JoJo’s Part 5 Episode 11

Narancia’s Aerosmith

This week’s episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5: Golden Wind concluded Narancia Ghirga’s introductory arc. In it, we learn about Narancia’s past, how he came to be a member of Passione, and see him finally defeat the first member of the hitman team, Formaggio.

Narancia’s Past

When Narancia was a child, his mother died from some sort of eye infection, and afterwards his father never took care of him. Because of this, he grew up on the streets with a gang of other children who would go around the city and steal food.

However, unlike these other kids on the street, Narancia wasn’t poor or homeless. Because of this, the leader of these street kids, who appears to have been a high school-aged boy, doesn’t really see Narancia as a true member of the group.

After the leader of the gang attacks an old lady, he tricks Narancia into dying his hair blonde so that Narancia is accused and imprisoned for the crime instead. Once out of jail, Narancia attempts to rejoin the gang, but finds himself as an outcast.

Enter, Fugo. Fugo finds Narancia dirty and alone on the streets and brings him to the restaurant in which Buccellati is about to have lunch. He then announces that he wants to feed Narancia, and Buccellati gives his own meal to Narancia without question.

Later, Buccellati even takes Narancia to the hospital and has his injuries treated free of charge. When Narancia asks why he’s doing all this for a total stranger, Buccellati responds that there’s no particular reason, but we all know that it’s because he has a kind heart (as does any JoBro worth his salt).

Buccellati then convinces Narancia to return home and go back to school, and although Narancia does as he’s told, he secretly decides that he’s going to join Passione and work under Buccellati some day. He then goes to see Polpo without Buccellati’s knowledge and is inducted into the gang.

From this flashback we learn a few things about the three JoBros involved, Narancia, Fugo, and Buccellati.

First of all, Narancia believes that having friends is the most important thing in the world. It’s more important than money, food, or even his own life. This last part comes into play later in the episode when he announces to Formaggio that he would rather die than sell out his friends.

Next, we learn that Fugo has a surprisingly kind heart, just like the rest of Buccellati’s squad. I’ve mentioned before that Fugo and Narancia have an interesting dynamic, and here we get to see the start of it. Fugo seems to act as an older brother to Narancia, and because of this, when we see him get angry with him, it’s likely because he’s worried about him.

Finally, it’s heavily implied that Buccellati never wanted Narancia to join Passione, and Narancia likely knew this deep down which is why he went around Buccellati and straight to Polpo. Not only does Buccellati refuse to answer the question regarding if he’s a gang member, but his insistence on Narancia going back to school shows that he wants a better life for him.

If Fugo is a brother figure to Narancia, then Buccellati is like a father figure since Narancia is unable to look up to his real father.

Narancia’s Victory

I could go through the fight between Narancia and Formaggio in this episode step-by-step, or I could simply go over the interesting information we learned from it, so I’m just going to do the latter. There are three things I want to talk about: Narancia’s intelligence, the hitman team, and Trish’s stand.

Throughout the series so far, Narancia hasn’t had the best reputation when it comes to brains. I don’t think many people would fault you if you were to say that he has below average intelligence, especially for his age. However, although he may not be the best with book smarts, Narancia proves himself to be fairly adept at thinking in combat situations.

When he was trapped in the bottle with the spider and the map fell out of his pocket, I was certain that Narancia had planned this. Since the map was on his person when he was shrunk, it too was shrunk, so I figured that Formaggio would unshrink the map to read it, and thereby unshrink Narancia as well incidentally.

However, this wasn’t the case and Formaggio was able to return the map to its original size while still leaving Narancia in his tiny state. But, just when I was thinking that Narancia was an idiot after all, he redeems himself by explaining his master plan as it unfolds.

Earlier in the battle, Aerosmith had shot the gas can of the car Narancia had been driving. Because of this hole and the burning it caused, Aerosmith was able to locate the hole due to the CO2 escaping from it, and fired more rounds in the same spot.

These rounds then caused the gasoline in the tank to catch fire and explode, burning Formaggio in the process. The pain from the fire then causes Little Feet’s ability to discontinue, thus releasing Narancia, who deals the finishing blow to Formaggio after using the fire to cut off his escape route.

Now, here’s where the hitman team comes into play. If Narancia killed Formaggio before he was able to contact the rest of his squad, then how does the hitman team know the location at which Trish is being hidden? Formaggio was never shown to actually relay this information to his squadmates before he died.

Is this a plot hole, an inconsistency between the manga and anime, or are the JoBros simply jumping to conclusions and assuming that their location has been compromised?

Finally, during this fight it’s also revealed that Trish Una is a stand user. Or, rather, it’s implied that she’s a stand user by Formaggio, but it’s never actually confirmed. I have no doubt that Trish will end up being a stand user by the end of the series, but I have my doubts about her already wielding one.

It’s entirely possible that because her father has a stand (as is implied), that she too would have a stand. However, we’ve only ever seen stands be passed down genetically through the Joestar lineage, so it’s not entirely known if this is the case for all stand users or just the Joestars.

If all stands are passed down through generations of a family, then sure, Trish could already have a stand. However, my second piece of “evidence” for her not already possessing a stand is that she isn’t shown with one in the ED of the anime.

All the other characters pictured in the ED are shown with their stands beside them, even when their stands have yet to be revealed. However, Trish isn’t pictured with a stand, and so I think there must be some meaning behind this.

Conclusion

In the next episode, Giorno, Abbacchio, and Fugo will be going to Pompeii to retrieve the key to some sort of vehicle which will then be used to safely transport Trish to the Boss’ location. Since Fugo is the only member of Buccellati’s squad whose stand is still unknown, he’ll likely be the star of this next mini arc.

But for now, what did you think of this week’s episode of JoJo’s Part 5? Overall I thought it was pretty good, but I still would have been okay with this Narancia arc ending last episode instead. Other than the revelation about Trish, I don’t think this episode really added all that much.

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My review of the next episode is available here.