Steel Ball Run

Steel Ball Run (スティール・ボール・ラン) is the seventh part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2004 and in Ultra Jump between 2005 and 2011.

Set in the U.S. in 1890, the story follows Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic ex-jockey, and Gyro Zeppeli, master in a mystic art named the Spin, as they compete with a vast number of others in the Steel Ball Run race: A mad-dash across America for a grand prize of 50 million dollars.

The Steel Ball Run Universe
Steel Ball Run describes a new continuity apart from that detailed in Parts I-VI of the series.

On top of core features to JoJo such as Stands, the story is marked by many references to the original series.

Transition to Ultra Jump
The story originally described as a "standalone alternative universe", after Chapter 23, Steel Ball Run transferred publication from Weekly Shonen Jump to seinen magazine Ultra Jump, upon which it was declared part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure canon.

In the monthly Ultra Jump, chapters are much longer. Perhaps coincidentally, between those chapters included in Volumes 7 – 8, Araki's style takes on greater realism.

Press Conference
The Steel Ball Run: Press Conference

For keeping English literature, Sandman is forced to flee his tribe. Momentarily outrunning pursuing horsemen; whilst escaping, another hand is seen separating from his right.

Away, in conversation with his sister, he indicates a multitude of perfectly hemispherical hand-sized depressions in a rock face; evidence of an impossible horseback leap; and the tool with which it is suggested that a white man made them.

He shows his sister a newspaper headline regarding the imminent Steel Ball Run race, with a grand prize of $50,000,000; as Steven Steel holds a press conference, giving the race's basic rules.

Corroborating several substantial cash prizes; starting September 25th 1890, there, on the Pacific San Diego beach; the race's goal is New York, in a distance of ~6000km, and a projected duration of ~70 days. The rules include that changing horses is not allowed; and though crime is not, weapons may be kept.

Gyro Zeppeli is introduced as he registers his entry. A man reaches and touches a Steel Ball at Gyro's waist before he is somehow forced to the ground, and it is revealed that he had taken $20 from Gyro's entry fee.

Gyro Zeppeli
Pocoloco is introduced as he notices the news of the race.

While he is being arrested, the thief continues to harass Gyro. Gyro offers a duel; and after striking his shoulder with a Steel Ball, when the thief attempts still to shoot him, his arm twists, and he shoots himself dead.

A man in a wheelchair observes that, incredibly, the Steel Ball was spinning throughout the event; and as he reaches and touches the same, still spinning Ball in Gyro's holster, he is raised to his feet.

In narration, the man introduces himself as Johnny Joestar; continuing, "This story is the tale of my beginning to walk"; or his growing into maturity.

Johnny Joestar
Johnny reflects on his reason for coming to the race start line, and on his youth as a new horse-racing talent.

An episode is recounted when he takes a date to see a play, and he cuts to the front of the queue. The man there protests, and after Johnny bribes the doormen to remove him, he reapproaches to shoot Johnny in the back.

Johnny awakens in a dark hospital, and after crying out, an orderly beats him; revealing that his legs are paralyzed, and that no one has visited, as the end of his fame.

In the present; Johnny is amazed as he stands and then falls back into his wheelchair. Gyro leaves, and Johnny desperately pursues, demanding explanation. Gyro tells him that it was a simple reflex; but, reaching out, just before or just as Johnny again touches a Steel Ball, his arm twists, and he is hung at his fingers on a nearby rafter.

Johnny resolves to discover the truth of this "Spin", and to enter the race in Gyro's pursuit.

3 Hours to Start
September 25, 1890 - 3 Hours to Start

Several hours before the beginning of the race, Gyro finishes to prepare his backpack. Going out of his tent, he witnesses Johnny trying without success to mount a horse he bought. Despite being hurt and battered, he persists, picking Gyro's interest.

Gyro then meets Sandman and indicates him where to go to subscribe to the race. Sandman participates to the Steel Ball Run claiming he win will the race by the strength of his legs alone.

The last preparations for the race begin. Steven Steel presents to the crowd the Steel Ball Run trophy, and all the 3,652 riders align at the start line.

Two minutes before the start of the race, Gyro sees Johnny's horse aproaching him, Johnny dragged off on the ground. Impressed by his determination, Gyro then gives Johnny a hint to mount his horse without legs, Johnny makes Slow Dancer lower his head, and does a backflip along its neck. Just as the announcer declares the start of the race, Johnny is now properly mounting Slow Dancer.

First Stage: 15,000 Meters
At 10 A.M., September 25th 1890 the transamerican horse race Steel Ball Run begins.

