After Stone Ocean ended back in 2022, the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure anime is returning with an adaptation of Steel Ball Run.
Studio David Production announced the upcoming series at the JOJODay stage event. The short teaser reveals we’re going to 1890, two years after the first series, Phantom Blood & Battle Tendency. This period’s Joestar is Johnny, a paraplegic ex-jockey in the United States who’s entered into a cross-country horse race from San Diego to New York. There’s $50 million on the line, but for Johnny, the race is a perfect oportunity to learn about Gyro Zeppeli, a fellow racer and former Neapolitan executioner whose steel balls briefly restored his ability to walk. Pretty soon, both men are on the run from other racers looking to kill them at the command of the race’s sponsor, Steven Steel.
Steel Ball Run is the seventh main arc of Hirohiko Araki’s Jojo manga which ran from 2004-2011. Its setting also launched a brand new continuity in the Jojo’s saga, with has continued with JoJolion and the current The JoJoLands manga, both set centuries later. In celebration of the new anime, there’s a caravan showing off monochrome originals and colored reproductions of artwork from Steel Ball’s manga run. (Thanks, JoJoNews.) The exhibition will also feature the transcript of Steel Ball’s first chapter and sell merch based on it and its two sequel series. It’ll start in Shibuya from April 13-24, then travel to other locations across Japan.
As for the Steel Ball Run anime, it currently doesn’t have a release window. But the first volume of its manga is getting an English-language version hitting North American stores on May 27.
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