JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Episode 9 Review: The First Mission from the Boss

You may have noticed a girl in the opening and ending of the series and we finally get to meet her in Episode 9. She had quite the introduction, right? Although we are already aware of Bucciarati and Giorno’s goals, it’s the introduction to Trish that marks the introduction to the plot of Golden Wind.

Thoughts of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind Episode 9: The First Mission From The Boss

Japanese title: ボスからの第一指令

The guys have regrouped on Capri and retrieved Polpo’s fortune, leading to the promotion of Bucciarati to Capo. Their first mission is on the orders of the mysterious boss himself. The Team are ordered to guard the 15-year-old Trish Uno, the boss’ daughter. With this mission, Giorno finally seems to have found a direct connection to the boss he wants to overtake, although Trish herself knows nothing about her father. The girl’s personality seems quite self-centered, with her immediately giving a list of demands to the team such as buying mineral water and makeup. On his way to the pick up the requested items, Narancia is tailed by an enemy, and this gives us a very dramatic first look at his Stand, Aerosmith!

Highlights

Fugo loses it: I love the little scream Fugo gives as he throws his jacket on the floor. It seems to be an original addition to the anime.

Furious Narancia: By far my favorite scene this episode is when Narancia is going absolutely berserk. As well as bringing out his Stand without a second thought, he really goes for it, going so far as to kick the car in his rage while shouting some pretty foul language. Although he seems pretty harmless most of the time, Narancia loses his temper pretty easily, and I certainly wouldn’t want to stand in the way of him and Aerosmith.

Slick animation: Another reason I loved the scene with Aerosmith’s reveal is the showing off of the computer animation. Although CG in anime gets a lot of hate as it can seem very out-of-place, Aerosmith is probably one of the best cases of the CG integrating into the 2D animation that I’ve ever seen. Not only has a lot of care been taken to color Aerosmith and its weaponry exactly as it would have been had it been animated in 2D, but the use of ink-like shading that matches the rest of the animation helps it to blend in. I doubt it would have been possible to get Aerosmith looking this good with hand-drawn animation, certainly not for the amount of time it appears on-screen.

Trivia

This is Italia: I like the use of actual Italian in the emails. I can’t read Italian so I can’t vouch for the accuracy!

Aerosmith: Narancia’s Stand is named after the American band of the same name. In the English localization, the Stand has been renamed as Lil’ Bomber which I think is quite cute. Just like Narancia.

Givenchy: Although you are probably already aware, Givenchy is a French fashion brand. What makes it interesting though is that the anime actually got permission from the brand to use their blush in the show. You can see their name in the sponsors at the end of this episode’s credits. I’m sure Trish would be pleased.

Trish’s design: When Trish was first introduced at this point in the manga, she had a slightly different design. The anime uses her final design right from the start, with the distinctive skirt with mathematical symbols all over it.

‘I’d rather die than drink one not from France’

Although we are only part-way through the introductions to the members of Team Bucciarati and their Stands, the introduction of Trish brings us to the start of an important turning point in the story. The gang now unexpectedly have a connection to the boss’ flesh and blood, so this may be the start of the journey to the top. The episode combined plot development with exciting action, so I was kinda sad when we got to the end! The episode didn’t need to make any changes in the composition compared to this point in the manga, but that’s simply a case of don’t fix it if it isn’t broken.