Steel invites his special guests to follow the first stage of the race in a specially prepared train. As the racers begin to move, Steel explains the particular rules of the race: the Steel Ball Run is divided into nine stages, separated by checkpoint cities, where the staff can record the order at which the horseriders arrive, and for illegal activity during the race; the first racer to finish a stage is granted a bonus in cash an a time bonus of one hour which he can use at the final stage, rewarding their skill during that stage.

Gyro quickly jumps ahead of the group, following him closely are Diego Brando and Urm Abdul, the latter of which confronts him physically with his camel, trying to push Gyro's horse Valkyrie down. Gyro throws one of his steel balls and lures Abdul into a cluster of cacti, causing him to fall off his camel and be disqualified of the race. Johnny watches the steel ball and see that it revealed the cacti to Gyro well ahead, allowing Gyro to use them to his advantage.

The Dried-Up River: Diego Brando
Diego Brando is the next racer to challenge Gyro's first place. At the public's amazement, Diego closes up to Gyro without accelerating. Johnny soons notices that he in fact decrypted Valkyrie's weakness. As Gyro watches behind him to his right, he's surprised not to see Diego anymore. Diego suddenly reappears right to Valkyrie's left. As Diego slowly gets ahead, he explains that Valkyrie, like all horse, has tics, in this case, every eight expirations, the horse deviates to the left, thus slowing down a bit. By only accelerating in that precise moment, Diego managed to catch up without exhausting his horse. Without the required expertise in horseracing, Gyro is then condemned to stay behind. However, as they pass a bridge over a dried up river, Gyro instead uses his Spin ability to stimulate Valkyrie's legs, making it leap forward beyond the normal capacity of a horse, getting ahead once again and destroying the bridge. Diego now unable to cross the bridge, falls behind as other racers get past him by going down the dried up river instead.

Meanhile, Pocoloco wakes up from deep sleep, and realizes that he's late to the race. Quickly mounting his horse, his anxiety is shadowed by his amazement at how smooth the terrain was rendered by the thousands of horse racing on it.

Pocoloco and the Sandman
Pocoloco is worried that despite the prediction of his incredible luck, him waking up late contradicts that prediction. He is however reassured as random strokes of luck happen to him and he joins the bottom racers. A group of racers stands before a canyon, having blindly followed Sandman. Being a risky shortcut, only Sandman and Pocoloco dare leap across it and both succeed, Sandman due to his cimbing skills and Pocoloco thank to Sandman's advice of using the lasso as a climbing rope. He then joins the bulk of the racers.

At the 6,000 meters mark, Gyro decides to take a shortcut through a forest nearby, potentially gaining 800 to 1,000 meters at the risk of colliding with the trees and branches. Pocoloco and Johnny, as well as a group of racers follow Gyro into the forest. As they enter it, Pocoloco chooses to close his eyes and accelerate.

Crossing the Forest
Pocoloco has now an absolute trust in his luck and is convinced it will protect him as he crosses the forest. Several horseriders are thrown out of their horses, but Johnny and Pocoloco remain unharmed. His horse going at a higher pace, Pocoloco is in front of Johnny, who wrongly theorizes that Pocoloco trusts his horse's instincts not to collide with the branches. However Johnny's superior horseriding skills allow him get ahead. Disturbed, Pocoloco opens his eyes, only to have a branch apparently dismounting him.

Yet, Gyro sees a horse slowly gaining terrain against him, Pocoloco, only partially dismounted, is being dragged on the ground, and his horse navigates all the more easily within the forest without its rider on it. Thus Pocoloco catches up to the frontrunner.

Gyro uses his steel ball again to make a small tree spread open out of his path,. The branches then return to their initial position, propulsing Pocoloco back on his horse in the process. Now out of the forest, Gyro is now challenged by Pocoloco as they begin to go down a natural inclination.

Long, Long Downhill
The steep slope naturally forces any horserider to slow down for fear of their horses tripping. Yet Pocoloco accelerates, confident in his luck and beginning to see his stand Hey Yah!. His horse does trip, only to land on a cow's corpse, and sliding down the slope on it. Since Pocoloco is now ahead of Gyro and gains ground without tiring his horse, preserving stamina which will be crucial in the final stretch, Gyro tries to stop Pocoloco toward a nearby cliff, hoping that the ensuring rockslide will be in Pocoloco's way. He fails, and also makes Sandman nearly trip, as the Indian suddenly appears ahead of the group climbing down the cliff. Another turnabout ensues as now Sandman takes the first place in that stage.

The Final Stretch
2,000 Meters Left

Until now blocked by a rock formation, Steven Steel and his guest's view of the race is restored. And they discover with incredulity that Sandman is the frontrunner, going at a speed comparable to a horse, and using his superior mobility in rocky terrain to take shortcuts. Steels provides an explication of Sandman's running technique, which allows him to recycle the impact of his feet against the ground into energy for propelling himself forward, without damaging his legs.

