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Steel Ball Run #5
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 7 - Steel Ball Run, Vol. 5
スティール・ボール・ラン #5 ジャンプコミックス (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 7, Steel Ball Run #5)
213 pages, ebook
First published August 4, 2005
About the author
Hirohiko Araki
662 books2,199 followersHirohiko Araki ( 荒木飛呂彦) is a Japanese manga artist. He left school before graduation from Miyagi University of Education.
He enjoys the baseball manga Kyojin No Hoshii (Star of the Giants); the video games Mario Kart and Bomberman; and likes Prince and other African-American singers, as well as jazz, rock, and rap.
He is a recipient the Tezuka Award for manga.
He enjoys the baseball manga Kyojin No Hoshii (Star of the Giants); the video games Mario Kart and Bomberman; and likes Prince and other African-American singers, as well as jazz, rock, and rap.
He is a recipient the Tezuka Award for manga.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
May 5, 2022
there is no heterosexual explanation for this
April 21, 2024
this cover just explains it all
May 15, 2020
Check out that cover art. There's no hetero explanation, my friends. You can't change my mind.
I kind of want to take back some of the stuff I said about Gyro's backstory. Because this volume (quite clumsily) jumps back into his past and what we get here is way better. This time around, the story focuses around the theme of sentimentality, which is much more comprehensible. Gyro's father sees his entire bloodline as being tools to act on behalf of the king. In order to completely embody this mentality, Greggorio has cut all ties with all things over which he may come to feel sentimental over. In his mind, sentimentality would interfere with his duties as a blade in service of the king.
But this is the kind of thing that is impossible to stick to your guns over. Greggorio is shown to have multiple things in his life that are indicative of sentimentality. He has a wife, multiple kids, pictures hung on his wall, and decorations in his house. It's possible that this was an arranged marriage, he sees his kids as tools and nothing more, and that his wife is the one who cares to do anything with the house. However, there is an undeniable sentimentality reflected in his anger that Gyro's crest was damaged. He would not be so angry over the desecration of a symbol unless he attached some level of sentimentality towards it.
But this isn't Greggorio's story, so his hypocrisies aren't very important or deep. What matters is what this means for Gyro. This information paints his journey in a much more shameful light. For how flashy and charming he is, Gyro's quest to win the race is, in the eyes of his culture, a decision made out of weakness. He is running this race as a disgraced failure who could not complete the job he was born to do. In the eyes of his kingdom, he is a shamed figure who is running on the outside chance that he may make his kingdom some money. But he has disgraced his king and his family.
But Gyro is doing the right thing, risking his life and bearing immense physical damage for the sake of saving an innocent child. It's an interesting situation, especially given the context of shonen storytelling. He is seen as a failure for following his conscience and risking it all on what is right. Where a character like Luffy or Naruto might wear their resolve on their sleeve, Gyro buries his motivation. He doesn't hide his intent to win the race, but why doing so is important to him must remain a secret.
Something else that's interesting is the whole deal with the corpse. I'm super bummed that I've had the premise of Steel Ball Run spoiled for me, because I probably would have lost my shit at this revelation. The main characters of this longrunning manga are racing around the united states trying to collect the mummified corpse of the mormon Jesus goddamn Christ, who may or may not have a stand. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that at the moment.
There's certainly some symbolism to unpack here. Most striking for me is the fact that the president of the united states is chasing after the glory of christ's corpse, likely hoping for it to bring prosperity. Despite whatever pretenses it may put up about the separation of church and state, the United States is in many ways, in practice, a conservative christian theocracy, regardless of who is president. If you won't agree with me there, surely we can at least agree that the nation is covered in the cultural fingerprints of Christianity. In terms of laws, customs, beliefs (salvation through faith over actions, self flagellation, pessimism about the nature of humanity, preaching of helping the poor while not actually doing so, the cognitive dissonance of self-loathing while also acting entitled as a special chose one), this is the case. I really don't want to write out a whole manifesto about the cognitive dissonances at the core of America's psyche all for the sake of reviewing 1/24th of 1/8th of Jojo, so I'll cut it short here. But seeing the fucking president commit murder for the sake of pursuing the remains of Jesus... That is some loaded imagery. If you're that invested in what I have to say, DM me or wait until I review some more Chomsky or something. Who knows, maybe Funny Valentine will bring it out of me.
Something else I have less to say about is the symbolism in Johnny's interactions with the corpse. Jesus lives inside him. Jesus "healed" his paralyzed legs. Johnny hopes to be reborn after literally "finding Jesus". I don't think there's much to unpack here, at the moment. But I am very interested to know if the stand is Johnny's or Jesus's. Which is a wild sentence to write. I love it when Non-American, Non-Christian cultures tackle those topics and use their imagery. I feel as though Araki put a lot of effort into being respectful of Christain and Ameircan culture. Which is admirable. However, I feel that it's not necessary. Both could stand to be criticized, and Araki's perspective as a renowned author in a globally famous publication is a fantastic platform to do so.
The fight with Pig Pork Hat Pie Hook Boy was fine. I was more interested in the other stuff. It's seeming more and more like the fighting in Steel Ball Run is pretty incidental to me. I would rather the time be spent on all of these interesting themes or cowboy shit.
