Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure premieres Thursday, March 19 on Netflix.
A dinosaur riding a horse, a main character shooting fingernails like bullets, a horse race that somehow also includes a treasure hunt for the literal body of Jesus Christ – this is Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Hirohiko Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a popular long-running manga that has been published since 1987. A big part of what makes this franchise so unique is that it changes protagonist in every story arc. That means you could technically jump in at the start of a new season of the anime adaptation and be fine, though you’d be missing out on some of the larger lore and characters that carry over from one season to the next.
That being said: If you’ve never experienced the bizarre adventure that is JoJo’s, now is the perfect time to jump in. That’s because the next season of David Production’s adaptation, Steel Ball Run, is easily JoJo’s most bizarre adventure yet…which really is saying something. It’s also the perfect starting point for newcomers, so before the titular Steel Ball Run kicks off and racing jockeys from around the world start the cross-country horse race for fame, glory, and a 50-million-dollar grand prize, here’s what you need to know about Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Steel Ball Run stands out for being set in a brand new continuity separate from all the prior arcs of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Indeed, when the manga first began serialization, it was published without the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure moniker attached. That happened in 2005 and Chapter 24, when the manga moved to Ultra Jump, a more adult magazine than Weekly Shōnen Jump. So, no matter whether you’ve seen every single one of the anime’s 194 episodes so far, or you’re planning on making this your first bizarre adventure, fans are all starting from a fresh point of view.
For longtime fans, this is an exciting opportunity to see Hirohiko Araki flex his creative muscles and witness the visual style and tonal wackiness of JoJo’s in a brand new world. For newcomers, this means getting to see a season of JoJo’s free of homework and buildup while still retaining the franchise’s legacy. For Araki, Steel Ball Run was a blank canvas – a reboot of the franchise – and it’s the same for viewers. The season will introduce a brand new world with new rules, new powers, and new characters that are unrelated to the prior seasons.
Though the new anime is unconnected to prior seasons of JoJo’s, Steel Ball Run still packs in plenty of references to the rest of the franchise. As a reboot, it does feature several characters that serve as sort of alternate universe counterparts to characters from previous seasons. Though not exactly a member of the main Joestar family, the new protagonist Johnny Joestar does share a family name. Likewise, characters like Gyro Zeppeli, Diego “Dio” Brando, and Urmd Avdul are all named after characters from the main JoJo’s timeline (Will Anthonio Zeppeli, Dio Brando, and Muhammad Avdol, respectively). Still, these are mostly just references to popular characters rather than an indication of any story connection.
One thing that immediately sets Steel Ball Run apart is that it’s paced much differently than other JoJo’s story arcs. It takes its time to focus on the larger world, and is more meticulous with plotting rather than just continuously building to the next chapter. That’s in no small part due to the manga moving to Ultra Jump. With a monthly rather than weekly release schedule, and longer chapters as well, Araki was able to dedicate more time to plotting the story and developing the art of each chapter. That immediately shows in the beautiful visuals of the manga, which set a high expectation for the anime adaptation.
Likewise, the move to a more adult magazine meant Araki was free to tackle heavier subjects and utilize a different tone for the story. There’s a healthy amount of body horror in Steel Ball Run, even compared to the often gruesome main series. The story also starts to focus more on mystery and complex plotlines rather than just endless fights. This is also the most overtly political of the story arcs, with a dark conspiracy involving the very top of the US government. Most notable, however, is the aging-up of the characters; this is the first time JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has truly revolved around adults and not incredibly tall and buff teens.
If you’ve never experienced a bizarre adventure before, you should know that this is a fantastical world of vampires, zombies, and magical powers. For Steel Ball Run specifically, the show makes use of two different power sets. First, there’s Spin, which is a supernatural kind of kinetic energy produced through a state of near-perfect rotation inspired by the golden ratio and the Fibonacci spiral. It’s used mostly in combat and serves as this world’s version of Hamon from the original timeline.
Second, there’s Stands, which is the most iconic powerset in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure universe and the source of its weirdest elements. A Stand is the physical manifestation of a person’s energy, providing a variety of abilities. While most Stands in the original timeline resemble spirits that fight for their user, Steel Ball Run uses them more like traditional comic book powers. Here, they are also deeply connected to the Holy Corpse (Jesus). As for the kinds of powers on display, they involve everything from the ability to turn yourself or others into dinosaurs, to blowing into metallic objects to shape them as if they were balloons.
Steel Ball Run is the start of a great new era for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure that continues through the eighth and ninth parts of the manga, JoJolion and The JOJOLands. Though these are not really connected, each new story arc reflects a unique aspect of Araki’s ability as a manga creator to present new worlds and ideas, and with every new arc, there’s another opportunity to jump in. If you haven’t embarked on this bizarre adventure yet, now’s the best time to do it.
