Sometimes you have to crawl your way to the top, starting at the bottom. Even if you have incredible powers, someone else might be just as powerful. That’s the case for Giorno Giovanna, a young man with a dream of becoming a “Gang-Star”. As a heads up, there is brief mention of child abuse in this story in the second paragraph if that’s too much for you. With all this in mind, who is Giorno Giovanna? Let’s find out!
Born Haruno Shiobana, the boy who would be Giorno is the son of the vampire Dio (possessing the body of Jonathan Joestar) and a woman by the name of Simona. Dio had several children by several women so he had moved on, leaving his son with the boy’s mother. Simona found her son to be a burden; slowing down her party lifestyle, she would leave him home alone and he wouldn’t sleep out of fear. Eventually his mother married a man who moved them to Italy and renamed Haruno to Giorno Giovanna.
This new life was not any less stressful for Giorno, as his step-father would beat him often. To make matters worse, Giorno was often the target of bullying from kids his own age. All this misery made Giorno feel as though he was less than nothing. That started to change the day he met a man who was bloody and beaten in an alley. When other men came looking for the bloody man, Giorno’s Stand manifested part of its power, the ability to grow life, hiding the man in tall grass in the alley.
Having saved the man, Giorno’s life would change drastically. Suddenly, his step-father was no longer beating him and the kids who bullied him stopped as well. Giorno realized it was the man he’d protected; he was in the mafia and using his power as a mafioso to protect Giorno now. Giorno’s path was set, he wanted to join the mafia and become as powerful as this man. Giorno wanted to become a Gang-Star!
By the time Giorno was fifteen, he had fully manifested his Stand, Gold Experience. Giorno could use Gold Experience to transmute life from mundane objects, such as turning a pebble into a ladybug or healing the living. He would use this power to grift and steal from others and help him get out of a pinch, as he was quite good at getting into trouble. One other aspect of his Stand’s power is any life he creates has an aura to protect itself that will return any damage meant for it onto what would do them harm. If Giorno made a pencil into a flower and someone stomped on the flower, the stomper would suddenly be stomped on just as hard, taking the hit for the flower instead.
It would be this last part of his power that would get Giorno tied up with the latest gang in the Italian mafia, Passione, an all-Stand user organization. Leaky-Eye Luca, a member of Passione would threaten Giorno and attack one of Gold Experience’s transformations, putting himself into a coma. When Luca died from his injuries, Giorno was now in the sights of Passione, which would begin to change the course of Giorno’s life, the entire existence of Passione as an organization, and possibly Italy and the rest of the world.
There you have it! Though this is just the beginning of Giorno Giovanna’s bizarre adventure, there are many twists and turns with many Stands to face off against. Further development of the mysterious Stand-giving arrows is explored. If any of that sounds fascinating, check out the 5th JoJo! See you next time!
Suggested Reading
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
