GW Episode 11

Narancia's Aerosmith (ナランチャのエアロスミス) is the eleventh episode of Golden Wind and the one hundred twenty fourth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. The episode covers from Chapter 475 to the first half of Chapter 478 of the original manga with parts of Chapter 472.

Narancia has been shrunk to the point that his attacks are ineffective against Formaggio. Although he is cornered, Narancia remains determined to somehow defeat the assassin.

Summary
A recap of the last episode relates how Narancia Ghirga has failed to kill Formaggio. Having himself shrunken to the point that his attacks cannot hurt the assassin anymore, Narancia Ghirga recalls Aerosmith and decides to flee into an alleyway. Confronted by a hungry cat, he manages to repel it by shooting at it with Aerosmith. Before he can hide, however, Formaggio blocks his path by pouring the contents of a can on him. The assassin then stomps Narancia under the sole of his shoe and resumes his interrogation, angrily asking where Trish Una is.

Narancia Ghirga's past is revealed. Narancia, born in 1984, was once a normal bouncy child like any other. At age ten, his mother died from an eye infection and his father, already neglectful, cared even less for his son. Eventually, Narancia stopped attending school and hung out with a group of friends with whom he could commit petty thefts and other crimes. One time, one of his older friends told him to dye his hair blond to look cool, but Narancia was then arrested and put into reform school for a year when he was mistaken for another young blond criminal who beat up and robbed an old woman. Narancia wouldn't plead guilty and the police beat him, leading to a lingering eye infection. At the same time, Narancia was suspicious about his "friend," but shut his worries down, as he believed friends were everything in the world. However, these same friends ostracized him when he got out, avoiding him because of his eye infection and the same blond friend slandering him. Betrayed and ill, Narancia became desperate and lived from that point on as a miserable vagrant in the streets, letting himself slowly die. However, he then fortunately met Pannacotta Fugo and Bruno Bucciarati, who take of him, had him cured of his infection and treated him as a human being. Despite Bucciarati wanting to keep Narancia out of the gang, the boy was determined to work for him and took Polpo's test, becoming a full-fledged member of Passione.

Back in the now, Narancia vehemently refuses to tell where the hideout is, stating that he isn't one to sell his friends to save his own hide and calls out Formaggio for involving the poor girl into their vendetta. Unimpressed and angry, Formaggio presses his questions and reveals that he thinks Trish has a Stand whose power could be a lead to The Boss' own ability. Taking out a spider in a bottle out of his pocket, Formaggio threatens to put Narancia together with the arachnid to see it hunt the boy. Although Narancia summons Aerosmith and shoots, Formaggio moves the bottle to protect the spider and grabs the shrunken plane Stand with Little Feet, disabling it for good. Narancia is forcibly pushed inside the bottle and a desperate fight against the spider begins.

The spider appears huge compared to Narancia and Formaggio gleefully wonders about its venom dissolving Narancia's insides. The boy reveals that he's taken a glass shard with him as a makeshift knife and defends himself courageously, but the spider soon uses its web to trap and bind him. Finally defeated, Narancia persists in his silence, but Formaggio spots a map Narancia had previously used, which had fallen out of his pocket. Growing the map back to its normal size, Formaggio finally discovers where Team Bucciarati is hiding.

However, Narancia reveals his hidden move: when he was shooting with Aerosmith, he was, in reality, aiming at his car nearby and fired into the gas tank with his tracer bullets to set it on fire. The car finally explodes and Formaggio is temporarily taken out, returning Narancia to his normal height. Burning because he was near the explosion, Formaggio cuts his wrist and then shrinks, using the blood to extinguish himself. Moreover, since Narancia has started a huge blaze, there is no way for him to track him precisely, so Formaggio is sure to escape. Unfazed, Narancia decides to destroy every car in the vicinity and set the whole street on fire, forcing Formaggio to grow back. Heavily injured but in rage, Formaggio confronts Narancia in a last Stand duel but Narancia wins, his summoning being faster than Little Feet's strike. Shot down, Formaggio finds a spiteful solace in knowing that the battle will attract the attention of La Squadra Esecuzioni and make Team Bucciarati's mission impossible. Narancia has won the battle but failed his mission.

Back to the vineyard, Team Bucciarati is thrown in disarray as their hiding spot is now likely to be discovered by the enemy. Under the weight of his failure and heavily scolded by Fugo, Narancia's spirit is somewhat lifted when Giorno Giovanna declares that Narancia has nonetheless done the best course of action given the circumstances. Moreover, he is sure that The Boss will contact them. Sure enough, Mista announces that a message has been received, which instructs them to obtain a hidden in the ruins of Pompeii near the famous dog mosaic. Having learned his lesson, Bucciarati now sends three of his men this time: Fugo, Giorno, and Abbacchio.

Commentary
"I really love Fugo's line about wanting to feed Narancia spaghetti, so before recording, I told Fugo's voice actor, Junya Enoki, that I was looking forward to hearing it. He delivered that line with so much energy, it made me want to eat that spaghetti, too! I hope it was the most delicious spaghetti Narancia's ever had. And Junya actually treated me to spaghetti afterwards!"

- Daiki Yamashita, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

"Formaggio really left an impression on me. The last battle scene between Narancia and Formaggio had the force of a feature film! It's definitely one of Golden Wind's flashier scenes. I feel like the energy of the whole battle really kept the intensity of JoJo going from the previous seasons."

- Daiki Shirakawa, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

"1. Give Up on the Chivalry Bullshit

In the manga, Formaggio's recollection of the Hitman Team's humiliation occurs while he steps on Narancia. By moving that recollection to episode ten, the emotions behind Formaggio's words in this episode are clearer. Director Takahashi enjoyed how well Jun Fukushima, the voice of Formaggio, tied the scene together with his performance.

2. Narancia and the Spider

The scene with Narancia inside the bottle was originally much simpler, but key animator Kai Shibata proposed to make the action more exciting and elaborate. Takahashi thanks him. "Episode Director Shinji and I are grateful to animators like him who raise the quality of animation."

3. Narancia vs Formaggio

It is common for the color design to change between scenes, but episodes nine, ten, and eleven kept any changes to a minimum until the climax. Takahashi states, "We made the right choice. We wanted Aerosmith to be light blue and purple, so we adjusted everything else around that. The purple flames also gave the scene a good punch."

4." Helico"

In the Japanese, Narancia shortens the word "helicopter" to "helico," much like how English speakers might say "copter." According to Takahashi, he was planning to cut the line out. but Chief Director Tsuda wanted it to be kept in. "Looking back, Takahashi states, "we did need that word in there. I'm totally going to use it from now on.""

- Hideya Takahashi, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * The imagination shot of Narancia dissolving is a reference to the poster of the 2005 horror movie .