"My heart and actions are utterly clouded! They are all those of justice."
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will contain major spoilers as I feel like I can’t properly review without giving all (most) my thoughts if you came here to be persuaded to commence this masterpiece (spoiler-free) the conclusion should be sufficient.
# Background
JoJo's has been in serialisation since the dawn of 1987 to the present day. Throughout history, Araki has carefully implemented various famous events into his story for decades but the primary reference for Part 7 was "The Cannonball Run" in the 1970s, and it's safe to say that "The Steelball Run" exceeds its former counterpart.
Set in 1890, it stars Johnny Joestar a paraplegic former jockey who desires to learn the secrets to Spin and the mystery of the Saints Corpse, and Gyro Zeppeli a former executioner from the Kingdom of Naples who seeks to win amnesty for an innocent child on death row. In amongst these dreams, there runs a race that decides the outcome, The Steelball Run, organised by Mr. Steel and the President of the United States. A cross-continental race from San Diego to New York for the prize money of $50,000,000. Consisting of 3,852 racers, the mode of transport can be anything the participant desires the vast majority using horses and the remaining using obscure methods like running.
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##Initial Thoughts
It takes a very grounded concept, adds some cowboys, and adds a sprinkle of JoJo to it. Compared to previous installments there is very little levity in this part. Besides Gyro’s occasional goofy behaviour and his original “The Cheese Song,” this part is nowhere near as overtly silly. There are some “soft” moments like "How about we make a toast before we go get our horses?" To what...? We've lost everything.", there was something about this quote that leaves a lasting impression, especially from JoJos, you don’t expect this kind of emotion and depth within the characters. There isn’t much comedy to lighten the seriousness in this part and this was the key to a much more impactful atmosphere.
With exposure to the other parts, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is easily Araki's Magnum Opus. It's hard for a series to build traction and never lose consistency from start to finish. Unlike Part 3 where the demographic shifted from Ripple to Stands, the majority of that Part was just to showcase Stands and didn't have much volume to it besides the beginning and the very end.
SBR is one of the few exceptions, despite the changing demographics from alternating universes, it kept all the elements of JoJos that I love, the loveable characters, the creativity, the zany fights, and added a whole lot of maturity and nuance to it.
The inclusion of Jesus, as the Saints Corpse, was a unique and fleshed-out idea that was much more enjoyable than it was intended to be, obviously Jesus is a universal figure in the entire world and for Johnny to awaken his ability via the corpse was satisfying, to say the least. The power that this corpse held was boundless it was insinuated that if you managed to acquire all the parts it would grant success and prosperity to the one in control. This focal point was very well thought out and was directed in a way to not be perceived as a gag character but as an omnipotent being, as he should, guiding the chosen one to great opulence.
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Regarding worldbuilding in JoJo…
I can’t whitewash it, JoJo’s worldbuilding has been bland with respect to previous parts but nonetheless Araki was able to execute great worldbuilding in SBR.
As much as personally praise it indefinitely because in of itself it’s very hard to maintain a steady equilibrium by referencing so many real-life famous locations and events in one series and for it to be perceived as unique and otherworldly. But saying this the JoJo world is just normal Earth with a couple of changes to fit the story. An exception to this was the Pillar-Men civilisation and it’s a shame it wasn’t as fleshed out as much as I wanted it to be. After the conclusion of Part 6, it felt like Araki was imposed to elaborate his worldbuilding as he needed a basis to act on in the alternate universe without it being too similar and repetitive and he pulled it off incredibly.
As the course of the story went on Araki composed a map of North America showcasing the race progression slowly updating as they traverse through all the cities and landmarks. In the grand scheme of things, this was a very minor detail, but it stood out to me and heightened my enjoyment, not only did it help to keep track of the progression, but it had a sense of personal involvement like you were on the journey with them.
One of the reasons Steelball Run stands out from the rest is due to the insanely well-written characters. Every character bar some minor side characters has a level of motivation and nuance behind their actions that sympathise with Araki’s thematic intentions. One of my enjoyments with the characters was seeing their counterparts, it was a joy to see them compared to the former.
