Hello hello, beautiful people! It’s time for another long and juicy comparison, my friends! Today we’re going to take a look at the episode I was most anticipating since I saw it for the first time - “The “G” in Guts”! Are you ready to take a deep dive in Venice’s murky waters?

Allons-y!

• Let’s start strong with today’s first difference! Here, almost everyone is looking better, the background wall has been rotated slightly, the water texture has been vastly improved and the shading is different in a couple of spots (most noticeably on Mista and Abbacchio):

• Moving on, here’s another beautifully retouched scene! Giorno and Buccellati’s faces are looking much better, Coco Jumbo’s key slot has been retouched appropriately, and Mista’s sweater and hat patterns have been cleaned up:

• Mama Buccellati has a brand new head here:

• And here, all of the remaining team boys have been retouched, the bits of background that are visible are a little bit more muted, and the dividing lines are a little more yellow and less fluorescent:

• Once again, here we have a shot in which everyone has been retouched! Mista is a particularly egregious example… In addition to that, the front bit of the boat floor is now darker, and the water texture is different:

• And here, both Giorno and Buccellati have been retouched…:

• …and, in addition, Buccellati no longer does that weird movement in the BD version:

• This retouched scene deserves an almost frame-by-frame comparison, friends! Some of the TV frames are some true gems! Take a tour through this veritable treasure trove of misdrawn Mistas…:

• It’s time to take a look… at the opening! As you will surely know by now, all openings done directly by David Production usually have an early “beta version”, if you will, that’s aired the first couple of times. For Uragirimono no Requiem the “beta version” of the opening lasted just one episode, for Episode #23 already has the final version. Nonetheless, let’s take a look at what’s changed, shall we? First of all, this scene of Sticky Fingers and Buccellati has some additional shaded bits, some retouched details, some new bling on the metal parts, and the general contrast has been made slightly darker too:

• In addition, Sticky Fingers now has a golden outline while disappearing, instead of just fading out:

• Giorno and Gold Experience have also been retouched and reshaded here, and the contrast remains on the same tones as the previous scene:

• It’s Abbacchio time, baby! Moody Blues impersonating his dead partner now shows up with a purple splash…:

• …Moody Blues takes longer to adopt his original colouring while reverting to his original form…:

• …and, in addition to the darker contrast, there are also some additional Moody Blues-style scratch effects overlaid on the background:

• The change in contrast remains the same in this scene of our beautiful airplane boy:

• And gun boy follows suit, here (I LOVE THAT SECOND FRAME):

• It’s Trish’s time to shine! The background is different…:

• …and there’s an additional screenshake effect on Spice Girl’s beatdown:

• Here, in addition to the usual contrast differences, the boys of the team slide in frame earlier…:

• …and their final position is slightly different:

• Let’s move on to the boss! Here, both the background and the boss himself have been moved, and he’s no longer behind the merlons of that building:

• The transition from King Crimson to Giorno happens a few frames later, and the following animation is a little quicker and MUCH brighter and sharper:

• There are more godrays here, and the shadow under the arrow and around Giorno’s arm are much more prominent:

• In this EXTREMELY ZOOMED-IN shot of Giorno’s hand gripping the arrow, his ring finger is now much brighter:

• Here, the logo starts out bigger and the background slightly more zoomed out…:

• …but, as the camera zooms out, you can see that the logo itself zooms out at a faster rate than the background, giving the impression that the logo is more in the foreground:

• Phew! Alright, now that the opening is behind us… Let’s go back to today’s main meal! Here, the general lighting is much better, everyone but Narancia has been retouched and the table in the foreground is much bigger, so that the plate on there is no longer resting on its edge:

• This poor traumatized kid has been retouched, here:

• Buccellati’s received a new head once again, here:

• And here too! Giorno also joins the redrawn party, in this shot:

• Abbacchio’s eyes, chest (and, later, hair) have been retouched in this series of frames:

• Here, Abbacchio’s eyes have been enlarged, a number of bits have also been shaded and in a couple of frames, his jawline is also a little different:

• Abbacchio, Mista and Narancia’s faces have been all retouched here, Mista’s hat is looking better and they’re no longer standing right next to the world’s tallest table:

• These EXTREMELY wonky boys are now looking much better, here:

• In this shot, only Buccellati and Abbacchio have been blessed by DPro’s redrawing pencil:

• Here, Buccellati’s face is much more oval:

• In this pretty shot, everyone has been retouched, some details have been shaded a little differently…:

• …and the background in Abbacchio’s little square animates more slowly:

• Once again, Buccellati has a new head here:

• EVERYONE is looking better here! Woohoo! Moreover, Mista’s hand is no longer mysteriously chopped off:

• Let’s take a peep inside the turtle! Trish’s head has been retouched, here:

