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All that will survive is the reality of this world. Righteous actions born from reality will never be annihilated. Now, are your actions born of reality? Or are they born of superficial evil? We’re about to find out. In the end, will you be able to escape annihilation?
Giorno Giovanna.
The role of a protagonist in a story is always of supreme importance and is often misunderstood. There are many types of protagonists and many ways they serve a story, with some being more traditional than others. This time around, today’s protagonist inclines more into the latter situation: Giorno Giovanna, the main character of the fifth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Golden Wind.
Giorno is a bit divisive in the JoJo fandom: he is often regarded as one of Hirohiko Araki’s weakest protagonists, he doesn’t talk much, he is sidelined by Bruno Bucciarati, and so on. But there is a lot more to Giorno’s character and his significance in the story, which is something that is going to be analyzed today, from his motivations, his themes, his influence in the story, and a lot more.
This is a man with a dream, and there are many reasons why he deserves a lot more recognition as a protagonist.
Character Bio
Giorno Giovanna was born Haruno Shiobana and he is the son of a Japanese woman whose name is shown in the series and Dio Brando (in Jonathan Joestar’s body), the main antagonist in JoJo’s. As a kid, his mother neglected him and the man she married, an Italian man that took them to Italy who was very abusive to Giorno, which led to him becoming very quiet and introspective.
As he grew older, Giorno was constantly bullied by kids for being a foreigner, and he wasn’t protected by anybody. Things began to change when he saved a gangster’s life and the latter decided to pay him by threatening his stepfather and abusive kids to leave him alone.
As time went on, Giorno looked up to the mobster and decided that he wanted to stop the drug dealing in Italy, which in return inspired him to become a gangster himself. And as he grew older, the Dio genes started to kick in and he went from having black hair to becoming blonde, which coincided with the awakening of his Stand, Golden Experience, and the events of the fifth Golden Wind, starting to take form.
His Archetype
One of the biggest criticisms that Giorno’s character often gets is that he is not very prominent in his own story or that he doesn’t go through a lot of development as the story progresses. However, that is very debatable.
Giorno is a good example of the “flat character arc”, as I have mentioned in the article I wrote about it, his focus is not on developing himself but rather on influencing the world around him. This is very clear throughout Golden Wind as the vast majority of events of the story wouldn’t go as they went without him or at least not in a way that could benefit Bruno Bucciarati and his friends against Diavolo.
This is a main character that already had his character arc during his childhood, much like Superman or Saitama in One Punch Man, and now has a very clear motivation, which is fixing the drug problem in Italy while adhering to his own moral code in the process. This is also a direct contrast to Diavolo’s selfish and results-based attitude towards everything (but more on that later), highlighting Giorno’s selfless nature, even if he has also shown the capacity to commit morally dubious actions.
Importance In The Story
The thing that separates Giorno from the five other protagonists in the original JoJo continuity is the fact that he is a very proactive main character. While Jonathan reacted to Dio’s evil deeds, Joseph to the threat of the Pillar Men, Jotaro to Dio, Josuke to the many evils of Morioh, and Jolyne to Enrico Pucci, Giorno actively wanted to join Passione and rise through the ranks to take down Diavolo.
This is important because that already sets him apart from the rest: this is a main character that actively wants to raise his status on the power ladder and has no qualms about it. This leads to him inspiring Bruno to awaken after years of going through the motions in Passione, him taking Polpo’s life, and coming up with a plan to face Diavolo. All of this happened thanks to Giorno and is often ignored by fans that criticize his role in the story.
Funny enough, Giorno shares this attribute with his father, Dio: they both came out of broken homes and had to endure a lot of abuse, which prompted them to want to raise through the ranks of society, only Dio obviously did it for evil reasons while Giorno, pulling from his Joestar genes, wanted to do it to better society as a whole.
He also developed relationships with Bruno and the rest of the gang. While Bruno is the leader, it is very clear that Giorno is his second in command and is always on good terms, with the former even mentioning in his dying moments that the latter inspired him. This is very important because these two are arguably the most important characters in the whole plot.
Hirohiko Araki was also very smart in giving each member of the gang a battle with Giorno aiding them because it built their relationships. Mista and Giorno fought together several times, Fugo started to respect him after the battle with Man in the Mirror, Narancia also grew to like him, Trish arguably opens herself up thanks to Giorno during the Notorious B.I.G. battle, and Abacchio… Well, Abacchio hates Giorno, but that’s okay because at least they were constantly challenging the other’s ideas and points of view, which is very realistic.
His role as the team’s healer through Golden Experience is also quite good, as it was also shown through Josuke Higashikata in the previous part: main characters in Shonen don’t often have this kind of ability and it allows them to operate in unique ways.
Bruno And His Role In The Story
Bruno Bucciarati is the leader of the gang and a lot of fans have often mentioned that he is more of a main character in the part than Giorno is. Now, Araki hasn’t been without fault in this regard: part 3 gave a lot of spotlight to Jean Pierre Polnareff and part 4 did likewise with Koichi Hirose, so him giving a lot of moments to showcase Bruno wasn’t something out of the blue. During this period of his career, Araki was very generous with the spotlight of his characters.
However, Bruno is just a more open character than Giorno. As it has been shown in his backstory, Giorno was taught to be very quiet since he was little and that is a trait that has stuck ever since, with Bruno more used to the leadership position. This is not too dissimilar to Joseph Joestar being the more seasoned and extrovert leader of the Crusaders when compared to Jotaro, who is a lot more stoic and reserved.
