JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind – 03

「塀の中のギャングに会え」 (Hei no Naka no Gang ni Ae)
“Meet the Gangster Behind the Wall”

Proving himself to Bruno was only the beginning for Giorno in pursuing his dream to be a Gang-Star. In fact, in order to be a Gang-Star, this episode highlights the trial he must face in order to even begin his work as a member of Passione. The test that is overlooked by the leader of Bruno’s division, Polpo, shows off a ton of the creativity that comes from Golden Wind’s character designs and fights.

Part 5 and 6 are known to have extremely absurd character designs on par with the weirdness that came from older characters like Esidisi (AC/DC) and Alessi, but Polpo marks the beginning of some of the really outlandish figures to appear in JoJo. With darkened eyes, spiked hair, and an absurdly rotund figure, Naples can rest easier with Polpo finding comfort in chilling in a cozy prison cell away from the general public instead of walking down a dark alley only to find this guy. The anime did an effective job at making Polpo even creepier and more ominous than his manga form did with how large the man is, and his voice is especially intimidating when paired with his hulking figure.

But the creativity doesn’t end with Polpo’s looks as his test adds a new layer to the challenges that come from Giorno’s struggles. Giorno is tasked with making sure that he can keep a lighter burning for a full 24 hours to build trust, risking certain death at the hands of Polpo’s stand if he does anything to burn it out or reignite a missing flame. For Giorno, every obstacle that could ever appear in a worst-case scenario comes to life with tasks as easy as leaving the prison to return home ending up like a twisted game of Paper Boy, avoiding wind, water, human intervention, and friends asking for favors just to get back to his apartment with his lighter unscathed. It also gives us hilariously creative moments from Giorno like chewing a piece of bread to safely cradle the lighter in-place or turning a light cord into a snake so he can grab the bread and give it a taste at the same time. However, intervention is constantly a risk with Guanglai Kangyi (u dnt need to remember) Hirose Koichi breaking into his apartment to get his passport back despite Giorno vowing to himself that he’d eventually return it to him.

The whole test goes awry when a working man meme’d as one of the Mario brothers inadvertently puts out the light with a water bucket, causing him to want to make amends as soon as he can by reigniting it. Sadly, that ended up being the catalyst for Polpo’s stand to show up and kill him. Giorno hoped he could skirt past the test safely again, but the man’s death ended up transforming the goal of the test from keeping the lighter lit to facing off against Polpo’s stand. It will be neat to see how the remainder of Giorno’s challenge will be adapted now that his failure in the test has forced his hand to avoid being killed by Polpo’s stand.