JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run

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Serving as a soft reset for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Steel Ball Run takes the story in original and daring directions. But does it work? Oh who am I kidding? I'm going to be straight up.
I consider Steel Ball Run to be one of the greatest written works I've ever read.

STORY: 9/10
I will admit Steel Ball Run has a very, very slow start. In fact, Stands aren't even introduced until like 20 chapters in. That's another thing: Steel Ball Run is seinen instead of shounen. That means each chapter ranges from 35 to 60 pages long in comparison to the 20 page long ... chapters of the Jojo Parts before. This may seem daunting at first, but once you get invested in Steel Ball Run it feels like the story was too short, despite being the longest Jojo Part to date. Steel Ball Run also changes the Jojo formula in its fights. Stands are no longer humanoid for the most part, and they function more as superpowers than spirits who fight for you. Each fight is engaging and unique, dealing with psychological warfare more than throwing blind punches. This makes the fights in Steel Ball Run among the best in the series.

Steel Ball Run is also magnificently written with very great story arcs throughout. However, there is a controversial near the very end direction which I won't spoil that will surely throw some people off and make them consider it unnecessary. Eh, I didn't mind it too much, though it does undermine what made a previous Part so good to a degree. Despite that, it still contains one of the greatest and most emotional endings I've ever read.

ART: 10/10
Part 4 may have been the pinnacle of Araki's style, but Steel Ball Run is his pinnacle in his talent. Truly perfect art in all fields. The detail is much more in depth than previous Parts and character designs are on point.

CHARACTERS: 10/10
Steel Ball Run, though its primary cast is a fraction of other Parts, contains some of the best characters in Jojo, and in my opinion some of the best characters of all time. Gyro Zeppeli qualifies for the latter. He's hilarious but he also has a tragic backstory that offers him plenty of motivation while keeping him in mystery. Diego Brando is an interesting spin on Dio Brando from The Phantom Blood and his Stand Scary Monsters is awesome. Lucy and Steven Steel are a great duo. Steven is barely in the story but he's a well written and unique supporting character and while Lucy doesn't really come into play until the finale she is still compelling. Wekapipo is one of the best side protagonists and works well as a foil to Gyro. Steel Ball Run also contains my favorite side villain, Ringo Roadaggin, and though his time spent in the story is brief it is arguably he pinnacle of Jojo.

As for the Jojo and main villain, they're simply the best. Johnny Joestar is a tragic lightning rod of Shakespearean proportions. It's not only impossible to not root for him, it is immoral. He has one of the greatest and most significant character arcs I've ever experienced, and his Stand Tusk is awesome to boot. He is my favorite Jojo bar none, despite being one of the most depraved ones. Johnny is immoral and sinful and honestly can be considered the villain of Steel Ball Run, but he is still a compelling force of nature.

The villain, President Funny Valentine, in contrast, can be considered the hero to an extent, and is one of the most sympathetic villains to grace manga. In fact, it's no secret Funny Valentine is my favorite antagonist ever. He's like a better version of Ozymandias from Watchmen who takes pride in his actions rather than cry in secret. A true patriot, Funny Valentine will stop at nothing to make America great again. As said by the man himself, his "heart and actions are utterly unclouded. They are those of JUSTICE.". His Stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (D4C), has one of the most insane and unique powers of any Stand and makes for a more than satisfying final fight.

ENJOYMENT: 10/10
Steel Ball Run blew me away in every way. It is a literal epic, a poetic work of great magnitude following flawed heroes on a large scale journey that tests their spiritual and emotional strength as well as their physical. It is compelling and powerful and the fights are pretty damn great. Absolutely mind blowing and awe inspiring yet will leave you in an emotional wreck, despite the story still being filled with trademark Araki humor (Thanks mostly to Gyro and his obsession with making up gags). Johnny and Gyro are a perfect tag team; their relationship is strong and real and their chemistry is on point. They are part of what makes the story so damn compelling.

