JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken II: Golden Heart/Golden Ring

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Before you even start reading this review, be warned that while there are no spoilers for the novel itself, it might contain spoilers for Vento Aureo. So if you aren't familiar with part 5 of JoJo, you shouldn't be reading this review. Or this novel.

Golden Heart/Golden Ring is a a JoJo spin-off novel set after the group splits and betrays the Boss. It is surprisingly well written light novel. And and at this point don't mean story-wise, but the actual writing. Lot of LNs suffer from being non-descriptive, bland and too straight-to-the-point. GHGR, fortunately, uses more colorful language thanks to which it feels like an ... actual book and not a pulp. It reads well and the only downside might be a bit short lenght. Then again, maybe it read so well because it chooses exactly the pacing it needs without needles stretching.

Of couse, story-wise GHGR is well done too. The start might look light something out of a western young adult fiction for girls, but that too is an interesting choice and it makes sense in the context of the story. And it provides a different point of view to that of what typically is a JoJo protagonist. Worry not though, as it doesn't take long to get bizarre. As a whole it stays true to the JoJo feel and it would pass for a script for regular Part 5 episode/chapter. Especially the battle with the "villain of the week" fits right in without a doubt. The characters stay true to their... well, characters and the novel works as a perfect supplement for fans that just NEED MORE.

Don't let the 7/10 rating confuse you, it's a strong 7, one that is closer to something like 7.7/10. If you liked Part 5, you should certainly give this a read too. If you didn't... well, I'd say you could give this a chance anyway.

First, since this book as well as all of the other light novels and much of the manga are lacking official English translation, I'll provide a source here in which you can download an English fan translation of the novel, as well as a book I have already read and covered in my reviews, Genesis of the Universe.

https://mobile.twitter.com/AzoreanEve/status/1184433069203316737

Beyond that though, the story. This as well as Purple Haze Feedback (which I haven't started as of writing this review) are side-stories of secondary-canon to Jojo Part 5, Golden Wind. Purple Haze Feedback, as I understand it, is more of a continuation and a favorite of Part ... 5 fans. Likely since this translation is relatively new, Golden Heart/Golden Ring has not reached nearly the amount of acclaim among fans.

I also went into this book expecting it to also prominently feature Fugo, as I expect as much in Purple Haze Feedback, but there wasn't nearly as much of him as I was expecting. Truly, most of the book I was wondering what he was thinking, for there will be many innocent casualties to his virus. And while this is explained to an extent at the end, the focus is more on the traitorous Buccellati gang and a character original to this story (who wields The Cure as her Stand, and my goth heart skips a beat).

Overall, the story didn't blow me away, but it was an enjoyable read all the same.

Individual parts of this book are wildly different in quality which accumulate together into a justified 7. An overall very positive experience, but I couldn't possibly justify higher than that.

The real standout of the entire book is the descriptions of Purple Haze's destruction which are stomach churning and bone chilling and do the stand more justice than the anime or manga ever could. That part is a 10.

The classic Jojo action of enemy stand users and their abilities (once it finally starts) is also very good, however it all happens far quicker than you'd like, one stand user is dealt with in a matter of ... pages. That part is an 8.

Coniglio (The original protagonist character of the story) is just a YA novel girl discovering herself and is mostly boring and about a 5, however it pushes into a 6 due to the ending of the book actually accurately reflecting on Coniglio's actions instead of simply absolving her, which was unexpected and needed in order for her character to work for me.

The amount of time establishing visual descriptions of characters you were probably seeing eye fulls of in manga panels days before reading this book? That part is abysmally boring and a 4. Especially because they go to an effort to slightly redesign characters in the descriptions...only for the Araki art pages to not account for this at all, leaving them more muddled and confused than anything.

Pacing is a little sluggish, but once it picks up from Coniglio brooding and establishing a group of characters you already damn well know it reaches heights I certainly didn't expect based on first impressions. Overall a very good read. Everyone's 7 score is very accurate. It's definitely a recommended read for any Vento Aureo/Golden Wind fan, although if it's not a well liked part for you I don't think it'll be a great read.

A final note as far as the current translation goes: It's perfectly serviceable, it fumbled a few times, but never so hard I couldn't understand it. And it includes some very useful translators notes.

I ended up really liking this book. It starts slow, you think Coniglio is going to be a helpless girl but she has great development and, as well as all other introduced characters, ended up being very well fleshed out. For the most part everything seems to fit seamlessly with the canon (except Trish...) and even the development of the battles could very well fit with the rest of the ones in the manga.
You can really feel the authors' love for Venice. They go on rants about the beauty (or, sometimes, lack thereof) of the city, every chapter, before once again focusing on the bizarre ... adventure at hand.

The Italian translation does a great job, but it has plenty of caveats. They remove Bruno's ARIARI as well as change around how spoken lines and thoughts are presented, have a couple mistakes which partly stem from being unfamiliar with the series, remove the profiles page and the tiny Giornos at the corner of every other page.
On the other hand it was lovely to see everyone speaking Italian!

I would give a 4 if the last chapter didn't feel so rushed and random. I feel compelled to rewrite the ending in a fanfiction. The epilogue was very beautiful still.