JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 18

JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 18

Head to Venice!

A decent amount of progress was made during today’s episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind, and yet I don’t feel like much happened. Technically we got fights against two different antagonists and some other important information, but I still feel empty inside like it was a “boring” episode.

So, before getting into the main portions of the episode, let’s briefly discuss the leader of the hitman squad, Risotto Nero. His name comes from the Italian dish, Risotto, and the Italian word for black, Nero. His name could also be a reference to the Emperor Nero, but I don’t see a similarity between him and the emperor.

As for his stand, we don’t yet know what it’s called or what exactly it does, but from what little we see of him my guess would be he can teleport objects. Basically, Risotto Nero is just a goth version of Kuroko Shirai from A Certain Scientific Railgun.

This ability alone is extremely powerful when used to its full potential, so I’m curious to see if his stand will have any sort of secondary abilities as well. Also, if this is his ability, just how will Buccellati’s team be able to defeat him? He could theoretically kill them all on sight without them even realizing what happened.

I also have to add that I like Risotto Nero’s character design a lot more than the other two antagonists in this week’s episode. Though, even they’re more aesthetically pleasing than Pesci ever was.

Baby Face Defeated

Part of the reason this week’s episode felt so empty was due to the ending of the Baby Face fight. In last week’s episode, Baby Face was all but defeated. Because of this, we knew the conclusion to that fight was going to come early on in the episode. And, since we already knew what was going to happen, the conclusion felt like a waste of time.

If there was some sort of twist and Baby Face wasn’t actually defeated quickly, then perhaps it would have been more interesting. But, as I mentioned, the defeat of Baby Face was already set up in the previous episode. There just wasn’t enough time in that episode for the finishing blow.

So, just how was Baby Face defeated? Giorno basically just put Melone’s motorbike inside of Baby Face and then used the gas in the tank to blow the stand up from the inside. But, just because Baby Face was defeated now doesn’t mean it won’t return in the future. After all, Melone can mass produce these so-called “Juniors.”

Giorno Giovanna and Gold Experience from the anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
Giorno Giovanna and Gold Experience

However, Giorno already has a plan for how to defeat the stand user, which is something I don’t quite understand. Maybe I missed something, but when did Giorno find out that Baby Face was an automatic stand capable of replicating itself?

Without this knowledge, simply blowing up the stand should have been seen as enough. But, Giorno also turns either a piece of Baby Face or the motorbike into a venomous snake and sends it after Melone. I thought the snake was going to explode because it was burning, but it turned out to just bite Melone instead.

And, now that Baby Face and Melone are defeated and Buccellati and Trish are returned to normal, the group can continue on to Venice.

Nunzio Pericolo

With the exception of Giorno and Mista, the rest of Buccellati’s team are back inside the turtle saferoom when they receive a new message from the boss. This message tells Buccellati to have Abbacchio use Moody Blues to replay the events inside the turtle from 14 hours prior.

When this is done, they find that Pericolo, the old capo who originally handed Trish over to them, was the one who placed the turtle in the fountain. Pericolo’s recording then proceeds to give the team their next set of instructions from the boss.

The group is told to head to a statue in Venice at the station. Pericolo briefly holds up a picture of the statue before burning it. At this statue, they’ll find a disc which has the final set of instructions from the boss regarding how the team are to turn Trish over to him.

Once his message is relayed, Pericolo then kills himself with his gun after explaining that the hitman squad is already after him. But, was Pericolo’s sacrifice really worth it? Couldn’t he have done more before throwing his life away?

The reason this message was sent to Buccellati’s team in this way was so there would be no evidence left behind, but it didn’t exactly work out that way. And, I’d argue that it was never going to work out that way the second there was another step for Buccellati’s team to complete after Pericolo’s message.

If the boss really didn’t want to leave any evidence behind, he would have simply had Pericolo tell Buccellati’s squad how to hand Trish over to him. Instead, by having Pericolo tell them where to find this information, the chance of failure drastically increased.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call a plot hole.

White Album

The next antagonist then appears: Ghiaccio and his stand, White Album. Ghiacco’s name means “ice” in Italian, and of all the antagonists’ names in Part 5 so far, his makes the most sense. Why? Because his stand is simply a generic ice-type stand.

Ghiaccio is, for all intents and purposes, an ice-style jutsu user from Naruto. He can freeze people and objects, create ice armor, use ice to increase his mobility, and I’ll assume he can create ice projectiles as well until proven otherwise.

His stand, White Album, is also a bit different from any stand we’ve seen before in that it functions as a suit with the user inside. When this stand-suit is equipped, Ghiaccio can speed skate on his own ice.

Ghiaccio and White Album from the anime series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind
Ghiaccio and White Album

And, no, Ghiaccio’s stand wasn’t based on Frozone from The Incredibles. JoJo’s Part 5 was completed 5 years before that came out.

Now, I could go over the fight so far between Giorno, Mista, and Ghiaccio, but why do that when I can just discuss abilities instead? I’ve probably mentioned this before in one of my One Piece saga reviews, but general, elemental abilities really are the best (other than time-altering abilities of course).

General, elemental abilities are just so versatile that they’re good in just about every situation. For example, I mentioned that Ghiaccio can use his ice defensively, offensively, as a buff to himself, or as a nerf to his opponents. I’m looking forward to how Giorno and Mista will be able to defeat this opponent.

Though, I must say, driving the car off a bridge and into the water seems like a terrible idea on Giorno’s part. Won’t Ghiaccio just freeze the river, thus killing Giorno and Mista?

Conclusion

So, how do you think Giorno and Mista will be able to defeat their latest opponent? My hope is that they’ll actually have to work together, like they did when Giorno turned Mista’s bullets into plants. Some tag-team action could really make these fights more interesting because so much more can be done.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

2 Replies to “JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 18”

  1. I don’t think Ghiaccio’s White Album is generic, in fact I think he’s fairly unique when it comes to the use of ice as an element.

    Other characters in fiction, like Gray Fullbuster from Fary Tail or Pet Shop’s Horus from Stardust Crusaders, uses ice as a solid weapon. Pretty simple and straightforward, yet painfully uninspired.

    On the other hand, Ghiaccio’s White Album weaponizes an underrated aspect of the element: temperature. His main attack chills the enemies to subzero temperatures, chilling them to the bone and incapacitating them as they experience frostbite one factoid at a time.

    Granted, he does make a suit of armor out of ice, but his Gently Weeps his an extension of the Stand’s sheer frigidity; glaciating particulates in the air to create a barrier.

    1. Although I often use the term “generic” in a negative way, this time around that wasn’t the case. By “generic” in terms of Ghiaccio’s White Album, I meant that it was simply a jack-of-all-trades type stand. Since it’s purely elemental and not some super specific ability, it can be used in all kinds of different situations.

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