JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Episode 25

It was only ever a matter of time before Trish's Stand revealed itself, and this week we finally meet the legendary Spice Girl! We generally don't spend time thinking of Stands as gendered beings, but this one talks and inexplicably has boobs, so she kind of embodies a whole new character on her own.

Spice Girl's ability is to make objects soft and malleable, which turns out to be useful in The Notorious B.I.G. fight because the enemy can't aimlessly destroy everything that moves anymore. I presume that Trish's powers are naturally born like the Joestars, but she hasn't had them for long so her current journey is about getting into the spirit of proper Stand battles. That's my favorite aspect of this episode; watching Trish steadily put the pieces together and go from frightened teen girl to wisecracking badass who's too cool to look back at her own explosions. Okay, maybe it's not that extreme of a transformation, but this is definitely a turning point for her. What sets Trish apart from other unsuspecting heroes who have to toughen up in the heat of battle is that she's been around Stands for a while. She's seen danger and has had to watch Team Bucciarati fight on her behalf before, but she never expected herself to participate in the action. It does seem like she should have been more ready for a day like this to come, but it's too late to cry about it now. The gang's sense of resolve is starting to rub off on her.

As far as the Stand battle itself goes, I don't think the finale of The Notorious B.I.G. fight is nearly as compelling as its beginning. This two-parter was front-loaded with so many great creepy ideas, but now that the abject horror has mostly evaporated, we never got around to understanding how the majority of the enemy's powers worked, let alone what was happening during the climactic resolution this week. Everybody's getting their hands cut off now, and I can't tell whose abilities are responsible for what. Notorious B.I.G.'s movement-seeking powers were the only aspect to get fleshed (heh) out, and most of the other trippy stuff was just for spooky flavor. I do like the detail that it can't ever be killed, so the solution is to dump it in the ocean and let it fight the waves forever. The waters of Sardinia are about to become the next Bermuda Triangle.

Obviously this is a big episode for Trish, even if I found the fight itself underwhelming, as she's starting to feel like a proper member of the team and not just a macguffin to keep the plot moving. The gang felt uncomfortably trimmed down when Fugo left, but now it's clear that a new person might be able to fill his shoes. I hope the show can hold on to the emotionally raw side of her character, since her relationship with her dad is such an important aspect of this arc. It's hard to tell right now if this is a full-on transformation for her character where she's just cool and confident all the time now, or if we're still in the midst of a balancing act. Where the story goes from here could make an episode like this come across a little ham-fisted in retrospect, but it's hard to deny character development when it comes delivered in such a neat package.

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JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw