Steel Ball Run is my undisputed favorite manga of all time and is considered near unanimously among the JoJo community to be the best Part ever written. Should an anime adaptation come out and mess everything up, the reaction will be the same as when Berserk's 2016 adaptation was released, it's THAT hyped among our community. As a huge fan of JoJo, I enjoyed every part, no matter their flaws, but I never really considered any of them to be masterpieces. Until I read SBR. Araki must have had some kind of enlightenment or something because I don't understand how he could make something that completely transcends his previous works like this one did. It is so ridiculously ahead in every other part in everything- the art, the characters, the story, the tension, the emotion, the Stands, everything is light years ahead of even the best parts of when JoJo was Shonen, and it kind of makes me wish JoJo was released as Seinen from the beginning.

The story takes place in an alternate universe after Part 6, and it's almost like a re-telling of Phantom Blood, except it takes place in America in the 1800s, and is focused on a country-wide horse race. The main character once again has a tragic past and is helped by a Zeppelli in his own personal quest since they share the same goal, but gradually forge deep bonds of friendship and trust as the story progresses, and let me tell you, the story gets crazy as shit. Basically? The entire horse race is a sham orchestrated by the President of the United States in order to find the parts of a corpse who may or may not be Jesus Christ himself. The horse race itself is pretty intense to read already, and this plot makes the story even more intense and interesting.

The art is gorgeous to look at. Araki is one of my favorite manga artists ever and his art has been consistently beautiful throughout his entire career, but he's really outdone himself in this Part. It's probably because he has more time now that he's switched to Seinen, and every detail, character, and shading is so much better than anything he's ever done before. It serves to make the character and Stand designs pleasant to look at, and the environments and weather effects look amazing as well.

The characters are easily the best part about SBR though. We have Johnny Joestar, perhaps the most sympathetic JoJo to ever be created, and he is written with severe depression and manages to not feel ham-fisted in, which to me, is remarkable. His character development is amazing, and is tracked not only by his thoughts and actions, but also by his Stand, and let me tell you, Johnny's Stand is absolutely amazing, and it's one of my favorite Stands in the entire series. The "Jo-Bro", Gyro Zeppelli, is one of my favorite manga characters, period. He's intelligent, funny, badass, and he's super entertaining to read because of his colorful personality. The villain is also my favorite JoJo villain ever. Similarly to Handsome Jack from the Borderlands series, the villain of this part could also be viewed as a hero depending on your perspective. Blessed with one of the most confusing Stand powers ever created, a nigh-unmatched charismatic personality and his undying patriotism, I came to admire him, perhaps even more so than the protagonists themselves. Also, one of my favorite things about SBR is that they ACTUALLY MADE DIO INTERESTING! He is no longer the bland one-dimensional character with no redeeming qualities. He holds many of the flaws the original had, but he has positive traits to match. He's still the determined and ambitious young man we all know, but now he won't go on a killing spree for fun or scream how he's the strongest for 30 pages straight. If only Part 3's DIO was as good as this one.

I won't lie to you and say that it doesn't have a slow start, but I personally didn't have a problem at all. It seems most of my favorite manga/anime series all have an extremely slow start but once it gets into action, it's a non-stop thrill ride. It's one of the few times where I was genuinely moved by something I read. The anime adaptation is still years away, but I still look forward to the day where we can get this masterpiece animated. I highly recommend reading it (especially digitally colored, it looks gorgeous with the coloring). 10/10