Reseñas de libros

Ione3
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
Steel ball run is another example of why JoJo should have ended in Pt 3. Despite having a score of 9.22, it was easily the worst arc of JoJo, taking place after another good point to stop the show. Containing a mediocre plot, bad stand writing, bad characters, and horrible battles makes me wonder about Araki's credibility and his ability to write two solid parts in a row.

Going into Steel Ball Run, I was expecting a good story, but got the typical transcontinental race. Yes, the typical transcontinental race that takes place in any Midwest American set anime. This plot is by no means unique or different, meaning that there are a couple of things they can do to make the plot entertaining. One, they can add great characters to balance it out, two, they can add a new element that makes sense and is interesting to it, or three, they can make it so over the top and unbelievable, that it comes off as amazing. What did Part 7 try to do? Every single one of them, but not in the capacity needed. And one other significant change is the change to a seinin, meaning long chapters that either flow greatly or are slower than Polnereff in turtle form. And as you could guess, it was the latter.

Now the first problem with this part is the characters, who were insufferable, and impossible to watch without getting annoyed at them. We have Johnny Joestar, who is just annoying, and somehow powers up even more than Goku. Now there are so many problems with him, starting with his personality. Araki likes to make each Joestar different and unique so that the parts are never dull, and I respect that, as it helps each part feel different. But when you disable a person for personality and then forget it, you've gone wrong. Johnny seems to be like Speedwagon, a guy who is there just to react. If you look at his character interactions, he just seems to narrate what happens, while Gyro at least adds something. He acts more as the peanut gallery than a character, as he has to specifically tell us what is happening on screen at all times.

And despite this disability, it seems like he doesn't have one. Aside from the first chapter, he just trots on his horse, pretending he isn't. And unlike FMA, where it shows these small scenes that convey how disabled Ed and Al are, it entirely skips over it. In every fight, he somehow lands on the ground and can somehow move around. It's understandable you can drag yourself with your arms, but if you are paralyzed waist down, you don't have a vast range of motion. It is also pretty hard to move around using your hands while shooting fingernail bullets out of the same ones you are using to move. His broken powers didn't help either, as he just becomes more of a Merry Sue. There was no way Johnny mastered those techniques in seconds that Gyro spent his whole life learning. The one bit of character that is forced upon us is the noble, and his somewhat pacifistic tendencies, used as buildup for when he goes “Hard Mode.” This switch and mentality makes no sense, especially if we look at his backstory and how he deals with enemies in fights. It was obviously an allusion to the nobility of Jonathon in PT1, but just does not work. And his final stand was GER all over again, and equally as bad.

The 14-year girl married to the 50-year-old balding man was Araki's poor attempt with mystery and suspense. He tries to have both parts happening simultaneously but fails and ruins one of the few real characters. Her being scared is a natural reaction, but there is no way a scared out of her mind 14 year old would decide to infiltrate the people with these magical powers without any of her own. Her character, who was portrayed as innocent and bashful quickly turns into a stealth operative who knows which buttons to press, and which ones not too. Hot pants who was only there a healer, fine to do as l
ong as she doesn’t be painted as a complex or main character, but sadly that is the case. She receives a character arc that doesn’t resolve, only mentioned in a stand fight, and literally the reason the fight turned out to be that way. She gets a backstory that starts, never finished, and has a clear goal for her to finish it, but it never does. Jesus, who was literally the crux of the whole part, was left criminally unexplained and showed up in that same fight which Hot Pants created. He appears only there, but never appears again.

Remember how this is a race, and they have to name the winners and give them designs. Well, Araki seemed to be lazy, as every single drawn character that was not the main trio, was a villain. That's right; the second problem is the villains, and what's worse, their motivations. It seems like each villain group on each part had some reason to oppose the main characters, aside from the ones in SBR. Despite going in a race that would give them 5Billion dollars, I repeat 5 Billion Dollars, they would rather risk it because a shadowy figure said they would get superpowers. Then they would accept and go to deathmatches so that a new character can take the spot of an opponent when they die. They never questioned that an insane amount of characters kept dying in the race, and didn’t connect the dots in what happened. Unlike part 3, where they had a flesh bud that made them follow DIo, or Part 5, where they were loyal assassins, and members of the Mafia that were contracted to do it, the these people just followed a random guy who they didn’t even know their identity. The villain writing was really slacking in this part, and probably the worst in the series. There is suspension of disbelief, and then there is asking someone to freeze it mid air while in a typhoon larger and rotating faster than Jupitor.