Bruno is a spectacular character in his own right, with a lot of charisma, and is someone with strong connections to the rest of the group, which is understandable why a lot of people might prefer him to Giorno and view him as more of a protagonist. I’m not here to dispute that, but rather to highlight how Bruno serves more as a deuteragonist and how that combines very well with Giorno’s more reserved personality.
First of all, Giorno is the character that is the most involved in battles across Golden Wind. This may sound like a superficial fact but shonen manga is centered around fighting and this is where most characters get their moments to shine, which is something worth pointing out. And while Araki probably sidelined Giorno a bit too much in the middle portion of the story, he still had a lot of contributions along the way.
Also, Giorno actively pushes Bruno forward, offering him an alliance to take down Diavolo, inspiring him to do what he thinks is right, extending his life a bit after King Crimson murdered him, and also carrying on his legacy when he finally gets the golden arrow and, thus, Golden Experience Requiem.
Giorno and Bruno are a fantastic duo and I often think these two, along with Joseph and Caesar Zeppeli in Battle Tendency, were the blueprint for his best duo in the series in Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli in the seventh part, Steel Ball Run, but we’ll get there when we get there.
Contrast with Diavolo
Araki has a habit of drawing contrasts between his protagonist and his antagonist. Jonathan Joestar and Dio Brando in Phantom Blood might be the most notorious example of this duality, but it is also present in other parts and Giorno and Diavolo’s could very well be the most underrated in the entire series. In fact, these two could very well be the most underrated protagonists and antagonists in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
First of all, Giorno is an upstart and Diavolo is the king, as he says so himself during the part. Giorno is the possibility of change while Diavolo is the status quo. One has managed to build positive relationships despite a childhood of loneliness while the other tore down any meaningful bond for a life of loneliness at the summit of organized crime.
There is also the way they fight: Diavolo is treacherous, manipulative, and a bit of a coward, having no qualms about doing the most pathetic things to get the results he wants. Giorno, on the other hand, can be very analytical like any other JoJo but his fighting style is also very brave, often making risky decisions to win, which shows his bravery and belief in himself.
Giorno’s Stand, Golden Experience, can create life, which is all about the experience (pun intended) of doing, while Diavolo’s, King Crimson, skips time, which negates the experience and focuses on the result. This is highlighted when Giorno obtains Golden Experience Requiem and negates King Crimson, returning all of his actions back to zero.
In the end, their war against one another was more about life philosophies and views of the world than just sheer power. Giorno even says, when obtaining the golden arrow, that this is the inherent will of Bruno, Narancia, and Abacchio, who died in their quest to stop Diavolo, which highlights that our protagonist wouldn’t have made it without them. Diavolo, on the other hand, runs an entire organization but has no qualms about killing any of them for his own gain.
Giorno is very straightforward about what he wants, with his “I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream” being the funniest example, considering how it has been memed to death. Diavolo, on the other hand, lives in shadows and secrecy, trying to hide who he is from the world, once again showing the difference in personalities between these two characters and how they contrast with one another.
Connections With The Rest Of The Series
Every part in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is written in a way that could be consumed as a standalone story but Araki also adds a couple of connections from previous parts to make it feel like a cohesive world. And while characters like Koichi and Polnareff appear in Golden Wind, it is also safe to say that Giorno was perhaps the most wasted opportunity in that regard, considering that he is the son of the main antagonist of the series.
Now, I’m not saying that the part should be centered around Giorno being Dio’s son, but that part should have been acknowledged a bit more, maybe through Polnareff or Koichi telling the truth to Giorno (or even having Jotaro giving him a call and telling him who Dio was to keep him in check). While Dio’s photo in Giorno’s wallet is more fanservice than actual plot elements, it does make one wonder how he got that picture and why is he carrying it if he doesn’t know anything about his father.
Araki also tries to avoid it and at the same time makes more connections by giving Giorno blonde hair, the same battle cries as Dio, and often pulling similar stunts as his father, including his capacity for cruelty, so this is an element that often feels wasted with the character, particularly because he never shows up again in the series.
Morality
Giorno is, by and large, a righteous person with a strong moral code, like any other Joestar, but he is very interesting when compared to the other protagonists of the first continuity because he also shows a greater capacity for violence, deceit, and manipulation. In his first couple of scenes in Golden Wind he kills a gangster, cons Koichi, and lies to Bruno Bucciarati with relative ease… that’s a lot of morally dubious actions in a couple of pages in the manga.
This is another element that makes him stand out from the rest of the protagonists in the series: due to his Brando genes and, probably, being inspired by the gangster that protected him, Giorno shows the capacity of torturing and outright eliminating his enemies. This was shown with Polpo as well, taking his life because of the way he treated people, or his legendary beating of Cioccolata, who was, of course, a despicable human being.
However, the biggest example of Giorno’s morality is how he sentenced Diavolo to an infinite amount of deaths through Golden Experience Requiem, which is one of the harshest and deadliest punishments in manga and anime history. And that’s saying a lot!
In general terms, it can be said that Giorno is the direct result of the genes of both Jonathan and Dio: the former’s sense of right and wrong with the latter’s deadly and manipulative ways of doing things.
Conclusion
Giorno Giovanna is one of the most underrated protagonists in manga and anime. He is a very proactive main character that influenced his story greatly, made great use of his abilities, has strong connections with his cast, and overall had a great dynamic with his main antagonist. All in all, there is much to like about Giorno when given the chance instead of just sticking to popular opinions online.
Plus, as he has mentioned a couple of times, he is someone that has a dream.
