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“Steel Ball Run”: A review of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” Part 7, Episode 1

Micah Garringer with the first volume of "JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7."
Micah Garringer with the first volume of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7.”

Longtime fans of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” have finally received a new episode in Part 7 Steel Ball Run. The last animated piece of JoJo’s content was Part 6, Stone Ocean, which concluded back on Dec. 1, 2022.

Since March 19, 2026, Steel Ball Run has only one episode to its name. By the looks of it, it might be the only episode for a while. The second phase of the stream will not begin until later in 2026.

While we wait, here’s a summary of what happened in the 47-minute episode, with no plot point spoilers, of course.

Summary

The plot follows a Wild West theme in the 1890s with a bunch of horse racers signing up for a $50 million race across America, starting in San Diego and ending in New York City. Our main character is a young man in a wheelchair who currently has no interest in this race until he runs into Gyro Zeppeli.

Gyro had just signed up for the race while simultaneously stopping a pickpocket from stealing a portion of his buy-in. When things seemed to have calmed down, they suddenly escalated with the thief picking up his gun from the ground and pointing it toward Gyro, who had tossed it back to him in a previous scene, challenging him to a duel.

Instead of Gyro pulling out his gun, in the palm of his hand he pulls out a steel ball that spins at extremely high speeds, which he chucks into the gun arm of the thief. Then the ball begins to contort the thief’s arm muscles, making the barrel of his gun point at his own face.

Gyro begins to walk away from the scene once the man pulls the trigger on himself, and it’s at this point we see the young man in the wheelchair. His name is Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey who became paraplegic after a petty fight, and he was amazed at what Gyro had just pulled off.

He begins wheeling straight toward Gyro and reaches for a steel ball that’s still spinning in Gyro’s holster. Johnny couldn’t contain the energy and gets shocked as Gyro continues to walk away. But for a brief moment, he was standing on his own two legs once he made contact with the steel ball.

Johnny, now filled with hope that his legs might be able to function again, signs up for the race. But now he’s faced with the problem of getting on top of his horse. He’s got one day before the race starts, and he has made no progress yet.

On race day, Johnny keeps hold of his horse’s stirrups while he’s dragged to the starting line with a few minutes left to spare. He finds Gyro and tells him that there’s no way he’s giving up. Impressed with Johnny’s commitment, Gyro says to Johnny, “You already have the answer. If you have the will to ride the horse, why don’t you use it?”

As Gyro says this, Johnny’s horse licks him on the face, which gives him an idea. As his horse begins to lick him again, he reaches up its mane, and the horse begins to lift him. Right after his horse flips him onto its back, a gunshot goes off and the race begins.

Review

That’s all the plot I’ll talk about for now. I left out some character introductions because I truly believe this show is worth a watch. For instance, the art style and animation are some of the most unique pictures I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing new to JoJo’s, but it’s good to see it again after so long.

An example of this art style combined with animation is during an internal monologue Gyro has later in the episode. As soon as the monologue starts, the color palette of everything changes — everything, as in the characters, the backgrounds, the lighting and the outlines.

Some people may not like this and think the same character is similar, but blue now. But JoJo’s has had this running gimmick that’s basically essential to the plot. That gimmick is having a main character start explaining exactly what they just did and how they got away with it. That gimmick is why I think the show is beginner-friendly.

If there’s one thing that stands out about Part 7, it’s that you don’t need the other six parts to understand this one. Part 7 stems from its own branches with similar concepts and character traits but with zero recurring characters.

So yeah, 10/10, nothing but peak. Go give Part 7 a watch, and then I highly recommend starting from the beginning to see how bizarre “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” can get. If you want more information on Part 7, go to JoJo’s Bizarre Encyclopedia for more story details beyond just the first episode.

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