Main Characters 9.9/10
Johnny is often regarded as the best written due to his personality and development being the main reason. At the start Johnny is the only JoJo that starts their part without any good redeeming qualities, adjudged to be very selfish and annoying, his goals are individualistic for most of his story which some people even argue portrays him to be the real villain of Part 7. This attitude easily makes his development to the highest extent amongst all the JoJos. Throughout the story coming from a morally grey character develops deeply redeeming himself by the end of the story which transcends him into the most complex and riveting JoJo by miles.
I also like how Johnny is the complete polar opposite of his counterpart, Jonathan Joestar. His personality is very distinctive as compared to his overall character design, he has a very innocent look and demeanor but when push comes to shove the "Joestar Determination" can surpass all, I love the way this is personified by the flames of fire in his eyes.
In Revelation 1:14 the apostle described the powerful moment when he finally gazed into the eyes of the risen Lord, declaring, “…His eyes were as a flame of fire.” The Greek structure can be translated as “the eyes of him”, emphasising the fact that Jesus’ eyes were unequaled, unsurpassed, unmatched, and unlike anyone else’s eyes. This is a beautiful connotation that fits so well with the theme and I’m sure Araki referenced this specifically to Johnny’s dark determination and willingness to overcome any adversity in his path when the “flames” take over, it can also be insinuated as an intent to kill.
Gyro Zeppili is a charismatic, entertaining, and outgoing personality who we as a community can't help but love. He always offers aid to those in need, reluctantly or wholeheartedly. A character that has a multitude of layers and complexities. Gyro is probably by far the most relatable character in the entirety of JoJo, he is fully comprehended with thoughts and emotions of his own. In Robert McKee's novel “Story”, he states that "True Character comes out in the choices a human makes under pressure". From this, we can infer that Gyro has the most "character" because he is put under the most pressure.
A trope that everyone knows is an anime character explaining their ability or power this was one of the things I loved about Gyro’s character was the speech detours, they were brilliant. He managed not to make it tedious. Any situation, absolute terror, or calm horseback ride, Gyro would with good grace teach and mentor Johnny to make him stronger and desired to help him reach his potential with his lessons.
However, the arc that reinforced the strength of Gyros's character like any other. And that was The True Man's World. This arc independently sold Gyro as a character. It could be argued that Ringo Roadagain was the reason for this arc's success as much as they elevated each other’s character to the next level, but I believe that this arc was Gyro’s podium to stand on. For me, The True Man's World arc is the conclusion of Gyro's story and the beginning of Johnny's. Gyro cast a shadow over Johnny for the majority of the early stages and made me question who the main character truly is.
Lucy is by far one of the best female characters in all of JoJo and is one of the most intriguing and important of the non-Stand users. She is the epitome of selflessness. Throughout the story, despite being fragile and stand-less she throws herself into danger to protect her husband, Steven Steel, against many foes stronger than herself. Originally, I thought she was just protecting Steven for his affluence and fame, but no, she turns out to be a good, kind person.
She is also extremely resourceful, being adept at learning skills like lip reading and at tricking people despite her young age. As shown in the later stages of the story she was able to manipulate a genius and “save the day”.
It was fitting for her to become one with the Saint’s Corpse as she was the purest and kind-hearted of them all. She was admired by friends and foes for her beauty and determination. I can’t lie it was a bit awkward seeing Valentine attempt to… yeah wasn’t great but other than that written to near perfection.
It is I, Dio!
Actually not quite…
Diego follows the same themes as his counterpart in the original universe but with a twist, in this part he was a good-natured boy raised with love from his mother but after witnessing his mother pass on by tetanus after sacrificing her hands for his wellbeing, he despised the “social and economic state of the world”, and he developed a deep-rooted resentment to everyone around him allowing him to climb the social ladder with insatiable ambition. Dio is a genius and will always be a genius excelling in everything he participates in doing and is extremely proficient in doing so making him a fierce competitor in and out of the race.