The third issue is the combat, which really suffers in this part. Remember how there was Hamon, and Araki discarded it when he said it was a one-trick pony. Remember when he created stands as a replacement and a whole new concept, that would develop interesting fights that had to depend of whit and who could figure out each others stand abilities. Remember how the universe reset would only change the situations people were in, as they were merely transferred to a different world.

Well, that shouldn't change stands, but they did anyway. In this part, it didn't seem they had stands but magical abilities. It appeared to be a mix of the old stands and new ones, as some people had magical powers and others straight-up stands. This also further ruined the combat. While the fun of stands were these unique and unknown abilities that they had to decipher and beat, these fights set up just boring fights like Hamon. However, you have to give credit to Araki as he attempts to make it like stand fights.......... and fails. The characters over-explain every action when it is blindingly clear, and the combat isn't necessarily combat, just Gyro and Jonny using the same attack repeatedly. While stand fights didn't need amazing choreography as they were weird unexplainable abilities, Pt 8 has to, as all the main characters do is shoot balls and shoot fingernails. These battles also have to be interesting, as every episodic chapter or set of chapters involved someone attacking them. The characters are bad, the story is boring, so what else do these chapters bring aside from fights? And the stand formula only hurts this part, as even the week's predictable stand with a cool ability, becomes a generic battle lasting five chapters, where we see the same tactic be employed again and again.

The fourth issue is the story, which is both slow and pointless. As mentioned earlier, the story is a weak excuse as one, just a way to make it that there are characters nearby and they could look for the corpse. While all these other Jojo parts are looking for a dangerous villain and targeting them, this one is just looking for a corpse. Their whole reasoning for the corpse was the power lust Johnny felt, and nothing else. And because of this, they are perfectly fine with risking their lives for a power rush(as Gyro points out way too many times). The story's pacing was also abysmal, as each chapter was an unrelated fight. Consisting of pointless battles to convince you that it is a seinen, this further slows down the borderline unmoving plot. In each chapter, there had to be a conflict in which they further ruined the part. Rather than have a couple of understandable battles and the other chapters focusing on the race and the characters, it only did battles. If you think about it, the first stage was a race, and then it was completely forgotten, until the last five chapters with Diego, where these background characters suddenly appeared after 80 chapters of no screen time. And Again, while Part 3 and Part 5 had a similar set up, they used their insane fights, and their characters to stay interesting, not mentioning that in each fight they either got close to Egypt(as shown on the map each episode) or they had found another clue or lead against the boss.

And finally, the power escalation.

Now there comes the point in any show that there has to be a power boost of some sort. There is little tension in a fight where the bad guy is as strong as the Shōnen protagonist in the first episode. And like P5, this is a part where Araki goes overboard, where the somewhat grounded in reality powers, spiral out of control(No pun intended). With Gyro's introduction and their team-up, Araki set up that Gyro would do most of the fighting, and Johnny would help in the background. Gyro had this rotation ability, and Johnny has a weaker version that could back up Gyro. But sadly, he switched it where Johnny got all these versions of Tusk and rotation, WHICH GYRO TAUGHT HIM AND CHOSE NOT TO USE. Johnny was a worse version of Star Platinum, where while it made sense Jotaro was that strong, and had all those powers, it simply didn't for Johnny. He just powered every other chapter, his fingernail bullets constantly alternating between the rotation "natural ability" and a stand.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, while a fun thing to say, was just the author's way of keeping the cash cow alive. They had 15 chapters of in and out fighting, and then Dio again to prolong the part. Unlike all these other parts, which had these three episodes finales of just one constant adrenaline run battle, in which you were on the edge of your seat the whole time, it was fragmented. They clashed at least four separate times, in which they would attack, Valentine escape and killing an ally, the good guys catch up and lose an ally but injure him, valentine heal, and then repeat. Despite having the ability to just hide in a different dimension and wait for a while (as he had all but two corpse pieces), he decides to face them off, mano to mano, where he loses due to plot armor.

In Conclusion, Jojo Pt 7 was a hastily put part that copied and pasted too much of Pt5 and Pt3. When he saw people liked the 2D power-ups for bigger explosions and a self insert with a broken ability, Araki decided to do the same in pt7. It got to the point that the only part that felt like Jojo was the copied and pasted parts of Pt 5. Many times while reading this, I would think of this as just a manga, rather than a JoJo part. If you liked the first 3 parts, or the interesting stands that were in the middle three parts, I suggest you stop at Part 6, and save yourself from possibly the worst part in the story.