OVERALL: 9.75/10
Steel Ball Run is one of the most intense and pleasing emotional rollorcoasters I've ever experienced. It contains some of my favorite characters in fiction history and is a fantastic new take on the Jojo universe that, dare I say, is utterly superior to all that's come before it. Featuring my favorite fights, my favorite Jojo, my favorite villain, my favorite story, and one of the most emotional endings I've read, it's no secret that I consider Steel Ball Run to be the greatest Jojo Part, and one of the greatest manga ever created, period.

On many forums I've seen recommendations of Steel Ball Run as an "Absolutely amazing manga", "easily the best Jojos and epitomising everything about that 'style' of comic", and "From the art to story 10/10. Best thing i've ever read". After finishing it, I honestly can't say I see its appeal. The characters were barely fleshed out and quite boring, the fighting frequently was decided on pure "luck", rather than fighting strength or strategy, and the story was painfully plain.

The story - Coming in, I wasn't expecting a narrative masterpiece, but I was expecting a compelling story. I was very disappointed. There really isn't any ... depth to it other than "I want to complete the race first", or "I want to assemble the corpse". The corpse could've been a very interesting part of the story - but besides it being an object that everybody wants, and some small abilities, it was hardly touched upon. There was almost non-stop fighting, and bc of that really wasn't much of a story. It was basically a stereotypical shounen way of handling stories.

Fighting - There were a couple - 3 or 4 fights that were decided by luck, which left a very bad taste in my mouth. Are real-life fights decided by luck? Sure. But the author makes a big point of "luck" being a main reason why the main character wins some fights, which I cannot fathom why. The bad guy does everything right - but because xxxxx happened just at the right time, the main character wins! Once would have been cute. when it happens more than a few times, it starts getting frustrating. I don't know why the author glorifies plot armor, but it made me lose a lot of emotional attachment to fights and characters.
Also frequently in fights, I would notice that powers are VERY inconsistent - while a random character that gets hit by ability X would instantly blow apart, when it hits the main character, they were given almost 10 seconds - to talk it out, figure out a strategy, and then execute it to get to safety. I noticed this happening in almost every single fight. The amount of plot armor in this manga was ridiculous.

Character - After 22 volumes, I had nearly no emotional attachment to a single one of the characters. I think this is due to the manga being absolutely dominated by fighting. When there is no flashback scene or racing going on, the characters are most definitely fighting, leading to close to no exploration of the character's personalities or character. I honestly think the manga absolutely dropped the ball in this regard, there were some painful and not-showing-at-all moments where one character would say a "gag", but besides that there really wasn't any interesting shows of personalities. Most of them felt like cookie cutter good guys that were just on different sides.
Each bad guy was given a brief exposition of why he wasn't really "bad", then was thrust toward the main characters to get beat.

Overall this manga felt like a mediocre shounen. No interesting characters, no emotional attachment, no interesting story, just tons of fighting with chunk of them being decided by plot armor. Wouldn't really recommend.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Steel ball run is another example of why JoJo should have ended in Pt 3. It was easily the worst arc of JoJo, taking place after another good point to stop the show. Containing a mediocre plot, bad stand writing, bad characters, and horrible battles makes me wonder about Araki's credibility and his ability to write two solid parts in a row.

Going into Steel Ball Run, I was expecting a good story, but got the typical transcontinental race. Yes, the typical transcontinental race that takes place in any Midwest American set anime. This plot is by no means unique or different, meaning ... that there are a couple of things they can do to make the plot entertaining. One, they can add great characters to balance it out, two, they can add a new element that makes sense and is interesting to it, or three, they can make it so over the top and unbelievable, that it comes off as amazing. What did Part 7 try to do? Every single one of them, but not in the capacity needed. And one other significant change is the change to a seinin, meaning long chapters that either flow greatly or are slower than Polnereff in turtle form. And as you could guess, it was the latter.

