JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Episode 14 Review: Express Train to Florence

With the introduction of tortoise Coco Jumbo, all of the allies are finally together! (Well, it’s not as of the tortoise has any choice in the matter). We got to see some truly bizarre Stands this episode, from a TARDIS-like tortoise to a magical fishing line.

Plot

Bucciarati and the gang get on an express train to Rome. Helping them escape the assassins is a mysterious little tortoise with the power to safely hide all the members in a room inside its body. Although its seems things are going well, some of the members of the team suddenly start rapidly aging in what seems to be a Stand attack. After figuring out that the rate of aging is based on one’s body temperature, Mista heads out to defeat the Stand user. Unfortunately, he gets caught in a trap.

Japanese title: フィレンツェ行き超特急

Thoughts

In just one episode we have been introduced to 3 truly bizarre Stands. First we have Mr. President, which uses a key as a gateway to a room contained within itself. The enemy Stands are also very interesting, and I especially like how Pesci is able to use Beach Boy to feel the presence of living beings in a room. Having 3 new Stands appear means that there was quite a lot going on, but not so much that it was hard to follow. I loved the fact that the comedy relief this episode was both hilarious and highly disturbing at the same time, with a rapidly aging Narancia going on about his dry, crumbly banana. I love dark humor so this scene was perhaps one of the high points of the episode to me. The secret to The Grateful Dead was set up in a nice was so that you could probably has worked it out yourself before Giorno helped us out.

Highlights:

– Putting aside the fact that Trish is only 15, Mista’s obsession with Trish’s boobies is a memorable scene. If you check out the manga, you’ll even see a bit of nip (but you didn’t hear it from me)
– I really can’t show enough love for Subaru Kimura’s performance as Pesci. Kimura is most often associated with cool and sexy roles, so it’s pretty fun to hear him screeching as the Ferb-lookalike Pesci.
– The scene with Narancia aging is one of the greatest comedic moments in the series in my humble opinion. From him slowly using more and more old man language to him sighing at the magazine cover of the cottage instead of the girl, then the scene slowly builds up to disturbing as he shrivels up into an old man as he keeps going on and on about the banana.

Trivia:

-The tortoise and its Stand is not named at any point in the manga, but the Stand guidebook included in JOJO A-GO-GO (a 2001 artbook and one of my most prized possessions), the tortoise is called Coco Jumbo and his Stand is Mr. President. The Stand is named after German eurodance group Mr. President and their most famous track, Coco Jambo. Search for it on YouTube and bask in the glory of all the JoJo references.
-According to the artbook I mentioned above, The Grateful Dead is Araki’s 2nd favorite Stand in terms of function. He says that the effect is a bit like in the fairy tale Urashima Taro, and is truly terrifying. Of course he has designed plenty of Stands since 2001, but it shows that the Stand we saw from this episode sticks in his mind!
-It’s mentioned that Trish is less affected by The Grateful Dead due to her body temperature not being affected as easily due to being female. Studies do actually show that women have higher core temperatures and feel colder in the extremities, due to factors such as the spread of body fat, hormones, etc. Basically, the body fat is keeping the heat in. I’m also sure many of you ladies are also aware of the fact that our body temperature changes during our cycle, rising after ovulation and dropping at menstruation. If Trish is in the first half of her cycle, then her body temperature is even lower. Or maybe it’s the fact she’s wearing HARDLY ANY CLOTHES.

There’s something wrong with your face!!

This episode was quite enjoyable, thanks to progressing at a steady rate. We have a change in scenery, new Stands and the setup for a battle. One of the subtle things I liked about this episode is that we are very slowly starting to see Trish take action. Although all she did was apply ice to Narancia, we are seeing her do more than just complain and look pretty.

We also had a new ending animation this episode. It is still nowhere close to the ending animations we’ve had in the previous series, but it was nice to see it get mixed up a little.

Ciao!