Overall 4/10

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worldstraveller6
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
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
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myabandonedacc1
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
-From jojo part 2 I seek a part where I could give a 10 and here it is.
-Jojo part 7 is definitely my jojo favorite and the steel ball run manga was one of the best I've ever read
-I'm looking forward to seeing the anime adaptation (although it will take a long time XD)
-Johnny best jojo
-Gyro best brojo

Story: 9
A very specific and disconnected theme from the other jojo parts (though not new) the idea of ​​crossing the US in a horse race worth a great deal of money is something
which I confess I thought wasn't going to be so interesting for a jojo theme but I'm glad I was wrong, the theme works amazingly and the journey is worth more than
the conclusion is so good that it is. He had excellent bows and good fights (others not so much) and really structured a great base for the theme.

Art: 9
I don't have much to complain about the art, for me the SBR trait is the best version of Araki's trait, I just don't say it's perfect for some points where the pictures look weird but most
of the pages the art is very beautiful and consistent, and I will not forget to talk about the covers that are wonderful to me

Characters: 10
To me one of SBR's strong points, the characters are amazing: Johnny is a protagonist who may seem boring at first but throughout the manga he is absurdly well built and
to me is the best jojo ever, Gyro is a charismatic character and very well done, and the friendship of these two for me is simply the best thing in the manga, Lucy even not being
As well-exploited as he could still be an interesting character, Pocoloco is comical mainly for the events throughout the race and Valentine is a villain who despite being a
bastard has a decent motivation. Needless to comment on the exotic design of the characters because after 7 parts I already understand Araki's artistic point of view. Is about
the stands of this part, because they follow the standard formula of enemy stand users some of them are bad but others are very good like "mandom", the protagonist's stand is great
in both design and craftsmanship, and Valentine's stand is also well thought out

Overall: 10
In a general consensus for me is the best part of jojo, counting on the best protagonist, best brojo and just do not say better villain because the Yoshikage Kira from part 4 is the best for me. All the
Part 7's structure is very good and works well from chapter 55 the manga begins its best phase and so goes to the end, although I expect more from the end it is acceptable. That's it, read SBR!
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ZorroGuevara8
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
I am a very big jojo fan. However I am an even bigger Part 7 fan.

It's a well known fact that Araki at first wanted part 7 to be a part of a different series and it shows quite clearly. There is a big shift in the tone and pacing compared to part 6.

Story: 9/10
The Story stays entertaining all the way through. The horse racing at the start of the part would be serviceable enough on it's own but as the story progresses it gets much much better. "Who shot Johnny Joestar" is still the most confusing stuff I've seen in a manga in a while.

Art: 9/10
Jojo art is interesting because it isn't necessarily the best looking I've seen however Araki's ability to adjust his style to the tone of the manga is outstanding. The close ups in part 7 are probably the best in all of jojo and the stand designs definitely reach their peak in part 7 too

Character: 10/10
Part 7 has the most well written characters in all of jojos , and that's not even a hot take. Funny Valentine is my personal favourite character in the whole series and Johnny is a close second. Characters in shonen are usually clear cut as either "good guy" or "bad guy" but now that part 7 is a seinen the morals of characters are allowed to be more flexible allowing characters such as Funny Valentine and Sandman to be villains whilst not really being evil

Enjoyment: 10/10
The comedy in part 7 is godlike. The interactions between Gyro and Johnny are so funny and even Pocoloco has some great moments. The action is riveting and the story is gripping.

Overall: 10/10
I would 100% recommend reading part 7 and reading jojo parts 1-6 just so part 7 has more weight behind it. Truly a masterpiece
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Jinjun11
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
If anyone is planning to read Steel Ball Run, I recommend that you lower your expectations as it may not be your cup of tea. I know of some people who were told about Steel Ball Run and they seemed very enthused and hyped about reading it. In the end, they ended up being disappointed because to them, Steel Ball Run seemed over-hyped and did not live up to their expectations. I advise to anyone who is planning to read the manga to just take it as it is and go with the flow and not let the hype overwhelm them.

Without further ado, here is my review of Steel Ball Run.

「STORY」 - 9/10
Steel Ball Run may not be captivating at first though it was very nice to see familiar names of the JoJo universe. Steel Ball Run starts to pick up the pace when stand battles begin. The story arcs are very well written with an excellent cast of minor characters to accompany it.

