When reading the original manga Purple Haze vs. Man in the Mirror was one of my least favorite fights across the entire series. So far the anime adaptation has been elevating it above that level though.
Here Giorno, Abbacchio, and Fugo head into the ruins of old Pompeii in order to retrieve an item that will help protect the boss’s daughter they have been sworn to protect. Here Fugo meets and is captured by the second member of La Squadra, Illuso and his stand Man in the Mirror. Illuso puts Fugo inside of his own mirror dimension and begins to torture him while Giorno and Abbacchio try to figure out the mystery of where Fugo has gone. The episode also fills out the last remain piece of backstory for Bruno’s squad. Fugo’s history as an intellectual prodigy is explored as well as his incendiary temper that would lead him to Bruno.
The coloration and movement has certainly been helping what I previous thought was a dull part but the meat of the encounter is still to come so the next episode will stand to tell. David Productions continues to do an excellent job in adaptation as more was added to Fugo backstory as was done with every other character. There were also no significant pieces dropped from the manga in the transition between mediums. Special mention needs to go to just how weird and scary Purple Haze is when animated.
