STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Episode 1

Content Warning: Body contorting violence, horses and other animals tripping and falling, casual 19th century racism and adjoining themes of manifest destiny. Depictions of medical trauma and medical neglect.

What’s it about? Washed up paraplegic jockey Johnny Joestar joins a cohort of hundreds of other racers on the Steel Ball Run, a San Diego to New York cross-country race with a $50 million prize. Joestar, however, doesn’t care about the money unlike all the other entrants in the ambitious race. He just wants to crack the secrets of Gyro Zeppeli’s balls of steel.

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Full disclosure: we, Chiaki Mitama, aren’t really that big on JoJo. In appreciating the artistry and hog wild concepts Hirohiko Araki is able to develop, we’ve never really had the interest nor stomach for the sometimes hyper-violent and misanthropic nature of JoJo villains and thus we often find ourselves straying away from this series when it gets down to actually watching the show. Thus you’re kind of getting a carte blanche review of Part 7. 

That’s probably not a huge issue though, because if you want someone to tell you how well Steel Ball Run does in technically adapting Araki’s vison, I’m sure there are literally dozens of people out there willing to be far more qualified than us to tell you how it fares in that realm.

Instead, we’re here to talk about America.

Steel Ball Run is all about America, and it captures that spirit of manifest destiny and the wild west, especially as it gets romanticized during the middle of the 19th century, although it takes place 40 years after California became a state, 25 years after the American Civil War, about a decade after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral and in the twilight years of the American Indian Wars. The flavoring is all there with horses, trains and revolvers, but the question remains: how does Araki adopt this romanticized vision of America?

In this respect, this show feels like a white man’s tale, even with a scattering of non-white characters taking part. Women, for that matter are also kind of an afterthought, as the only named woman in the show so far is Lucy, the race-runner’s wife.

The driving factor behind the show is this arc’s Johnny, Gyro, and Di(eg)o, who for the most part appear to just be white guys.

And, for that matter, Johnny’s story is as compelling as Gyro’s mysterious balls. Johnny is far from perfect as a person, but his desperation and raw skill in pursuit of fixing his broken body is intriguing and worth investment, though the story’s writing of disability is potentially its own can of worms. Meanwhile Gyro’s definitely “a character” with a grill of golden teeth, steel balls and 2kool4skool demeanor. I like these guys.

And then there’s Dio. He’s British. He’s obviously going to be a villain. Even I know to expect Dio in a JoJo anime. Bet he turns into a vampire or something.

There’s obviously a lot in store and I’m sure that’s going to be cool. But what of the other non-white racers such as Sandman and Pocoloco. There’s one more guy named Urmd Avdul. He rides in on a camel. Middle Eastern guy on a camel, how original. Anyway, he doesn’t really matter anyway since he drops out of the race in the first few minutes after demonstrating how cool Gyro’s powers are.

Meanwhile Pocoloco is depicted as comic relief. He is lazy and only finds competence in the race through his super powers of being cosmically incredibly lucky. He gets smacked around, no one really likes him and he’s just there to infuriate everyone. He reminds me of L.J. from the second Resident Evil movie. Not really a great look, to be quite honest.

Compared to him, I’m more invested in Sandman as a character, but I worry about how this show will be depicting Native Americans moving forward as well. The sounds of Flutes follows Sandman wherever he goes, and he seems dead set to win the race to buy something with the promised $50 million prize. It’s probably something noble, since he’s a competent rival looking out to stick it to the man. Yet, as the thematic outsider participating in the race, Sandman has as much quirk as gravitas.

And being a non-white character, like Avdul, Sandman is meanwhile relegated to participate in the race with a gimmick: he’s running on his own two legs because of “the natives’ unknown power.”

Of course, Diego and Johnny both have their super-human feats of horse riding to compete by sheer skill, and Gyro is also on a whole other level with his balls, but their skills aren’t tied to some racial gimmick or conduit for comic relief. It’s an element that gives you pause.

Violence-wise, it’s got that stone-cold murder you might expect from Araki. Contorting bodies with blood-splattering violence, as well as comically over-exaggerated horse riding accidents. It all lends to a visually exciting first episode, even if there isn’t a whole lot of outright fighting, per se. 

The bulk of the action focuses instead on the race itself, which is frankly great, and perhaps one of the main reasons why I felt so engaged compared to past JoJo entries. The race segment of the episode on the latter half of the episode, which is a double-length premier, feels very well-paced and very lean on the fat.

It’s overall a fun time if you don’t dwell on the potential pitfalls of racial representation and lack of gender parity, which I feel I must point out for the record, but in the big picture they could be very well minor contrivances to the story otherwise.