His backstory out of all of them was the only one that managed to make me cry, it was so surprising seeing Dio ever be this vulnerable, it’s just so hard to hate him. If this was the Dio we received in Part 1 everyone would’ve loved him but fortunately, we didn’t because we needed him to be evil, or else the Joestar destiny would've been void.
Dio’s selfishness is often frowned upon, but I adore this aspect of his character, most protagonists no matter how evil have attachments and feel slight guilt for the people they kill or sacrifice. But Dio thanks them for dying for him, portraying himself as an omnipotent being above everyone and everything.
Towards the end of the story, to defeat Johnny Joestar, President Valentine pulled an alternate dimension version of Diego Brando into the “original” universe. His stand power? You might’ve guessed it, it is in fact, “The World”.
Yes, this Diego is an alternate version of Diego Brando but is also an alternate version of Dio Brando, with the same powers and personality as Dio Brando.
Confusing?
Yes, exciting?
Most definitely.
"You can't beat Dio... You are one who has continually inherited! Dio is different! He has stolen everything, from his horse skills to his social status, even food. Ever since his birth, Dio has been a person who has even stolen destiny! Dio is someone who's hungered!"
Funny Valentine is an antagonist that did nothing wrong, almost. To elaborate I’ll need to explain his character. After his duty as a soldier and his experience with the “Devil’s Palm” Valentine became President, he was able to begin his search for the corpse parts by establishing the race we all know as “The Steelball Run” alongside Steven Steel, he had to achieve his ambitions this way as the corpse scattered across the land over years of natural disturbance. As mentioned earlier the corpse parts were able to grant good fortune and prosperity to the one in control and for Valentine, he wanted America to prosper and be rid of war and impurity in the nation he was proud of.
I like to think of Valentine as an idealism, not a single person acting in pursuit of the greater good not dwelling on personal desires for the greater good being America’s success. Hypothetically if he was able to successfully and completely acquire the corpse parts all misfortune dealt with in America would be redirected to everywhere else around the world bringing more chaos and ruin unintentionally, so depending on how you perceive his Funny Valentine could be the protagonist or the antagonist.
But the core of Valentine is the philosophy of “taking the napkin first”. This follows the directive of the left or right napkin and that choice is reliant on the person who picks up the napkin first deciding the outcome for everyone else around the table. So if you take the "right" napkin, consequently, everyone else has to take the same as you. I was stunned that this philosophy is a true analogy for modern society as a whole, it’s a basic concept but on the bigger scale, it’s undeniably true. People want direction and someone to follow and Valentine wants to be “that person” in society.
This is what truly makes Valentine one of the most unique villains ever. The usual cliché for the majority of antagonists would be to change the world entirely to fit the benefit themselves but Valentine doesn’t try to change how the world operates or how people think, he found a way how to take advantage of how the world works without changing a single thing.
Valentine was a stellar antagonist with a lot of depth and intuitiveness which deserves more respect among the other greats.
Supporting Characters 9.7/10
Ringo Roadagain is one of the most incredible minor antagonists in fiction. It is crucial to know about his childhood and how it drives Ringo to the acquisition of “True Man’s World”, to summarise, his family got killed and violated by an army man in the middle of the night. He was recognised to have a very brittle body due to an unknown illness, in the middle of the night an army man murdered and violated his family after that Ringo found himself held at gunpoint but miraculously was able to maneuver and kill the army man in a “duel”.
Through this event, Ringo experienced a newfound power, and his illness miraculously disappeared. Ringo created his philosophy from this experience, claiming that he had overcome a wall and entered what he called "The True Man's World," believing it to be the only path worthy of following. His idea of "The True Man's World" became the meaning of his life, leading him to live his following years as a duellist. In his philosophy, he believes the path of becoming a "true man" is one of continuous improvement and views himself as an incomplete person as a result. Ringo thinks that personal betterment through defeating others in a fair one-on-one duel is the purest form of battle.
