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

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure stands, in my opinion, as the greatest manga I’ve ever experienced. While Stone Ocean's complexity ultimately led to its drop in popularity, it allowed Araki the chance to flesh out thematic moments and deliver his best work yet. That came in Steel Ball Run, where a great series truly ascends into a masterpiece.

With that said, let’s dive into Steel Ball Run—its themes, structure, and how it compares to other parts of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. We'll also touch on whether its beginning might be misleading and how the series fares against its anime adaptation.

So, what is this show about?

Each part of Jojo's Bizarre ... Adventure revolves around a central theme: a love for humanity, often connected to karma—how our actions shape fate, family, and community. Though every part introduces its own thematic elements, they all fit within this overarching framework.

In the first trilogy, Araki focuses on what it means to be a hero. The second trilogy, while loosely connected, is still built around the concept of karma. With Steel Ball Run, Araki embarks on a new trilogy. And the core theme for this arc? Identity. The story begins with the protagonist, Johnny, seeking to find his place in the world—starting with the most basic challenge of learning to walk on his own two feet.

First things later, let’s talk art direction.

Araki’s artistic brilliance reaches new heights in Steel Ball Run. The compositions are exquisite, sometimes mind-bendingly surreal. This is around the time Araki started gaining global recognition, and it’s clear why—his artistry takes a creative leap.

In this new universe, stands take on an even more imaginative role. They’re less about brute force and more about how creatively they can be used, leading to some of the most unique and inventive battles in the series. The addition of the "Spin" power system complements these surreal battles, expanding the possibilities for how confrontations unfold. This system, in tandem with the deeper thematic exploration, results in some of the most visually stunning and conceptually intricate moments in all of Jojo’s.

So, how does it start?

The beginning can be misleading. At first glance, it seems like a simple horse race across America—a compelling premise, but it eventually evolves into something much grander. Interestingly, the series undergoes a shift after the first arc, including a change in its publication venue, which coincides with a noticeable improvement in both the quality of the art and the depth of the chapters. Don’t let the first few volumes dictate your overall opinion of this work.

What about the characters?

The characters in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure often feel like hidden gems, full of depth that may not be immediately obvious. They enter and exit the narrative, sometimes without completing their arcs, which adds to the sense that they exist in a larger world beyond the scope of the story. This gives the series an authenticity, as though Araki is recounting events from a real world, where people have their own lives that occasionally intersect with the main plot.

Stands add to this dynamic, offering insight into both the characters' outer and inner selves. The stand battles in Steel Ball Run are less about direct combat and more about unraveling puzzles, revealing the deeper complexities of the characters involved. Johnny’s growth, intertwined with the story, themes, and stand system, is a standout. His development is masterfully executed, reaching a new high for character-driven storytelling in the Jojo's series.

What about the story itself?

Like earlier parts, Steel Ball Run maintains an episodic structure, but the individual episodes are so extensive that they feel like mini-arcs within the larger narrative. Each villain not only serves the plot but also contributes meaningfully to the thematic exploration. With more time devoted to each encounter, the storytelling and character moments gain additional depth, making the pacing feel more deliberate and impactful.

Then, what did I think of it as a whole?

Steel Ball Run, along with Jojolion, are my favorite manga by a significant margin. If you’re new to the series, Steel Ball Run stands out as particularly appealing to Western audiences, often cited as the best part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It ranks highly for good reason and is a masterpiece in its own right.

If you’re looking for a manga of undeniable quality, this is it. Steel Ball Run is truly a work of art and an experience I cannot recommend enough.

Ok to start it off, i'm a huge jojo fan and i really like watching it. BUT, as i can see, reading it is not my cup of tea for THIS specific serie. I just couldn't get into it, which saddens me a lot because i heard the part 7 is the best one so far... I WILL watch it when it will have an anime adaptation one day, but for ME, and ONLY me, i couldn't enjoy part 7 as a manga. NOT because it's bad, but because i just couldn't get into the story. I will still recommand it if you like jojo, ... but if you only watched the animes, i would maybe suggest to wait for the anime adaptations.

***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