Now the first problem with this part is the characters, who were insufferable, and impossible to watch without getting annoyed at them. We have Johnny Joestar, who is just annoying, and somehow powers up even more than Goku. Now there are so many problems with him, starting with his personality. Araki likes to make each Joestar different and unique so that the parts are never dull, and I respect that, as it helps each part feel different. But when you disable a person for personality and then forget it, you've gone wrong. Johnny seems to be like Speedwagon, a guy who is there just to react. If you look at his character interactions, he just seems to narrate what happens, while Gyro at least adds something. He acts more as the peanut gallery than a character, as he has to specifically tell us what is happening on screen at all times.

And despite this disability, it seems like he doesn't have one. Aside from the first chapter, he just trots on his horse, pretending he isn't. And unlike FMA, where it shows these small scenes that convey how disabled Ed and Al are, it entirely skips over it. In every fight, he somehow lands on the ground and can somehow move around. It's understandable you can drag yourself with your arms, but if you are paralyzed waist down, you don't have a vast range of motion. It is also pretty hard to move around using your hands while shooting fingernail bullets out of the same ones you are using to move. His broken powers didn't help either, as he just becomes more of a Merry Sue. There was no way Johnny mastered those techniques in seconds that Gyro spent his whole life learning. The one bit of character that is forced upon us is the noble, and his somewhat pacifistic tendencies, used as buildup for when he goes “Hard Mode.” This switch and mentality makes no sense, especially if we look at his backstory and how he deals with enemies in fights. It was obviously an allusion to the nobility of Jonathon in PT1, but just does not work. And his final stand was GER all over again, and equally as bad.

The 14-year girl married to the 50-year-old balding man was Araki's poor attempt with mystery and suspense. He tries to have both parts happening simultaneously but fails and ruins one of the few real characters. Her being scared is a natural reaction, but there is no way a scared out of her mind 14 year old would decide to infiltrate the people with these magical powers without any of her own. Her character, who was portrayed as innocent and bashful quickly turns into a stealth operative who knows which buttons to press, and which ones not too. Hot pants who was only there a healer, fine to do as l
ong as she doesn’t be painted as a complex or main character, but sadly that is the case. She receives a character arc that doesn’t resolve, only mentioned in a stand fight, and literally the reason the fight turned out to be that way. She gets a backstory that starts, never finished, and has a clear goal for her to finish it, but it never does. Jesus, who was literally the crux of the whole part, was left criminally unexplained and showed up in that same fight which Hot Pants created. He appears only there, but never appears again.

Remember how this is a race, and they have to name the winners and give them designs. Well, Araki seemed to be lazy, as every single drawn character that was not the main trio, was a villain. That's right; the second problem is the villains, and what's worse, their motivations. It seems like each villain group on each part had some reason to oppose the main characters, aside from the ones in SBR. Despite going in a race that would give them 5Billion dollars, I repeat 5 Billion Dollars, they would rather risk it because a shadowy figure said they would get superpowers. Then they would accept and go to deathmatches so that a new character can take the spot of an opponent when they die. They never questioned that an insane amount of characters kept dying in the race, and didn’t connect the dots in what happened. Unlike part 3, where they had a flesh bud that made them follow DIo, or Part 5, where they were loyal assassins, and members of the Mafia that were contracted to do it, the these people just followed a random guy who they didn’t even know their identity. The villain writing was really slacking in this part, and probably the worst in the series. There is suspension of disbelief, and then there is asking someone to freeze it mid air while in a typhoon larger and rotating faster than Jupitor.

The third issue is the combat, which really suffers in this part. Remember how there was Hamon, and Araki discarded it when he said it was a one-trick pony. Remember when he created stands as a replacement and a whole new concept, that would develop interesting fights that had to depend of whit and who could figure out each others stand abilities. Remember how the universe reset would only change the situations people were in, as they were merely transferred to a different world.