This kind of development in a fleeting minor antagonist that only appears for one arc is unreal, alongside Ringo’s development in the duel against Gyro he brings development out of Gyro as well and becomes a “true man” when it ended. Honestly one of my favourite arcs out of everything I’ve seen.
Hot Pants is a solid character, she peaked in the Tubular Bells arc and had an interesting stand, to say the least, her, but I wasn’t too fond of her “Cream Starter” it just came to feel too forced and was only there to suit the plot convenience like it was inevitable that the cast would take major hits and get severely injured, it felt like she was just there as a substitute hospital or something. Regardless her backstory was great, and it was interesting to see a nun character in JoJo.
Spoiler, click to view Her death was insulting though I can’t lie it’s not like the fact I’m mad that she died but the fact it didn’t get acknowledged by anyone was awful. I get how she could’ve been forgotten in the heat of everything happening, but we don’t even get any closure, damn.
Wekapipo, the royal guard turned assassin. His life turned to ruin after defending his sister in a duel. A duel that stripped him from his title, exiled him from the Kingdom of Naples, and put his sister in grave danger. Despite working under the same practice as Gyro, The Steel Balls, his outlook, and philosophy couldn’t be any more different, and wanted to prove that his destructive Wrecking Balls were far superior but only through meeting and being bested by Gyro can Wekapipo. After the deciding battle, Wekapipo strived for self-betterment breaking free from his uncomfortable and miserable past and leading the path to righteousness.
Thank you Wekapipo for giving such a heavenly dose of serotonin. This is one of my favourite panels, the longest Johnny Joestar, in existence. The hype surrounding this moment is unparalleled, when all three of them came together to achieve a common goal (for a split second) was so gratifying.
”The Zeppeli Family’s Steel Balls...I will surpass them!”
… are by far one of my favourite power systems in fiction the creativity is unbelievable. In this part especially I loved the names of the stands like: Oh! Lonesome Me, Ball Breaker, or Catch the Rainbow they were all so playfully named, refreshing. Part 7 stands in particular are some of the most enjoyable and "out there" in the series they had certain uniqueness to them compared to previous parts. The majority of which were very rudimentary and simple (e.g. Mountain Tim or Hotpants) and at times they were able to even the playing field against stands undeniably stronger than them in every capacity. This section will consist of my top 3 favourite Stands in SBR:
Tusk was one of my favourites though I loved its similarity to Echoes in Part 4, in which it had multiple forms and grew stronger abilities through experience and determination. I think the problem with Echoes was that once it got to its final Act it rarely ever reverted to its previous stages because it was just so busted. But Tusk utilises this very well and uses specific Acts more frequently depending on the situation not necessarily saying that Tusk 4 couldn’t handle the majority of situations, but Johnny just does it better.
Early image of Tusk Act 4.
D4C, I was expecting a time-related stand or power-up, but this is just as dangerous, his ability allows him to access neighbouring dimensions and used it as a pathway to manipulate confusion amongst his enemies as he can pull out infinite “copies” of himself and drag them into the original dimension. I loved that; it took so many chapters for me to grasp what was happening I didn’t have a clue what was happening until Valentine explained it himself. I was thinking of everything it could’ve been regarding the time aspect, but nothing made sense lol.
100.5 Sketches
For my third pick, it was definitely a tossup between Catch the Rainbow and Civil War. They were both very original and very entertaining to read but whereas CTR aesthetically captivating CW was emotionally captivating. Its ability was to manifest objects or people the target has left behind, given up, or feels guilt towards. I love the idea that only once you fully accept your past you can break the chains of guilt and move forward. This stand as well as the arc was very important for Johnny’s character development as he was able to grow under this influence, because leading up to this point Johnny has spent his life blaming other people his entire life, this is represented by Johnny literally pointing his finger at others like a gun but through the guidance of Jesus, he directs the blame towards himself points the gun at himself thus accepting the responsibility of his past actions.