「ART」 - 8/10
Hirohiko Araki comes back with the art from part 6 and then improves it as we go along the story. From here, we really see how the characters from Part 1 with fabulous bodybuilders evolve to Part 7 with skinny Gucci models. I prefer the latter as it tends to be more glamorous which goes well with the story, at least in my opinion.

「CHARACTER」 - 10/10
Jonathan Joestar was a kind, tall and muscular English gentleman. He would probably be likable in real life but not so much in the manga/anime because he is very one-dimensional. Johnny Joestar in contrast is a short,skinny and paraplegic American asshole who acts very sarcastically to friends and acquaintances, especially to Gyro.

He is only motivated by the chance that he may walk again if he pursues his journey and that's all he really cares about. He is very relatable due to this because he is not some hero out there to save the day, he only wants to benefit himself. He is accompanied by a goofy mentor who is there to babysit him which makes the story all the more fun.

Dio in the form of Diego Brando is a much better villain, if he is even considered as a villain, with an actual motivation to fight with other people unlike his counterpart who was "born evil".

The villain of the story, Funny Valentine, is probably the best character in my opinion. Although Funny's goal is very immoral, he just does so in order to benefit his country as the President compared to Johnny with his goal to harden his flaccid legs. This makes you sort of cheer for both characters which made me give the characters a score of 10/10, I would give an 11 if possible.

「ENJOYMENT」 - 9/10
Nothing much to talk about here as I probably already expressed my love for the manga in the previous sections of the review but I will say that none of the other JoJo parts have really captivated me, they were just fun to read. Steel Ball Run was very enjoyable,introducing a new way stands fight, although the user does most of the fighting instead of the stand. This made the users seem more vulnerable and made it seemed that there are high stakes in each stand fights. JoJo's lives up to its name for being a manga that's over-the-top.


「OVERALL」 - 9/10
I was glad I avoided as much spoilers as possible when reading Steel Ball Run. It is a very fun and enjoyable read. I highly recommend that people read this with the advice I had at the start of the review or if lacking the free time, have someone summarise the story for you.

If I were to rank all the parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure from my favourite to least favourite, excluding Part 8 as it hasn't finished yet by the time I'm writing this review, it would be: 7>5>4>2>1>3.
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ArtMagicGirl14
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
I will say this right here, right now: Steel Ball Run is incredible and it brings me to tears thinking people have died without reading it. ]


Story: 9/10


The story of Steel Ball Run is the tale of paraplegic 'jockey' Johnny Joestar, who, after meeting a strange Italian man with steel balls is compelled to join in on the Steel Ball Run Race, ranging from San Diego to New York. And this is just a fantastic and unique concept. I find it great that Hirohiko Araki, the creator of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, can always come up with a fresh, original and interesting story premise following the end of each part. Golden Wind was the climbing up the ranks of the mafia, Stone Ocean was escaping prison with your edgelord father, and JoJolion is finding out why you have four testicles.
Also, the concept of Jesus Christ's body parts granting stand abilities is hilarious, yet awesome.


Art: 9/10


The art in Steel Ball Run is just great. The art at the start (ha. ha.) is a bit more of a realistic version of Part 6's style, and I like it. But, I'm not sure if it's the crappy scans or Araki mixing up his G-Pens with his G-pens, but the line art around the beginning is very blurry. The character designs in Steel Ball Run are F A N T A S T I C and definitely the best in the series. They look incredibly cool but their designs still hold a lot of meaning. However, around the middle is where the art starts to get even better. Noses and eyes and even mouths to an extent are much more realistic, and the hatching and crosshatching is bumped up, and looks great.


Characters: 10/10


The characters in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure are arguably it's strongest point, and this is no different in Steel Ball run. Johnny Joestar is by far the best JoJo. He has believable motivations, a compelling backstory and undergoes mass amounts of character development throughout the part. Gyro Zeppeli is too an incredible character, easily the greatest Zeppeli. He fits incredibly as a mentor and best friend to the protagonist and his connection with his family and the steel balls is really fun, but what's not fun is his depressing backstory. The main villain is also easily the best so far and at some times you really need to ask yourself, is Funny Valentine right? Is he? No, he's not. But the plain charisma of him makes him a fantastic character. Lucy Steel is also a fantastic character, and there is a lot of meaning behind her existence. (Also, if you weren't paying attention, Lucy Steel is alternate Erina Pendelton!"
And did I mention the stands?! They are incredible in this part. Tusk, Ball Breaker and Scan, Cream Starter, Scary Monsters?! The reinvention of Za Warudo?! And did I mention?! Did I mention?! Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?! Tusk and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap have to be my two favourite stands in the whole series. There are so unique, powerful, they both have incredible designs and users, and just everything about these two stands... everything... is just unbeatable. The one problem I have though is the death in Part 7. Only one death was actually meaningful and genuinely sad.