Now at the 3rd place, Gyro decides to make his horse sprint well ahead of the recommended distance after such a race, 1,500 meters from the finish line, surprising Pocoloco and taking second place.

As the finish line appears in the horizon, the front runners group forms itself. Johnny is caught up by Diego, who was using the other racing as air pressure shields. Johnny forcefully breaks the pressure barrier, at Diego's surprise to see a horserider of comparable skill of his.

1,000 Meters Left

Diego stay close to Johnny, using him as an air pressure shield, but Johnny forcefully breaks away from him, using his horse to throw rocks at Diego while accelerating.

The race is now a mad dash in which only the horse's power counts. From the rocky hills emerges Sandman, visibly tired but well ahead of the rest of the racers, who nonetheless catch up. Counseled by Hey Hah!; Pocoloco drifts to the left, using a branch as a springboard and leaping ahead of the group. Still Gyro inexorably catches up to then seizes the first place, using his cape as a sail to catch the Santa Ana wind as a rear wind. The first stage finishes, a triumphant Gyro crossing the finish line first, in 18 minutes and seconds.

(Bonus) How the Race Got Started
Steven Steel's colorful past is explored. It reveals that the Steel Ball Run was first imagined by Lucy Steel, then a young girl who suggested the idea to a down-on-his-time Steel. Waking up from a drunken stupor, Steven Steel is then approached by a group of sponsors who were interested by the event, and proposed to finance it, making Steel rich again. Grateful for Lucy, and realising she looked like his first love, he proposes successfully to her.

Disqualified from Victory
The first stage ended, Gyro suddenly receives a penalty due to having endangered Sandman's life earlier in the race. He is relegated to the 21st place, receiving no points despite his victory. Steven Steel's agent also informs him that Gyro came from Italy, on a ship owned by a famous rich family, raising further questions about him. After exacting a petty revenge by ruining the party's champagn, Gyro accepts to have Johnny follow him and teaches him the first lesson of the Spin: what matters is the ball's rotation, the rotation is what caused the various effects witnessed up to this point; Gyro also teaches him to get down from his horse using the Spin.

Meanwhile, Steven Steel and his wife Lucy are brought to a crime scene, where three racers where violently eviscerated in the middle of the first stage. The Steel Ball Run's prize money has made the race a dangerous endeavor as an unscrupulous racer seems to target rival horseracers in order to win.

Sheriff's Request to Mountain Tim
The local Sheriff has called the horseracer Mountain Tim, a bounty hunter, to help. A short investigation leads Mountain Tim to suspect that the murderer didn't employ any ordinary method to kill the victims, and identifies their horseshoes.

The second stage of the Steel Ball Run begins, this time, the racers have to cross 1,200km of desert where they will face the temperature and dehydratation, how they cross it is up to them. Gyro diverts from the expected path, instead choosing to cross 150km of the desert bypassing the first of the indicated watersources in order to win. Johnny has no choice but to follow him. The duo are then followed by fellow racer Mrs Robinson.

Across the Arizona Desert
Across the Arizona Desert: Continuing Along the Shortest Route

Catch the Rainbow
Catch the Rainbow (On a Stormy Night...)

Sugar Mountain
The Land of Promises: Sugar Mountain

D4C (Part 1)

 * SBR Chapter 66, SBR Chapter 67, SBR Chapter 68, SBR Chapter 69, SBR Chapter 70

D4C (Part 2)

 * SBR Chapter 73, SBR Chapter 74, SBR Chapter 75, SBR Chapter 76, SBR Chapter 77

D4C -Love Train-

 * SBR Chapter 78, SBR Chapter 79, SBR Chapter 80, SBR Chapter 81, SBR Chapter 82

Stars and Stripes - Outro
After being disqualified from the Steel Ball Run following his fight with Dio from Another Universe, Johnny Joestar boards a boat where he meets his future wife Rina Higashikata

Minor Characters

 * See also Minor Characters § Part VII: Steel Ball Run and Unnamed Characters § Part VII: Steel Ball Run

Chapters
Steel Ball Run consists of 95 chapters, compiled into Volumes 1 to 24 of the Jump Comics collected editions. The left column consists of the titles from the volumes. The right column consists of the titles from the Weekly Shonen Jump release of Part VII until Chapter 24, when it switches over to Ultra Jump.

Trivia

 * Part VII marks the first time since Part II: Battle Tendency that a Zeppeli is featured, and the first in which a character besides a JoJo is purported to be the main protagonist.
 * This arrangement changes when Part VII is revealed to stand within the JoJo continuity and Johnny Joestar's role expands.


 * Steel Ball Run (and its eponymous race) appears to be named after the film The Cannonball Run; also characterized by an American cross-country race populated by eccentrics.