「鎮魂歌[レクイエム]は静かに奏でられる その②」 (Requiem wa Shizuka ni Kanaderareru: Sono 2)
“The Requiem Quietly Plays, Part 2”

With Vento Aureo reaching its final battles, the stakes have reached their highest point as the fight against Diavolo has claimed its first victim. Although Narancia Ghirga’s untimely demise didn’t have the stinging bite of Abbachio’s and had merely been the first half of the gang’s fight to figure out how to reverse the effects of Silver Chariot Requiem, it was a sorrowful end to such a precious character.

The most heart-breaking development that came from Episode 35 was the death of Narancia, and David Productions did their most to flesh out this moment to its fullest. It was already devastating enough as Giorno is unable to feel Narancia’s presence, crying through both of their bodies as his soul slips back into his body. Fortunately, the gang treats Narancia with a more impactful send-off since they take the time to mourn for him, making it all the more painful when Bruno is able to be openly distraught and Mista starts sobbing in Trish’s body. The saddest moment for me is when Giorno promises that he’ll never let Narancia get hurt again by creating vines full of lush white flowers to adorn his body in memory of him until they retrieve him to properly lay him to rest back home. David Productions could have left it at this, but they went all out to create the highest impact they can from Narancia’s death by having Fugo recognize Aerosmith’s shadow soaring past him as it flies over Abbacchio’s final resting place and eventually transforms into a bird soaring to the heavens. It’s highly effective and one of the many examples within this adaptation where they have excelled at taking liberties with the source material to help amplify it.

At the same time, it does take off some of the impact to know that, because this all occurs in the middle of a fight, the sorrow behind Narancia’s end is taken away from us twice to focus on being able to find the solution towards where Diavolo could be and how to take the arrow from Silver Chariot Requiem. The production is still on-point and, admittedly, it would be strange to have padded out the events further or cut out moments to end the episode on Narancia’s death, but it does take the sting out of it when I end up cracking up at all the silly moments afterwards like the owner licking his dog while their souls are still switched, Mista in Trish’s body shooting a criminal point-blank in the cheek so that he can handcuff his face to a pole or Polnareff as Coco Jumbo grabbing onto the Stand arrow with his turtle mouth. Nonetheless, JoJo retains much of the impact and spirit that the original manga had and pays respect to Narancia as they give him a proper send-off.

8 Comments

    1. Polnareff is partially a stand user because he’s a part of Coco Jumbo now and is able to use his Stand Mr. President’s ability to reside in the room it created. It’s not exactly within his power to be able to summon a Stand by his own will though so Silver Chariot is now untethered and Polnareff’s power over Coco Jumbo doesn’t give him full reign over the existence of the room Mr. President creates within the turtle’s shell.

      Choya
  1. I knew this was coming but it still hit me hard. Damn this cast grew on me so much over the course of these 35+ episodes. Following this part was the highlight of every week for me and it’s sad that we’ll have to part with the gang soon.

    1. Also I’d like to thank Choya for covering Vento Aureo! This is the first JoJo part to be fully covered at RandomC and it was really cool to read your impressions and save the screenshots. It’s awesome seeing Araki’s work getting a large recognition after so many years.

    2. Thank you so much. It means alot to be able to follow a JoJo part to its fullest and see people enjoying the input I have and the screencaps. Vento Aureo has been consistently fun to follow even in its sadder moments because of how engaging Araki’s material is and how Part V executed its battles and cast of gangsters. It’s great to see how many people came around to enjoying the manga and anime likewise as David Productions starting adapting more of the parts.

      Choya

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