Enjoyment: 10/10


Steel Ball Run is just a ride. I enjoyed most fights, the D4C arc is just unspeakably good, Johnny and Gyro are just so cute and just everything about it was too good. Once again, it's just a ride, like a train. A love train. And did you know that when you finish Part 6 you get a ticket? That's why Steel Ball Run is just like any other train. A train, where you need a ticket to ride.

Overall: 10/10

Okay sorry that was terrible. Steel Ball Run is breathtaking. There is no reason why you shouldn't read it. (Unless you haven't read or watched parts 1-6.) Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I never got into JoJo's Bizarre Adventure...

"Remember, Johnny... My real name. Don't tell anyone. It's a secret..."
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MagicalMax243
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
It took me only a few days to read the entirety of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part Seven: Steel Ball Run. For context, this is the longest part in all of JoJo. Not only that, it's the obvious best. It took me a few days to write this review because I couldn't figure out how to explain why this part is so good. Honestly, it's miles above every other part. I know it's difficult to believe, but hear me out.
The part is overall very different. It's not the episodic stand battles we've known to love since part three. There are stand battles, but the story is more straight forward. The stands this time around really aren't ghosts that fight for the characters. They're powers that the characters obtain and find out more about as the story goes on. The ghosts aren't as important this time around. For example, Johnny Joestar's stand is the ability to shoot his fingernails like bullets. Gyro Zeppeli's power comes from a steel ball that he uses. I think it offers for more interesting fights.
The two main characters, Gyro Zeppeli and Johnny Joestar are two of my favorites characters of all time. Never before in JoJo have I ever been more invested in character arcs like I was in this one. Both of them are not only fascinating character studies, but entertaining to watch. Their dialogue together is the absolute best in the series. They talk like real people that I could relate to. But, they aren't even the best characters. Normally, I'd say the villain is the best character. And, yeah, Funny Valentine is the best villain in JoJo and probably my favorite villain of all time. He lacks a certain coolness factor from Diavolo, but he gives off this threatening presence every time he shows up. Not only that, he's such an interesting character to listen to. The backstory of his life is tragic in a way that clearly affects him in the present. His motivations for what he does are clear in a way that the reader can understand. He can drive a reader insane thinking about how he could be right or how he obviously believes himself to be right. Even the main characters question whether or not they're the villains. Only JoJo can make a villain this god damn good.
But despite how great the villain is and the main characters, they aren't my favorite character. My favorite character, not only is this part but one of my favorites in all of manga, is Lucy Steel. From the moment she appeared, I knew she was a fascinating character, she ended up getting a ton of screentime and I got so attached to her character and there were so many moments where I fear for what would happen to her.
That's another thing about this part, pure investment. I was so invested in the story, the characters, the conversations, the fights. It has all the coolness of other JoJo parts amped up to eleven, some of the best character dialogue I've ever read, one of the best stories of all time, my favorite power/fighting system ever, and a great mixture of intense fights and fun fights. This is my favorite part of JoJo by a massive amount.

