Review: 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo' Episode 32: "Green Day and Oasis: Part 3"
by Katherine SimonDisclaimer: The review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure'
Last time on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Giorno pummeled a psychopathic clown doctor for 40 seconds straight and threw him into the garbage disposal. This week, it’s up to zombified gang dad Bruno Bucciarati to take on a human pet guy and his dirt Stand that’s either a reference to Kingdom Hearts II or the “Wonderwall” guys depending on the subtitles you’re watching. At this point, the arc is less “Green Day and Oasis” and more just “Oasis,” which means we’re near the end of Vento Aureo’s last minor villain fight.
Image from Crunchyroll
Now that Cioccolata is taken care of and the spread of Green Day’s mold has ceased, all that’s left is for Bruno to finish off Secco. Early on in the episode, Secco realizes that his master fell to his demise after receiving a message telling him that Team Bucciarati’s ally is in the Colosseum. Secco then denounces Cioccolata, claiming that he only stuck around because of his strength and wealth. Secco also reveals that he’s a lot more articulate than he let on now that he’s on his own, and begins heading towards the Colosseum to take out Polnareff. Bucciarati decides to pursue Secco by using Sticky Fingers to traverse underground.
One odd thing about this episode is that the fight between Secco and Bucciarati doesn’t have any music. A lot of fights in the series tend to be accompanied with bombastic, adrenaline-pumping musical scores, but other than the end of the fight where the main theme plays, music is almost completely absent from this fight. I can’t say for certain why this artistic choice was made, but if I had to guess, I’d say it was most likely for atmospheric purposes. Because a majority of this fight takes place in an underground void, it makes sense that there wouldn’t be a ton of sound. It’s similar to how a ton of underwater scenes in television have very minimal sound, and it really helps give the fight an almost kind of eerie vibe.
Secco is an inherently unsettling character, and the lack of music shows that this isn’t just any run of the mill minor villain Bruno is dealing with. Also, the fact that Secco has the upper hand for most of the fight gives off a feeling of despair, as if Bruno has been thrown into a seemingly unwinnable fight and everything he’s worked up to will be for nothing. It might not seem like a huge detail at first, but the sound design really works in this episode’s favor and does an excellent job setting the tone for the episode.
Image from Crunchyroll
As he’s observing the fight, Polnareff decides that if Team Bucciarati doesn’t arrive to the Colosseum soon, he must destroy the arrow to prevent Diavolo from using it. Meanwhile, Bruno finds out that if he’s able to destroy Secco’s hearing, he can nullify Oasis’ ability to traverse underground. Since his hearing is impervious to any major damage, Bruno bursts a tire from one of the cars dragged underground, destroying Secco’s eardrums and rendering him deaf. Stuck on the surface with no way to avoid Bruno, he grabs a bystanding Doppio and uses him as a hostage. Unaware that the civilian is actually Diavolo’s split personality, Bruno uses Sticky Fingers to damage Secco while sparing Doppio. Secco then panics into the streets and trips into a garbage truck, ironically meeting the same fate as Cioccolata. As Bruno collapses from exhaustion, Doppio sees this as an opportunity to finish what Diavolo started during their first confrontation, leaving the episode on a cliffhanger.
Since we only got a short glimpse of Polnareff at the end of the previous episode, this episode gives him a bit more screen time to establish his role in the story. Though his appearance in this episode was still brief, there’s a lot that can be gathered from this appearance. Right off the bat, it’s clear to see that this is going to be a more serious, no-nonsense Polnareff. This is a stark contrast to his role as comic relief in Stardust Crusaders, but it makes sense considering his run-in with Diavolo left him disabled. Plus Narancia and Sex Pistols already fill the role of goofy comic relief, so another one really isn’t needed.
It’s also shown that he found out about Team Bucciarati from his own research, so it’ll be interesting to see why he called on them specifically to be the ones to defeat Diavolo. On a side note, I wonder if he knows about the whole Giorno being Dio’s son thing, because it’s definitely going to be awkward if he finds out that the kid he’s working with is the offspring of the man who’s responsible for the death of three of his closest friends and his sister.
Image from Crunchyroll
The strongest aspect of the Bruno vs. Secco fight is definitely the atmosphere. Even though Secco didn’t seem like much of a threat without Green Day’s ability complimenting Oasis, this episode proves that he’s plenty intimidating on his own. While the fight wasn’t too creepy in the manga, the visuals and sound design in the anime really amplified the horror factor and recontextualized the fight into something more dreadful. It really shows how well the team is utilizing the medium of animation to convey things that can’t be pulled off as well in manga format.
Outside of slightly unnerving me, the episode also had a surprising amount of funny moments sprinkled throughout. I personally got a chuckle out of Doppio’s civilian getup, since he’s just inexplicably wearing a baseball cap with a “D” on it with no other changes to his outfit. He’s never worn that cap until this very moment, so it's just kind of funny to randomly see him wearing a cap with his initials on it. The dramatic irony of Secco meeting the same fate as Cioccolata, that being an eternity in trash purgatory, is also great.
