JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Golden Wind Episode 22 Discussion

Following a brand new opening for part 5, Traitor's Requiem or Uragirimono no Requiem, we see our protagonists navigating a boat through the canals of Venice and Buccellati is explaining that they shouldn't leave Venice until they defeat the elite guard members that are in Venice, since news of their betrayal to Passione is new, there shouldn't be many of them in Venice; this gives Buccellati and his crew an advantage. They stop to get food and beat the shit out of a guy who Narancia thought was an enemy. Buccellati tells the group that the boss's stand, King Crimson, is invincible, but if they can somehow find his identity, they might have a chance against him. Trish has been the key all along. Trish reveals to the group that she remembers her mother stating that her father used to live in Sardinia. Narancia notices something strange with his soup; his spoon disappeared. He then sees a shark swimming within his soup. The shark then appears in his spoon with soup still in it and bites off Narancia's tongue. The enemy shark stand is teleporting between different bodies of liquid, both big and small. We then find out who was behind this attack, two of the boss's elite guard named Squalo and Tiziano. Giorno regrows Narancia a tongue and the gang starts to ask Narancia questions about the stand that attacked him. Narancia starts stating incorrect facts about the stand, Clash or Crush, that attacked him like "He was like a pebble". Narancia is bewildered by the fact that he cannot seem to tell the truth about the stand that attacked him. Buccellati decides to stand his ground and defeat the enemy there and then. Narancia keeps lying due to Tiziano's stand that is attached to his tongue. This stand is called Talking Head, changed to Talking Mouth, and forces Narancia to tells the group that the enemy is in the bathroom. Narancia knows that Clash can move within bodies of water, so he tries to distract the rest of the group and keep them from open water sources by peeing in the toilet. At this point, Giorno notices something weird. Talking Head, from Narancia's mouth, takes his knife and slices his hand and Giorno asks if he wants him to heal him. However, the blood can be used for Clash to move and Narancia knows this. However, Giorno is starting to ask questions about why Narancia has been acting so odd and he is hitting the nail on the head with what is wrong with Narancia. He still tries to heal Narancia's wounds but Giorno will be attacked if he gets close to Narancia's blood, so Narancia uses Aerosmith to shoot a pipe, thus making it hot, so he can cauterize the wound. Giorno knows now that there is something in Narancia's mouth making him lie, but it's too late. The pipe that Narancia shot had water in it, so Clash is able to move in the body of water on the floor of the bathroom. Clash sinks its large jaws into Giorno's neck and this is where the episode ends.

Halfway through part 5, we are finally met with a new opening called Traitor's Requiem or Uragirimono no Requiem. This opening is sung by the same group who sang Great Days in part 4, Daisuke Hasegawa and the lyrics are wrote by the same woman who wrote the lyrics for Sono Chi No Sadame, Shoko Fujibayashi. The opening goes through beautifully animated still shots of the fights the protagonists have had to endure so far to get to the climactic fight with King Crimson along with other great looking animations. The opening also references manga, such as the image of the crew falling from the sky (which will be the picture at the end of this blog post). We also get out very first look at a new character to part 5, Doppio. I won't go into spoiler territory with this, but his design looks amazing. The stand arrow from parts 3 and 4 is also shown in the end of this opening, which makes sense due to the fact that the stand arrow later in this part plays a huge role for the plot. There is a lot to unpack for this opening (same with the first opening, Fighting Gold) and there is a lot of symbolism and spoilers in these opening so I will probably write about them once part 5 has concluded. Until then, enjoy Traitor's Requiem!