Review: 'Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo' Episode 33: "His Name is Diavolo"
by Katherine Simon
The time has finally come. Eight months into the Vento Aureo anime’s run and it’s finally at its last story arc. Six more episodes and the Part 5 anime adaptation will finally come to a close, depriving fans of animated Jojo content until the inevitable Stone Ocean anime adaptation airs a year or two from now; unless, David Productions decides to do more Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe OVAs or a Purple Haze Feedback adaptation, whichever comes first. For now, let’s just enjoy the time we have left with Vento Aureo.
Image from Crunchyroll
Seeing Bruno in critical condition, Doppio attempts to finish him off once and for all. However, knowing that he’s attempting to meet someone at the Colosseum, Doppio instead opts to help Bruno across the street so he can find out who this person is. Due to Bruno practically being a walking corpse, he’s only able to sense people through their spirits. Taking advantage of this, Diavolo is able to expose some of his energy to trick Bruno into thinking Doppio is Trish, since his energy is very similar to his daughter's. He’s able to take Bruno to the Colosseum, and shortly after Polnareff comes out to greet Bruno. Unfortunately for Diavolo, this means Doppio’s disguise will be compromised, as Polnareff is one of the few living people to actually encounter the boss.
This episode raises a lot of questions about the relationship between Doppio and Diavolo. While it’s intentionally left vague if Doppio knows that he shares a body with Diavolo, there are a lot of things that probably should tip Doppio off, such as being able to use parts of King Crimson and the ability to replicate Trish’s aura. You’d think Doppio would know about the situation between him and Diavolo when they’re able to both be conscious at the same time, but Doppio still seems to be convinced that Diavolo is a separate person.
On that subject, it’s not really made clear if Doppio and Diavolo are two souls inhabiting the same body or just one consciousness with a split personality. I personally lean more towards the former because that’s the only way to explain the drastic change in appearance between the two, but they also share the same Stand so the line starts to get a little blurry. There are a few theories thrown around such as the split personalities being the result of two embryos fusing during pregnancy, or one of the personalities developing so much that it essentially split into its own soul, but nothing is concrete, as their origins are left intentionally ambiguous.
Image from Crunchyroll
I know some people aren’t too keen on Diavolo because of how vague his motivations are compared to the likes of Dio or Kira, but personally I find that his ambiguity makes him one of the more interesting villains to analyze. And it’s not like Diavolo’s origins are the most egregious examples of things being left vague in the series, as we still don’t know how Giorno got a picture of Dio or who the mysterious man who saved Josuke’s life in Diamond is Unbreakable was. Because so much of Diavolo’s motivations are left a mystery, there’s a lot of room for fans to fill in the blanks and come to their own conclusions for why he is the way he is. It also helps that there’s a lot of things implied about him throughout the story as well as some interesting psychology behind his behavior, so there’s no shortage of material for fans to work with when crafting their own Diavolo theories. I could go on about my own personal thoughts on the matter, but I’m not MatPat so I’m not going to bore you with my elaborate theory about how Diavolo is actually Sans from Undertale or something.
Back in 1986, Diavolo discovered six Stand arrows while in Egypt and sold five of them off to merchant and minor Stardust Crusaders antagonist Enya the Hag. Some time the '90s, Jotaro and Polnareff learn about the missing Stand arrows and decide to pursue the man who found them in the first place. Polnareff takes his search to Italy, which has seen a massive increase in drug-related crimes since the arrows were taken. This attracts the attention of the Passione boss, who, in an attempt to keep his identity a secret, attempts to murder Polnareff using King Crimson. Diavolo assumes Polnareff to be dead, not knowing that his attack only left the Stardust Crusader disabled until just now. Knowing that he’s the only living person to know the boss’ identity, Diavolo rushes over to kill him once and for all. Before Diavolo seemingly kills Polnareff for good, he stabs himself with an arrow as a last-ditch effort to stop the mob boss. This causes Silver Chariot to transform into a completely different stand that seems to operate posthumously, not unlike Notorious B.I.G.
Image from Crunchyroll
If you’re a fan of Stardust Crusaders and were wondering what the heck happened to Polnareff after that, then boy is this episode for you. This episode has quite a few Part 3 references, from Enya being a huge catalyst for the events of this part to actually seeing the old cast in the current art style. Considering how Jojo has moved away from the hyper-masculine art style of the older parts, it’s definitely weird to see the Stardust Crusaders with a lot less muscle mass. A lot of people like to make fun of the fact that Jotaro looks like he’s been aging in reverse in later parts, but this episode really does prove that’s more of a symptom of the art style shift since he actually looks like a teenager in the flashbacks. Also, Iggy genuinely looks like a cryptid and I think it’s beautiful that David Productions managed to beautifully capture Araki slowly losing his ability to draw dogs as the series progresses.
The episode does a pretty good job setting up the final confrontation between Diavolo and Team Bucciarati. Most of the episode deals with the history between Diavolo and Polnareff and explaining how they play into the part’s main story. It’s interesting to see how those events changed Polnareff since the last time he was present in the series, both physically and mentally. This episode also helps to tie in events from Stardust Crusaders into Vento Aureo, which is cool to see from a part of the series that is otherwise pretty isolated from the rest of the Jojo canon.
It’s also going to be interesting to see what this new form of Silver Chariot is going to be like, since it looks so different from the original Stand and is operating without a living user. This isn’t the first time Stand arrows have been used to enhance a Stand, as seen with Yoshikage Kira in the last arc of Diamond is Unbreakable, but this is the first time a Stand has undergone such a drastic change because of it. Whatever happens, this new form of Silver Chariot is sure to play an important role in Vento Aureo’s final act.
