With the end of Diamond Is Unbreakable and the full establishment of the template for our plot structures moving forward, we can finally consider ourselves to be in “modern JoJo.” Today’s topic exists in a weird place overall in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Diamond Is Unbreakable introduced a format and showed that it can work, so it rests on the shoulders of the sequel to prove that there are enough variables within that format to present a new, different story. Today we move from 1999 Japan to 2001 Italy for the fifth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, titled Golden Wind.
Golden Wind, also known as Vento Aureo, begins with a side character from Diamond Is Unbreakable by the name of Koichi Hirose arriving in Italy to track down a child rumored to be Dio’s illegitimate son. Koichi finds this child, a boy named Giorno Giovanna, and comes to see his target’s good side after a run-in with an enemy Stand user. Koichi agrees to stop pursuing Giorno, allowing the latter to focus on his primary task: Infiltrating the largest gang in Italy and overthrowing it to convert it from drug suppliers to protectors of the innocent. After meeting a gang member named Bruno Bucciarati, Giorno starts on his journey to find the gang’s boss and take control of the gang by force.
Golden Wind removes the training wheels from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as a series and attempts to stand on its own with minimal association with previous parts. Returning characters are kept to a minimum and Giorno’s ties to the Joestar family are explained but never focused on too hard so the story can carry its own weight. On the surface, Golden Wind feels more like a story set in the world of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure as opposed to the continuation of the main storyline, but the events of part five help to add to the ever-growing lore of the world while also bridging the gap between parts four and six both in terms of in-world time and with specific events.
Giorno joins Josuke as being a JoJo with an unconventional nickname scheme; In Giorno’s case, his name fits the criteria but his nickname would be abbreviated as GioGio. Giorno possesses a lot of traits of stereotypical mafia members including being very serious, not letting much deter him from his mission, and putting a lot of value in the idea of respect. While JoJos up to this point have viewed their opposition as enemies who deserve no quarter, Giorno does not deal in absolutes and has no issues with showing respect to foes so long as he thinks they have earned it. Giorno also sees no problem with putting himself directly in harm’s way if it means achieving victory.
Bruno Bucciarati, often referred to by his surname, is a very interesting side character worth noting. Despite being a gang member, Bucciarati is very virtuous person who values positive moral conduct and has no issues practicing those same values himself. The main cast consists of a gang of misfits that gathered around Bucciarati out of a mix of loyalty to him due to how he treats them and respect for him consistently being a man of his word. Bucciarati also has a bit of a mean streak and has the capability for brutal murder should he deem it necessary.
The dynamic between Giorno and Bucciarati reflects that of Josuke and Jotaro, but a little more straightforward. Whereas Josuke was put in a subordination role under Jotaro due to the natural hierarchy based on age and experience, Giorno is a direct subordinate under Bucciarati due to the latter’s role as the team leader. This dynamic is played as situational character growth between Josuke and Jotaro that depended on the two of them being paired together for a brief time, but Golden Wind explores this much more by making its two characters nearly inseparable during their journey.
Golden Wind’s adventure is structured as a mix of nine parts Stardust Crusaders to one part Diamond Is Unbreakable. Golden Wind shares a lot of similar beats with Stardust Crusaders such as being on a journey to defeat somebody, having a cast consisting of a handful of misfits who get along, and finding comfort in taking a moment to breathe and embrace the journey as a road trip of sorts. At the same time, the enemy is not fully established until deep into the story so the rising action leads up to the revelation as opposed to the confrontation.
With Diamond Is Unbreakable, there was an intimate feeling in the story due to the setting being a town that the characters called home. Golden Wind also fosters a sense of intimacy despite the characters constantly traveling and does this by asserting the cast as more of a makeshift family than a gang. Bucciarati’s group is composed of outcasts and misfits who rallied around him and treat him with the respect of a father figure rather than that of a senior officer. The gang’s character development often revolves around them bickering like siblings, and each member could even be given the label of a sibling stereotype that fits them.
The story of Golden Wind is ultimately not one of Giorno or Bucciarati or any one individual, but the story of this small gang within a gang. As such, the development of the group is tied to the development of each member of the group. Golden Wind asserts itself as an ensemble piece and stays true to that throughout by having its cast play off of each other to forward themselves. Stardust Crusaders did this to a degree as well and ultimately ended up with several very strong character bonds by the end, but Golden Wind aims to up the ante by making the relationship between Bucciarati’s whole team a priority.
Golden Wind is an outlier for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure in many ways, but it still manages to find its place as a very strong entry that highlights some of the best character work in the series. Every character has so much effort put into making you care about them that it’s very easy to manipulate your emotions when they’re put in perilous situations. Golden Wind does not have an official western release yet and may end up released by Viz at some point, but for the time being you know how we feel about most fan translators.
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