, Ghiaccio. Using his Stand, 「White Album」 (called White Ice in the dub), Ghiaccio lowered the temperature outside the car to almost sub-zero, causing the intense cold in the car, nearly freezing Giorno and Mista to death. But using bullets imbued with 「Gold Experience」’s ability, the two lose Ghiaccio for a time. He manages to catch up, causing an intense fight in the car that takes the three off-road and into the sea.

While in the water, Ghiaccio continues his attack, taking advantage of the watery new setting. But Mista has his plans as he encourages Giorno to grow lichen using 「Gold Experience」 to create a makeshift board and surf to the other side. This strategy also proves a failure. Mista still isn’t done as he attempts to attack Ghiaccio where he would be the weakest; because 「White Album」 manifests as a suit that Ghiaccio wears, the suit has to have a hole for breathing. But targeting this breathing hole also proves another failure as Ghiaccio activates a unique ability called Gently Weeps, which creates a barrier of frozen vapor that deflects Mista’s bullet. Mista winds up shooting himself, putting himself behind and allowing Ghiaccio to find the floppy disc at Santa Lucia Station. In an act of determinazione, Giorno injures himself, allowing blood to spew everywhere. We then cut back to a backstory: Mista’s.

Picking up from where we last left with his origins, we see the results of his attack on the men raping the woman. Despite extenuating circumstances, Mista is convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years. However, Mista serves only a fraction of that, thanks to Bucciarati. Having heard the case and recognizing Mista’s skills with a gun, Bucciarati pulled some strings to commute Mista’s sentence. This kindness eventually leads Mista to join Passione and Bucciarati’s crew.

Returning to the fight, Mista discovers Giorno’s splattered blood left a trail that leads to the back of Ghiaccio’s neck. Mista uses Sex Pistols to attack the spot once again but fails. Instead, the bullet ricochets back to hit Mista. A grueling back and forth continues between the two mafiosi, where Mista is continually hit with bullets while Ghiaccio is pushed back against the jagged end of a pole. Giorno finally steps in after one last bullet hits Mista, putting the finishing blows on Ghiaccio in one of the most brutal deaths in Golden Wind, where Ghiaccio is impaled through the neck with the pole.

There’s more buttering Giorno up like a dinner roll, and Giorno heals Mista’s wounds. Narancia and the others arrive, with Narancia stumbling onto a hilarious moment that justifies “Freakin’ You” as the end credit song for the first half of Part 5.

In a cutscene after the credits of Episode 19, the boss receives a warning that Risotto Nero is at large and likely to come after him at a later time. But the boss vanishes to rendezvous with Team Bucciarati.

So, there’s a lot to talk about here. But considering this covers two episodes, that’s understandable.

Starting with what worked in this little arc, the battle with 「White Album」 is the best part. Like other fights with La Squadra, this one has intensity and urgency. Still, this one, in particular, is one of the deadliest. Giorno and especially Mista almost die in their battle with Ghiaccio. Ghiaccio is one of the strongest members of the group, and any other matchup would have ended in death. But much of that concerns Ghiaccio’s Stand, 「White Album」.

「White Album」 is a cool ability–no pun intended. It joins a small collection of elemental Stands like Magician’s Red in Stardust Crusaders and Red Hot Chili Pepper in Diamond is Unbreakable. It’s a shame we don’t have more abilities like this. You could argue that 「Gold Experience」 is kind of an elemental ability, but Stand abilities that straight up look like bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender I count as being more elemental. This frigid aspect aside, what’s also cool about this ability is how Ghiaccio uses it. Gently Weeps is an attack that proves the deadly efficiency Ghiaccio has with 「White Album」, using it as an offensive and a defensive attack. This ability could have been used as strictly freezing surroundings, but it’s not limited to that. We see this application with another member of La Squadra, but that’ll be for another day.

This was a battle against one of the most formidable enemies in the season, and it’s one of my favorites for a reason.

Regarding issues with either of these episodes, most are in Episode 18, with most of it being the pacing. There are a lot of moments that delay the progression of the episode leading up to the fight with Ghiaccio. There’s wrapping up the battle with 「Baby Face」, Ghiaccio’s formal introduction, some neat foreshadowing with Risotto, and a brief preview of the boss. While these scenes are necessary to a degree, they feel like distractions from the impending battle with 「White Album」.

And, of course, I can’t forget Mista’s backstory. While it gives more insight into Mista, it tells us things we already know about him and his connection to Bucciarati. Regardless, these are two excellent episodes!

Overall, this mini-arc is one of the most chilling in what’s become one of my longest daily reviews for Jojune. We get a fantastic fight in one of the roughest encounters in Golden Wind. There are a few speed bumps leading up to it, but it’s a must-watch.