JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind is the anime version of Part 5 of Hirohiko Araki's long-running manga. The manga part ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1995 to 1999. The studio David Production made the TV series, with Naokatsu Tsuda as director and music by Yugo Kanno. It ran for 39 episodes from October 2018 to July 2019. In a 2018 Japanese fan poll with about 17,000 votes, Golden Wind was voted the most popular part of the whole series.

Each JoJo part has a new hero and a new place. This one moves the story to Italy in the year 2001. It starts in Naples, a busy southern city, and later travels across the country. The show is full of bright colors, stylish clothes, famous landmarks and dramatic poses. The music and look feel very Italian and very cool.

The hero is Giorno Giovanna, a fifteen-year-old boy. His birth name was Haruno Shiobana. He has a surprising father: Dio Brando, the great villain from earlier parts of the series. But Giorno did not inherit his father's evil. Instead, he has the strong sense of justice that marks the Joestar family. The story opens when Koichi Hirose, a character from Part 4, comes to Italy to learn more about this boy.

Giorno has a big dream. Naples is suffering because a gang is selling drugs to children. Giorno wants to join that gang, rise to the very top, and then change it from the inside. He calls this his dream of becoming a "Gang-Star." To start, he meets Bruno Bucciarati, a member of the powerful gang Passione. Bruno is a fair and caring man who also hates the drug trade. He believes in Giorno and helps him join.

Like other JoJo parts, the fights use Stands. A Stand is a kind of spirit or power that takes the shape of a figure standing next to its user, and each one has a special ability. Giorno's Stand, Gold Experience, can bring life to objects. Bruno's Stand lets him put zippers on anything, even walls or people. Battles are more like puzzles than simple punches. The winner is usually the person who uses their power in the smartest way.

Bruno leads a small team of loyal men: Leone Abbacchio, a gloomy former police officer; Guido Mista, a gunman who hates the number four; Narancia Ghirga, a hot-headed teen; and Pannacotta Fugo, a very smart but short-tempered young man. Soon the group gets an unusual job from the gang's secret boss, whom no one has ever seen. They must protect a girl named Trish Una and bring her safely to Venice. Many other Stand users want to capture her, so the trip becomes a long chain of dangerous fights.

Golden Wind is loved for its team of heroes, its clever battles, and its themes of loyalty, fate and choosing your own path. Viewers can start here, but it is more fun if you know some of the earlier parts first.