STEEL BALL RUN JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Episode 7

One of my favorite things about JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is how it can be overtly silly, while also being thematically poignant. With this episode's introduction of the in-universe President of the United States of America, Funny Valentine, as the central antagonist, Steel Ball Run is now an anime about a cowboy who uses literal Steel Balls that he carries around in his scrotum-like holsters to fight against America's Dad. While I know this anime is literally about a cross-continental horse race with magical powers, the way Steel Ball Run brings its thematic underpinnings of conflicting masculinities to the forefront of any given episode is so dumb and so fun that I can't help but fawn over it.

Further establishing that this is a story about the relationship and tension between fathers and sons, episode six of Steel Ball Run opens with the reveal that Jesus Christ's dad, Joseph of Arimathea, made a map after Jesus' passing that overlaps with the paths and checkpoints of the Steel Ball Run race. Just as this is established, a mummified arm fuses with Johnny Joestar's own in the narrative's present, further entwining Johnny and Gyro into the grand conspiracy that's been impeding their progress in the race thus far.

The show cuts to Steven Steel's train car, and the toady Funny Valentine and his presidential posse reveal that the entire race is an excuse for government agents and contractors to retrieve these corpse parts covertly, or violently steal them from any race participants who happen upon them first. Expanding JoJo's roster of incredible villains, Funny Valentine makes a strong impression in his introduction, as it's clear that he views himself as the protagonist of this story. With the corpse being an all-powerful artifact, he views its procurement as his duty and right as America's President and has no qualms with committing murder to achieve this end. This kind of thinking where smaller evils are permissible when done under the guise of patriotism is a flawed moral framework that has long been used to justify horrific acts, and it's a testament to Steel Ball Run's writing that those ideas are distilled into and presented in Funny Valentine so quickly.

Cutting back to Johnny and Gyro, now bantering like college roommates, they're attacked by one of the President's agents, Pork Pie Hat Kid (I'm not using his lame localized name), who uses his winch-like stand that shoots cables and hooks out of his mouth. The sound direction for this Stand, Wired, is amazing, and the choice to use mechanical and industrial sounds for it really makes it stand out in this Wild West backdrop. Similarly, Greg Vinciguerra makes this villain of the week pop with a performance that sounds as if Boingo from Stardust Crusaders was raised by wolves.

With Gyro quickly indisposed and Johnny literally begging the assailant to just take the corpse arm and leave him alone, Johnny's diminutive Stand, Tusk, manifests from the impossible seam in his arm. This ending moment forms a nice parallel to a scene earlier in the episode, where Steven Steel submits to Funny Valentine because he sees no way to resist the more powerful man. Here, Johnny also leaps to submit, but with the manifestation of his Stand, he may now have the means to resist forces that wish to suppress and extort him.

While still largely a set-up episode, this latest Steel Ball Run installment still manages to entertain and intrigue. It's really cute to see Johnny and Gyro become fast friends, and I'm so eager to see Johnny gain the ability to more readily fight alongside Gyro against the U.S. Government, but also the trauma the two inherited from other patriarchal institutions like their families and Christianity. This episode is stuffed to the brim with the best and worst versions of “guys being dudes,” and the brazenness with which these ideas are presented is so gleeful that I can't help but smile every time I sit down to write one of these reviews.

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With JoJo's Bizarre Adventure playing no small part in his bisexual awakening, Lucas DeRuyter is thrilled to be reviewing the latest anime adaptation of a work that is nothing short of foundational to who he is in his adult life today. You can catch glimpses of his own bizarre adventures on his Bluesky account and read about how these exploits have informed his taste in media and his broader worldview by checking out his portfolio. He and his JoBros catch up at least once a week in ANN's This Week in Anime column, where they have big, but appropriate, reactions to everything going on in this bizarre industry.

STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is currently streaming on Netflix.