## Spin:
“Spin your nails in the golden ratio!... then you should have the ability to harness the power of infinity.”
It’s up there for contender of most intricate power systems there is in any fictional series, but not entirely impossible when you understand the basic phenomena. Basic uses of this said power can naturally enhance your destructive capabilities of a projectile; a Steel Ball is capable of destroying great masses of rocks, imbued with Spin, and inflicted on your body can cause it to harden and enable it to transmit energy elsewhere granting the user or the target temporary supernatural sturdiness.
Spin has high rotatory speed, and this can produce large amounts of friction that used on the environment can prove useful in unconventional fights such as unfurling a sail or unraveling bark from a tree. The inclusion of the Golden Rectangle to me was ingenious I love how perfectly it synergises with the power and takes it to a whole new level; it focuses on a rectangle with a proportion equal to approximately 16:9 which allows the user to create a perfect rotation and with an infinite amount of energy, using the environment as a template to visualise and emulate this.
I’ve always loved power systems that have layers and ones that are simply just enjoyable, it’s good to have a balance of both and Araki is always able to deliver keeping it interesting and technical, by far my favourite, a good balance of depth and power that can exceed all expectations.
In my personal opinion Araki’s art is some of the best in the industry and one that takes on the most evolution over years of work. Especially in SBR, his art takes a turn and expands into something greater than seen before. Part 7 is very heavily influenced by the theme of exploration and world-building which can be compared to Egypt in Part 3, but unlike Stardust Crusaders, Araki has been able to utilise the geography of locations and illustrate unreal pieces of landscapes.
Araki has been known for his art, as he has featured in many popular magazines and brands, such as Gucci. In the later parts of JoJo, Araki has shined through his character compositions and designs, as much as we love the brolic and Ronnie Coleman-eske bodies of Jonathan and Jotaro it makes for better and more well-rounded relation with designs like Johnny or Gappy. Muscle is a contingent for strength but the purpose for the slimmer bodies and realistic proportional anatomy can be shown that you can have strength without relying on strength.
It's clear that Araki’s art quality is nowhere near as intricate or meticulous compared to Miura’s “Berserk” or Inoue’s “Vagabond” but Araki’s art is still incredibly detailed and expressive in his style. One of his hot points that has become near perfection is his panelling, he is a master at shifting direction and focus to paint flawless sequences within these, the only person I hold to be comparable at this level is Eiichiro Oda.
Araki's illustrations especially in Steelball and JoJolion put me in such a state of euphoria, pure bliss.
There were other examples of landscapes and geographical locations, but they were encased in panels that were hard to render, regardless this shows more than enough of Araki's capabilities.
Tusk Act 4, is one of the most terrifying amongst the stands and is skillfully drawn. I love this panel, the shading around Tusk is so clean. Wish I could draw like Araki.
A double spread of Johnny's reflection, the way Araki was able to artfully compose a series of events within two pages. I feel like the reason for the absence of panels was to show the rush of thoughts and memories at that one specific point, beautiful.
Now, this is my all-time favourite. A melancholic end. The frequent use of panels over the double-page was a contrast to the previous image in which Araki presented the goodbye as a deliberate slowness to convey the emotion of sadness and acceptance.
Conclusion: 10/10
To conclude this very hefty review, this is the only part of JoJo and one of the very few of narratives of all time that I class a 10/10. Steel Ball Run is quite possibly the culmination of everything I’ve ever wanted from a series balancing emotional growth with extraordinary fights that captivate you throughout the read that I’ve rarely seen matched in any capacity anywhere. Fight construction that will lead you binging, to art that will leave you speechless, and a compelling narrative that will test the limits of your cognitive function. To say that this cast is near-perfect would be an understatement, I doubt there's a stronger main cast in all of fiction. While although there are some minor characters that didn’t get fleshed out or got closure, the characters in focus were so eloquently written it should be a crime. If it wasn’t obvious enough by now, I love Steel Ball Run and I hope you do too!
