Narancia's Li'l Bomber (Episode)

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.

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 key 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.

Manga/Anime Differences

 * Narancia's flashback is moved to this point of the plot and is more elaborate than in the original manga.
 * Narancia's mother is shown in the hospital on her deathbed, with Narancia holding her hand as she passes away. Narancia and his father are next seen at her tombstone with Narancia mourning.
 * Narancia's mother's name, Mela (literally "apple" in Italian), is revealed on her tombstone, along with her date of birth (September 21, 1958) and death (January 16, 1994). This makes her 35 years old at the time of her passing.
 * Rather than the narration directly claiming that Narancia's father didn't care for him and was neglectful, he is simply shown as being apathetic and distant, and avoiding reciprocating conversation with his son. Their poor relationship is also hinted at when Narancia scowls and calls him a "shithead" under his breath.
 * The information that Narancia's father was a gardener is omitted.
 * Narancia is shown committing theft with his friends as well as spending time with them.
 * At a bakery, Narancia distracts the clerk by asking for directions on a map as two of his friends shovel bread into bags.
 * Narancia's initial belief that friendship was the most important thing in the world is confirmed by the same blond-haired delinquent that would later scapegoat him.
 * Rather than being present after Narancia dyed his hair blond, the delinquent is absent. His absence is due to him either leaving to commit the crime that would be framed on Narancia, or simply going into hiding because of it.
 * The scene of his arrest is more elaborate.
 * In an interrogation room, the old lady who was beaten by the blond-haired delinquent enters and accuses Narancia of being the culprit. Narancia gets up from his seat trying to convince her, but is pinned to the wall by one of the investigators.
 * The old lady's original appearance in the manga showed her behind a wooden balustrade, implying that Narancia was taken to a courtroom while in custody.
 * Narancia's eye infection was received when the investigator headbutts him in the eye, blackening it and allowing the infection to occur.
 * Narancia, while in juvenile hall, correctly theorizes that he was purposefully tricked into dyeing his hair to become the scapegoat. He quickly denies the thought, believing that his "friend" wouldn't do such a thing.
 * When Narancia returns from juvenile hall, his "friends" are shown actively shunning him, and the same blond-haired delinquent that framed him is the one that spread the rumors of the eye infection being contagious.
 * Fugo brings Narancia into the same restaurant the team is seen hanging out in Episode 5 when they are first introduced.
 * The spaghetti dish is shown to be spaghetti with squid, reflecting Bucciarati's own tastes.
 * This period between Narancia getting treatment for his eye infection and him deciding to join Passione is illustrated. After returning home and re-attending school, he visits his mother's grave again holding books. Despite his son having been in juvenile hall, Narancia's father remains neglectful.
 * Formaggio questioning if Aerosmith's bullets would leave bald spots on his head and inserting Narancia into the bottle is omitted.
 * Formaggio imagining Narancia's insides being dissolved by the spider's venom is represented.
 * Narancia is also shown directly growing back to normal on screen.
 * Aerosmith is shown dropping a bomb on the truck that Formaggio was escaping towards. The truck itself is now a panel or step truck instead of a pickup.
 * The footnote that informs the viewer Formaggio is deceased doesn't appear in the anime, making his death more ambiguous in this version.
 * The scene in which Narancia reunites with the rest of the group is a bit different.
 * In the manga, there is no dialogue while Giorno is looking at Trish, whereas in the anime, Fugo can be heard telling Narancia to repeat the story and to take the fact that the enemy found out their location more seriously.
 * In addition, "ゴゴゴ" sound effects can be seen in the manga as the panels zoom in on Trish, but they don't appear in the anime adaptation, neither does the close-up of Trish's face.
 * A short scene of Bucciarati weighting the group's options is cut.
 * Narancia and Fugo's reactions to Giorno's idea are added. Narancia is glad that he defended him, while Fugo shows discontent at what he believes is condescension.

Trivia

 * The imagination shot of Narancia dissolving is a reference to the poster of the 2005 horror movie .
 * In the official English subs, this episode's title is changed to "Narancia's Li'l Bomber" to match Aerosmith's name change to "Li'l Bomber".