• Hoo boy, this difference. EVERYONE is looking massively better! Starting from the left, clockwise: Abbacchio’s whole HEAD has been redrawn and his shirt strings are no longer stapled directly to his massive pecs; Mista’s face is looking better and his hat pattern no longer has those black outlines; NARANCIA IS NO LONGER HALF-NAKED, his face has been retouched, he’s now wearing BOTH his wristbands and his left forearm is no longer ridiculously short; Coco Jumbo’s key slot has been shaded. On the table: some glasses have been retouched, the wine is looking better, and the plate on the left no longer has that weird black line in the middle. How’s that for a whole bunch of differences?:

• In addition to the WHOLE slew of differences I just finished listing, in a couple of frames Giorno’s braid shadow also randomly disappeared. It’s back in the BDs:

• Here, Narancia’s eye-nose area has been retouched:

• Everyone apart from Giorno has been slightly retouched in this scene:

• Have another bunch of retouched Narancia faces, friends:

• Here, the lighting is a little different on most things, that ugly Giorno is now in front of the chair instead of behind, and the wine label has been slightly retouched as well:

• And here, the background on Mista’s half has been recoloured, and the shading is a tiny bit different in both halves:

• Mista and Narancia are looking better here:

• This shot is slightly more zoomed-in:

• All three faces have been retouched in this scene, and… poor Mista’s left shoulder has been mended:

• Giorno’s neck has a couple lines less, here:

• Both Giorno and Mista’s faces have been retouched here, and in the first frame there’s an extra shade under Giorno’s wrist:

• For some reason there was a black dot on the left side of the frame, in the TV version of this scene; it’s no longer there in the BDs:

• Giorno’s facial features have been retouched and are 10% narrower, here:

• Here, Tiziano and Squalo’s faces are a little more defined, most lines in the background are slightly thinner and if you look to the right of the balcony corner in the foreground, you’ll see that in the TV version there were some lines on the floor; those have been removed in the BD version:

• It’s eyecatch time! Let’s take a look at this brighter and sharper baby shark:

• Poor Abbacchio is looking MUCH BETTER here! Buccellati’s face has also received a couple of minor retouches:

• Those same two boys are looking much better here as well; in addition to that, the key slot in Coco Jumbo’s shell is yellow, the background is less blurry and it now moves independently to Buccellati (it’s not very noticeable):

• Narancia has been retouched here, and Abbacchio is looking better and WIDER than ever:

• Let’s go back to this episode’s power couple! Those same lines that were absent near the balcony corner in the other difference are also absent here, and all background elements that overlap Tiziano and Squalo’s auras now have an outline:

• Might I present to you what is probably the worst shot of Giorno and Abbacchio you’ve ever seen? Thankfully, both of them have been redrawn in the BDs, and Abbacchio’s aura is also a little different:

• In this scene which comes right after the last difference, Abbacchio’s aura is no longer moving (since, you know, talking is a free action in Jojo):

• These two animations of Narancia frantically cleaning a sink are now brighter and sharper:

• WIDER:

• Narancia and Abbacchio have been resized and retouched, in this iconic scene:

• Narancia’s been moved and he now looks better too, here:

• Both boys have been moved and retouched, here, and there is a slightly darker vignette towards the top and the bottom of the frame:

• Abbacchio’s eye area has been retouched, here:

• Here, Buccellati is looking better, there’s a darker vignette along the edges of the frame and the light outside the door is brighter, making for a markedly less flat shot:

• Giorno’s TALLER and looking much better, here, and there’s a new darker vignette along the edges. In the first frame, however, the empty area between Giorno’s right arm and his body has been mistakenly coloured pink (thanks, justacer!):

• Narancia has been retouched, here, and the camera is more zoomed-in:

• Once again, taller and retouched Giorno shows up here (in the first frame, however, the left part of his collar has also been mistakenly recoloured yellow - thanks for pointing it out, ChewPlatinum!):

• WIDER:

• Giorno once again no longer looks like a shy alien baby asking you to give it your eggs, here…:

• …and he no longer steps towards Narancia:

• Have another retouched Giorno, friends:

• Let’s take a look at the credits! Here, 火日仲克 (I have no friggin’ idea how to pronounce this name, dawg) has been added to the right:

• Here, a bunch of names have been removed from the デジタル動画 (“Digital video”) section. They are, in order, 木内祐里 (“Kiuchi Yūri”), 玉栄翔 (“Tamae Kakeru”), 尾西真成人 (the pronunciation of this name is a mystery to me), 廣原寧人 (“Hirohara Yasuhito”), 久井菜央 (“Hisai Nao”), 重信一真 (“Shigenobu Kazuma”, I think?) and 渡邊爽太 (“Watanabe Sōta”). 高橋俊 (“Takahashi Shun”) has been moved from デジタル動画 (“Digital video”) to 動画検索 (“In-between animation check”), and “White Line” has been added under the header 動画検索補 (“In-between animation check assistance”). The rest of the credits have also been moved around to accomodate the different length:

And that concludes today’s lengthy, juicy episode! I’m really glad they touched up on this episode as it was, in my opinion, the weakest of the whole season. I hope you had a good time, and I’ll see you again next time for Episode #23, “Clash and Talking Head”!

See ya!