I have no qualms saying that this is the greatest thing I've read from Japan.
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_cjessop19_15
Apr 16, 2021
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run review
Have never seen or read Jojo's but have heard its fantastic and all that. And I saw one of the parts was number 2 best manga on here below BERSERK! So i thought alright I'll read it because each part should stand on its own right?
Well it definitely did. Araki is a very good writer, the way it introduced Gyro and Johnny was very stylishly done and I like that the main character Johnny isn't the most morally good guy, he is a bit of a jerk and has a selfish reason for wanting to be in the race while his new mentor Gyro who is a trained executioner is far nobler as he wants to save a young boy from being executed. And they develop and go through some of the best friendship and relationship writing I have seen in any media (coming pretty close to stuff like Gon and Killua or Ed and Al). I won't spoil much more about them but let me tell ya these two are fantastic for main characters, they have interesting motives, have fun personalities and their growing bond is such a thrill to read through.
The villain is of course the american president who is named Funny Valentine? Sounds very silly but it just rolls with it and he actually has a very noble and understandable motive. He wants to collect all of Jesus body parts (stay with me) to gain ultimate power so no misfortune will ever come to America and it will become a dominant country and very safe. It makes sense considering the job of a president is to protect their country no matter what and for a villain he is quite noble and altruistic (as you'll see very later on in this manga) and his backstory helps a lot and he has one of the best speeches I have ever heard the pleasure of seeing. The napkin speech.
The art is well...fantastic! Not much of an art expert but it's very nice to look at, the horses anatomy is really well done and it's so dynamic and creative most of the time especially during the insane stand fights.
What's a stand you say? That is basically the power system of this series. Like Hunter x Hunter has Nen and Fullmetal Alchemist has Alchemy, Jojo's has Stands. Basically your spirit energy manifesting into whatever the hell Araki wants, each person has got a unique looking stand and abilities and you get it from being near Jesus' corpse (sounds very weird I know but you get used to it). And for some reason their stands are always named after either bands or songs (one of them's called Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, you know the AC/DC song). To name some stands and their abilities I'll name Blackmore and his stand: Catch the Rainbow! It's ability is to control and manipulate raindrops and to be able to walk on them. And another one like Scary Monsters that can turn people into dinosaurs and make them henchmen of yours or Mandom which can rewind 6 seconds back into the past so you can try again to kill an enemy, all stands have fun abilities that of course lead to some very bizarre and creative fights. Unlike most shonen where power is the only thing that matters, in Jojo's you only win if you outsmart or use your abilities or theirs to your advantage (like one stand called Cream Starter is literally a spray that sprays skin that can suffocate or heal you, the creativity man!). Also the main characters Gyro and Johnny don't actually use stands that much (well Johnny later gains one pretty early that he later uses a lot) and practice the art of steel balls that can use stuff like friction, rotations, aerodynamics and life energy to use and Gyro basically teaches Johnny the ropes on how to use this art and it's quite interesting to see them use it and seeing Johnny improve with it. Also one of my favorites was the True Man's World fight where Gyro battled the guy who could rewind back 6 seconds and had to think of ways around that and to use that to his advantage even sacrificing himself and all that jazz in duel fights, very good stuff and the final two fights are absolutely insane but I won't spoil. And fights like Civil War help us delve into the characters psyche more so we can learn more about them and to see them develop.
The designs are very weird and bizarre (check for instance Mrs Robinson or Gyro's) but don't come off to annoying or off putting, they fit the world that Araki has created which at first seems impossible considering you see a pretty dark wild west but it grows on you.
Araki uses the genre of western very well. The story is actually centered around a race across America on horseback to win lots of money and that's how Gyro and Johnny meet and the race goes on for the whole manga until the very end but throughout the manga stuff happens and the race kinda subsides into the background to focus on Johnny and Gyro going up against Funny Valentine over Jesus' body. Don't worry it sounds insane but it flows naturally and doesn't feel forced.
Alright after explaining why I love this manga to death I guess it's only fair if I list my problems with it: Araki introduces some really interesting side characters that are awesome to like Hot Pants and Diego and Wekapipo and Sandman but most of them don't get used too much and are pretty discarded pretty quickly (it isn't the case for all of them don't worry but only some) especially poor Sandman who seemed he was going to play a big part but was screwed. And characters like Poco Loco don't get enough screen time to care about them at all and leave you a bit disappointed. And another one is although most of the time stand fights are great Araki sometime has an issue of too much going on where it's really hard to tell what's actually going and some fights leave a lot too be desired like Tomb of the Boom which was dreadful involving a man who can turn himself into a rope? And the first twenty or so chapters while having some high points are also quite slow and drag but it picks up a lot I say around the Scary Monsters fight (so when you see Diego lying down bloodied that's the sign).
But that's it, 95 long chapters and I only really have less than a handful of cons and this is the only Jojo part I have seen! Which is great that this part stands on its own and satisfies a non Jojo fan and a new audience and you don't need to read any other part.
I can see now why it's rated so high up (I love Berserk and FMA to death so seeing it between them was very interesting), Araki you are fantastic and it was such a fun thrill ride this manga.
Great power system, fights, characters, villain, art was great, Johnny and Gyro have the best friendship dynamic ever etc. I am definitely checking out the rest of Jojo's now after reading Steel Ball Run (apparently this is the seventh part and there is a new eighth part out now so I got a lot of catching up to do!)
I highly highly recommend. Please read this manga I implore you. You don't even have had to have seen any of the other Jojo parts to love this manga as I am proof. It stands on its own and it is great.
So that's why I give it a 9/10 (almost perfect)
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JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run
JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run
Autor Araki, Hirohiko
Artista --