Well, that shouldn't change stands, but they did anyway. In this part, it didn't seem they had stands but magical abilities. It appeared to be a mix of the old stands and new ones, as some people had magical powers and others straight-up stands. This also further ruined the combat. While the fun of stands were these unique and unknown abilities that they had to decipher and beat, these fights set up just boring fights like Hamon. However, you have to give credit to Araki as he attempts to make it like stand fights.......... and fails. The characters over-explain every action when it is blindingly clear, and the combat isn't necessarily combat, just Gyro and Jonny using the same attack repeatedly. While stand fights didn't need amazing choreography as they were weird unexplainable abilities, Pt 8 has to, as all the main characters do is shoot balls and shoot fingernails. These battles also have to be interesting, as every episodic chapter or set of chapters involved someone attacking them. The characters are bad, the story is boring, so what else do these chapters bring aside from fights? And the stand formula only hurts this part, as even the week's predictable stand with a cool ability, becomes a generic battle lasting five chapters, where we see the same tactic be employed again and again.

The fourth issue is the story, which is both slow and pointless. As mentioned earlier, the story is a weak excuse as one, just a way to make it that there are characters nearby and they could look for the corpse. While all these other Jojo parts are looking for a dangerous villain and targeting them, this one is just looking for a corpse. Their whole reasoning for the corpse was the power lust Johnny felt, and nothing else. And because of this, they are perfectly fine with risking their lives for a power rush(as Gyro points out way too many times). The story's pacing was also abysmal, as each chapter was an unrelated fight. Consisting of pointless battles to convince you that it is a seinen, this further slows down the borderline unmoving plot. In each chapter, there had to be a conflict in which they further ruined the part. Rather than have a couple of understandable battles and the other chapters focusing on the race and the characters, it only did battles. If you think about it, the first stage was a race, and then it was completely forgotten, until the last five chapters with Diego, where these background characters suddenly appeared after 80 chapters of no screen time. And Again, while Part 3 and Part 5 had a similar set up, they used their insane fights, and their characters to stay interesting, not mentioning that in each fight they either got close to Egypt(as shown on the map each episode) or they had found another clue or lead against the boss.

And finally, the power escalation.

Now there comes the point in any show that there has to be a power boost of some sort. There is little tension in a fight where the bad guy is as strong as the Shōnen protagonist in the first episode. And like P5, this is a part where Araki goes overboard, where the somewhat grounded in reality powers, spiral out of control(No pun intended). With Gyro's introduction and their team-up, Araki set up that Gyro would do most of the fighting, and Johnny would help in the background. Gyro had this rotation ability, and Johnny has a weaker version that could back up Gyro. But sadly, he switched it where Johnny got all these versions of Tusk and rotation, WHICH GYRO TAUGHT HIM AND CHOSE NOT TO USE. Johnny was a worse version of Star Platinum, where while it made sense Jotaro was that strong, and had all those powers, it simply didn't for Johnny. He just powered every other chapter, his fingernail bullets constantly alternating between the rotation "natural ability" and a stand.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, while a fun thing to say, was just the author's way of keeping the cash cow alive. They had 15 chapters of in and out fighting, and then Dio again to prolong the part. Unlike all these other parts, which had these three episodes finales of just one constant adrenaline run battle, in which you were on the edge of your seat the whole time, it was fragmented. They clashed at least four separate times, in which they would attack, Valentine escape and killing an ally, the good guys catch up and lose an ally but injure him, valentine heal, and then repeat. Despite having the ability to just hide in a different dimension and wait for a while (as he had all but two corpse pieces), he decides to face them off, mano to mano, where he loses due to plot armor.

In Conclusion, Jojo Pt 7 was a hastily put part that copied and pasted too much of Pt5 and Pt3. When he saw people liked the 2D power-ups for bigger explosions and a self insert with a broken ability, Araki decided to do the same in pt7. It got to the point that the only part that felt like Jojo was the copied and pasted parts of Pt 5. Many times while reading this, I would think of this as just a manga, rather than a JoJo part. If you liked the first 3 parts, or the interesting stands that were in the middle three parts, I suggest you stop at Part 6, and save yourself from possibly the worst part in the story.

Overall 4/10