Well, these episodes were weird. Yeah, we go from one of the most intense moments in Golden Wind to one of the oddest. Sure, this is Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure; things get weird. This is a case where being bizarre hurts the episode.
You could call this interesting cause I’m not sure how to feel about it. Regardless, let’s get started.
After a brief recap from the previous episode, we see a strange figure walking through the Colosseum. Diavolo tries to stop it, but he and everyone else in the area passes out. Once everyone comes to, the gang makes a startling discovery: they’ve all switched bodies; Narancia’s soul is in Giorno’s body, Giorno’s soul is in Narancia’s body, Trish’s soul is in Mista’s body, and Mista’s soul is in Trish’s body. As for Bucciarati, it’s unclear who is in him. Strangely, Polnareff resides in Coco Jumbo’s body. He then relays an encounter he had with the arrow much earlier. After dropping the arrow behind a dresser, Polnareff, unable to reach it, uses 「Silver Chariot」 to grab it. However, when this happens, 「Silver Chariot」 temporarily takes on a new form, 「Silver Chariot Requiem」. Everyone in the vicinity passes out until Polnareff gets the arrow away from his Stand.
As this continues, the team sees 「Silver Chariot Requiem」 leave the Colosseum. But as it tries to leave, Diavolo appears, summoning 「Sticky Fingers」. This confirms that Bucciarati’s soul is in the boss’s body. However, when he and Mista attack 「Silver Chariot Requiem」, their Stands attack them back. Even trying to destroy the arrow causes their Stands to retaliate. Then, more troubling news comes to the group: the person in Bucciarati’s body is waking up. Mista shoots him with Giorno’s promise that he can be healed later. Things seem to calm down until Trish and Mista notice a time blip. Everyone panics, wondering how this is possible after shooting Bucciarati, who is believed to be Diavolo. It’s also during this blip that Narancia is killed. Giorno’s soul returns to his body, but he and the gang mourn his loss.
During this moment, though, Polnareff realizes that Divavolo has a second personality. Initially, he believed that the boss was two different people, trusting a young man (Doppio) as his one and only ally. With his theory, everyone concludes that Diavolo has occupied another body. The gang leaves the Coliseum amid the chaos on the streets of Rome to go after 「Silver Chariot Requiem」.
Bucciarati manages to get the arrow away from it. However, retrieving the arrow still proves difficult because any contact with the arrow reflects on a Stand user. Then Polnareff makes a bold move. Knowing his body no longer possesses a Stand, Polnareff goes for the arrow. 「Silver Chariot Requiem」 sees this and charges after Polnareff in a cliffhanger ending.
Like I said in the beginning, these episodes are weird, but not in a good way. It’s not so much that body swapping in a story is bad or slows things down; the problem here is that this is played up for comedic purposes in the beginning and seems to keep that wacky tone throughout. Because that oddness is there, emotional or impactful moments feel lessened.
Diavolo just revealed himself in the last episode. Now he’s someone else entirely. It’s like the show took one step forward and another two back. Narancia’s death also doesn’t feel as emotional as Abbacchio’s, as It’s not the main focus here, but the body-swapping still is. There’s even a moment where Giorno breaks down over Narancia’s death. Still, because it’s coming out of Narancia’s mouth, it doesn’t feel like it’s genuinely Giorno.
Body-swapping scenarios like this one are challenging to make serious, and these episodes miss that mark. Once again, we get a pointless callback to Narancia’s backstory, where he declares he’ll go back to school once this is over. Once again, like many times before, it makes us feel for the character but contributes nothing to the story.
If anything good comes out of these episodes, it is the more comedic moments with the body swapping. It’s weird, dirty fun that makes it uniquely Jojo. Other than that, I’ve got nothing else.
This’ll make it the third time I’ve said it; these episodes are weird. They try to make a comedic scenario serious, but it doesn’t have that bite. There are some funny moments at the beginning of Episode 34, but when it’s gone, it’s gone.
And if you think the soul-swapping idea improves in the next episode, think again!
I’ll leave it at that until tomorrow. Till next time, enjoy the rest of your duwang!
-Hanime on Anime
Hanime on Anime 