by Allyson McClainDisclaimer: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure continues strong in episode two, throwing Bucciarati’s stand “Sticky Fingers” into the battlefield against Giorno’s “Golden Experience.” “Sticky Fingers,” as we saw in the first episode, has the power to create zippers on anything, and the second episode showcases just how Bucciarati uses his powers in a more serious fight. “Golden Experience,” on the other hand, is seemingly at a slight disadvantage before the fight even begins, because Giorno hasn’t used his power against anyone directly before. Usually that would make people assume that Giorno would have a tough time or maybe even be beaten by Bucciarati, but if there is anything Jojo does best, it’s showcasing how bizarrely amazing Joestars can be. Giorno doesn’t let his lack of experience faze him, which definitely feeds into the hype.
Image from Crunchyroll
The title ‘Bucciarati Is Coming’ says it all as we get the fight between Bucciarati and Giorno that we’ve been waiting for, along with some backstory on Giorno Giovanna’s life. What made the small boy Haruno Shiobana want to become a Gang-star named Giorno Giovanna? This episode starts dissolving some of the mystery behind the heritage of Giorno and how he is connected to the Joestar lineage. Episode one of ‘Vento Aureo’ foreshadowed the lineage with the photo of Dio that Giorno had in his wallet and the conversation on the phone between Jotaro Kujo and Koichi Hirose. The backstory was covered more thoroughly in this episode and didn’t feel too out of place. The placement of the story before the fight was smart, since putting backstory in the middle of fights tends to be overdone and usually hurts the quality and/or the hype of a fight when the backstory runs too long.
This episode in particular seems to balance out the fighting and backstory really well, which definitely keeps the viewer’s attention on what’s important. Between the unique sound effects and the amazing construction of the fight sequence, the viewer’s attention definitely is pulled to the fight, which shows off both ‘Golden Experience’ and ‘Sticky fingers’ abilities throughout the fight. Something else notable in this episode are the attributes of Giorno Giovanna that are reminiscent of previous Joestars. Giorno starts to show off his Joestar affiliation almost immediately from the beginning, which then develops in the fight. Attributes like his elegant nature that reminds one of the original Jonathan Joestar, his deduction skills similar to Joseph Joestar, his ability to think rationally under immense pressure like Jotaro Kujo, and his kind heart similar to Josuke Higashikata. Each Jojo so far has been fairly different than the one before them, but Giorno seems to embody many of their core characteristics.
Image from Crunchyroll
While episode two has a lot things going for it, it also has a few things that weren’t quite up to par compared to episode one. The pacing felt faster than episode one, which was fine since they filled it with backstory, but the ending of the episode leaves one a bit disappointed as their fight ends too soon to be settled. Not to mention Giorno does a Sherlock Holmes-esque evaluation and deduces so many things at once about Bucciarati that it’s hardly believable—even for Jojo. Nevertheless ‘Bucciarati Is Coming’ comes to a still likeable close.
Lastly, we must talk about the opening that played: “Fighting Gold” by Coda, who also performed “Bloody Stream,” which was the second opening of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Immediately the song gives us the vibe of Vento Aureo, the title “Fighting Gold’ playing off the fact that the whole show will be about how enemies will be up against Giorno’s stand “Golden Experience.” You can connect the fact that Coda sang both “Bloody Stream” and now “Fighting Gold” simply from how similar visually similar the openings are, from the matte color on the silhouettes to the line animation with the hand giving life to chains. The song clearly sets the scene for some sort of mission mixed with a feeling of desperation that only comes to life when the background violins come in. The new opening was composed by the same composer and lyricist that made “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” for Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is really cool considering it’s still a well known anime opening. As for the ending, "Freek’n You" by Jodeci, it sets an odd tone compared to the opening, but each is great in their own way.
