GW Episode 10

The Hitman Team (チーム) is the tenth episode of Golden Wind and the one hundred twenty third episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. The episode covers from Chapter 472 to Chapter 474 of the original manga with parts of Chapter 475.

Narancia is attacked by the assassin Formaggio, whose Little Feet causes Narancia to slowly shrink. Formaggio must hide from Narancia, who somehow manages to track him.

Summary
A short recap of the last episode narrates Formaggio's confrontation with Narancia Ghirga. In the now, Narancia calms himself and finally notices that the shoe and knife that he's lost have become bigger than usual and so did his surroundings. Meanwhile, Formaggio is still hiding inside Narancia's dress pocket. Back at the hiding place, Fugo worries that Narancia is taking too much time.

Narancia understands that he is slowly shrinking and thus rushes to a nearby hall to use the phones inside. Because of his light weight, he is temporarily blocked by the automatic doors but uses Aerosmith to break the doors and pierce the payphones for their coins. To prevent Narancia from reaching his allies, Formaggio summons Little Feet to cut the phone's wire but Narancia understands that his enemy is nearby. Trying to hide at the bottom of the pocket, Formaggio is mysteriously detected by the boy, who squeezes him into his hand and shows him to Aerosmith to be shot at. Formaggio escapes out of Narancia's fist by returning a pen to its normal size, the sudden change propelling him out. Still, Aerosmith effortlessly tracks Formaggio despite his best efforts. Falling into a sewer but still being tracked even underwater, Formaggio weights his options while defending from Aerosmith's bullets.

A flashback reveals a meeting Formaggio had with some of his partners from La Squadra Esecuzioni while assassinating a target by making him unwittingly drink a shrunken car and then grow it back inside his stomach. After the deed was done, the team gathered to share their meager payment but noticed that two of their teammates, Sorbet and Gelato, had disappeared. Indeed, compared to the lucrative drug traffic and gambling other teams controlled, the Hitman team only received money through payments for assassinations and that frustrated them, to the point Sorbet and Gelato decided to look into The Boss' past. They spent time searching for the two but couldn't find any clue until Formaggio found Gelato's corpse, choked with a rag. The team then began to receive strange pieces encased in formalin. Putting them together, La Squadra realized with horror that The Boss had had Sorbet cut into pieces by Cioccolata and sent his corpse to the team as a well-orchestrated demonstration of his might while Gelato choked himself with his own gag. Burying their comrades, the team then despaired to ever overthrow The Boss, until news of Trish fell into their ears.

In the now, Formaggio is still under attack, but noticing that Aerosmith has also needlessly attacked some rats, he understands that Aerosmith detects life forms through the carbon dioxide they release. Formaggio hides inside a swarm of rats whom he scatters and even wounds Aerosmith, but Narancia deduces that one rat breathing more heavily than the others must be carrying Formaggio and shoots. Formaggio is hit but it is too late: the assassin grows back into his normal size while Narancia has shrunk with his Stand, becoming too weak.

Commentary
"I had wondered whether Sorbet's scene would be allowed to be aired on television. When I watched it on air, not only was it depicted exactly as-is, each piece of him was lined up slowly and meticulously! It was gruesome, but it emphasized the weight of Formaggio's motivations. The staff really went for this one!"

- Daiki Yamashita, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

"It was a terrific idea to have the entire Hitman Team appear at once. Following the manga is usually the option, but having such a large number of anime- original scenes ended up giving the story much more impact. I was really excited watching the scenes, and it made for a great latter half of the episode overall."

- Daiki Shirakawa, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

"1. Aerosmith

Aerosmith was animated using 3-D CG, which allowed for more movement within scenes. Director Takahashi states, "The sequence at the very beginning of the episode was crafted by 3-D animator Mai Nakazono. Thanks to her, the animation ended up looking awesome!"

2. Formaggio Dives Under the Car

The sequence where Formaggio dives under a car as he's being chased by Aerosmith was spearheaded by action animation director Yasutoshi Iwasaki. Takahashi has high praise: "I love the unique way Formaggio runs. It's so dynamic for a part that's just him running. Amazing!"

3. The Hitman Team

Directors Tsuda, Kimura, and Takahashi decided to put more emphasis on the idea that this was a battle of teams in order to highlight the instability within the syndicate. Tsuda proposed to introduce all the Hitman Team members at once, and Takahashi felt that doing so gave the characters' motivations more depth.

4. Cross-Sectional Sorbet

Sorbet's demise shows the force of the boss's terror. The key frames shocked Takahashi, but he wanted the viewers to see it in full, so he had the help of producers Nobutaka Kasama and Hiroyuki Omori to make sure it aired that way. "Of course, there were a few areas that needed censoring, but here, we have the uncensored version. Enjoy!""

- Hideya Takahashi, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * Prosciutto calls Pesci a "mammoni" when he sees him drinking milk. In the 2020 Anime Expo interview, Nobutaka Kasama (producer for the anime) explains that it was a deliberate action to underline that he was a momma's boy, meaning he had child-like tastes.
 * "Mammoni" is a grammatical error, "mammoni" being the plural form of "mammone".
 * "Mammone" is an Italian term, meaning someone excessively childish, whiny or attached to his own mother.
 * Likewise, Melone's message "L'avete trovato?" is grammatically incorrect, meaning "Did you find him?" instead of "Did you find them?". The correct sentence would have been "Li avete trovati?"
 * In the 2020 Anime Expo interview, Nobutaka Kasama (producer for the anime) explains why they added scenes of the Hitman Team. He says that one exciting part of Golden Wind was to have teams fight each other and the production wanted to enhance that aspect by adding scenes of the Hitman Team meeting together, which was deciding during script meetings.
 * Kasama also confirms that the shadows during the scene of Sorbet's death were that of Cioccolata and Secco. Since whoever cut up Sorbet was unknown in the manga and since Cioccolata was a surgeon, the production team thought of making Cioccolata Sorbet's murderer.