I think one of Araki's weaknesses as a writer is that he'll introduce really compelling ideas, imagery, or themes, but not do as much with them as I like. They often take a backseat to the stand battle of the week. That's one of my least favorite things about Jojo: the fighting so often feels divorced from the story. I get that this is probably just the nature of the beast with stand battles and incorporating more story would probably mean that they lose some of their mental-chess fun. But I feel like there's a potential for this series to go more in depth with its characters and themes that is left unfulfilled in favor of filling up the runtime with fights. The fact that chapters are usually named after whatever stand we're fighting always bothered me, but I couldn't figure out why until now. It's because that decision is symbolic of Araki's approach to writing the series. And after 80+ volumes, I'm at a point where that's just sound and noise between the good bits.
I kind of want to take back some of the stuff I said about Gyro's backstory. Because this volume (quite clumsily) jumps back into his past and what we get here is way better. This time around, the story focuses around the theme of sentimentality, which is much more comprehensible. Gyro's father sees his entire bloodline as being tools to act on behalf of the king. In order to completely embody this mentality, Greggorio has cut all ties with all things over which he may come to feel sentimental over. In his mind, sentimentality would interfere with his duties as a blade in service of the king.
But this is the kind of thing that is impossible to stick to your guns over. Greggorio is shown to have multiple things in his life that are indicative of sentimentality. He has a wife, multiple kids, pictures hung on his wall, and decorations in his house. It's possible that this was an arranged marriage, he sees his kids as tools and nothing more, and that his wife is the one who cares to do anything with the house. However, there is an undeniable sentimentality reflected in his anger that Gyro's crest was damaged. He would not be so angry over the desecration of a symbol unless he attached some level of sentimentality towards it.
But this isn't Greggorio's story, so his hypocrisies aren't very important or deep. What matters is what this means for Gyro. This information paints his journey in a much more shameful light. For how flashy and charming he is, Gyro's quest to win the race is, in the eyes of his culture, a decision made out of weakness. He is running this race as a disgraced failure who could not complete the job he was born to do. In the eyes of his kingdom, he is a shamed figure who is running on the outside chance that he may make his kingdom some money. But he has disgraced his king and his family.
But Gyro is doing the right thing, risking his life and bearing immense physical damage for the sake of saving an innocent child. It's an interesting situation, especially given the context of shonen storytelling. He is seen as a failure for following his conscience and risking it all on what is right. Where a character like Luffy or Naruto might wear their resolve on their sleeve, Gyro buries his motivation. He doesn't hide his intent to win the race, but why doing so is important to him must remain a secret.
Something else that's interesting is the whole deal with the corpse. I'm super bummed that I've had the premise of Steel Ball Run spoiled for me, because I probably would have lost my shit at this revelation. The main characters of this longrunning manga are racing around the united states trying to collect the mummified corpse of the mormon Jesus goddamn Christ, who may or may not have a stand. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that at the moment.
There's certainly some symbolism to unpack here. Most striking for me is the fact that the president of the united states is chasing after the glory of christ's corpse, likely hoping for it to bring prosperity. Despite whatever pretenses it may put up about the separation of church and state, the United States is in many ways, in practice, a conservative christian theocracy, regardless of who is president. If you won't agree with me there, surely we can at least agree that the nation is covered in the cultural fingerprints of Christianity. In terms of laws, customs, beliefs (salvation through faith over actions, self flagellation, pessimism about the nature of humanity, preaching of helping the poor while not actually doing so, the cognitive dissonance of self-loathing while also acting entitled as a special chose one), this is the case. I really don't want to write out a whole manifesto about the cognitive dissonances at the core of America's psyche all for the sake of reviewing 1/24th of 1/8th of Jojo, so I'll cut it short here. But seeing the fucking president commit murder for the sake of pursuing the remains of Jesus... That is some loaded imagery. If you're that invested in what I have to say, DM me or wait until I review some more Chomsky or something. Who knows, maybe Funny Valentine will bring it out of me.
Something else I have less to say about is the symbolism in Johnny's interactions with the corpse. Jesus lives inside him. Jesus "healed" his paralyzed legs. Johnny hopes to be reborn after literally "finding Jesus". I don't think there's much to unpack here, at the moment. But I am very interested to know if the stand is Johnny's or Jesus's. Which is a wild sentence to write. I love it when Non-American, Non-Christian cultures tackle those topics and use their imagery. I feel as though Araki put a lot of effort into being respectful of Christain and Ameircan culture. Which is admirable. However, I feel that it's not necessary. Both could stand to be criticized, and Araki's perspective as a renowned author in a globally famous publication is a fantastic platform to do so.
The fight with Pig Pork Hat Pie Hook Boy was fine. I was more interested in the other stuff. It's seeming more and more like the fighting in Steel Ball Run is pretty incidental to me. I would rather the time be spent on all of these interesting themes or cowboy shit.
I think one of Araki's weaknesses as a writer is that he'll introduce really compelling ideas, imagery, or themes, but not do as much with them as I like. They often take a backseat to the stand battle of the week. That's one of my least favorite things about Jojo: the fighting so often feels divorced from the story. I get that this is probably just the nature of the beast with stand battles and incorporating more story would probably mean that they lose some of their mental-chess fun. But I feel like there's a potential for this series to go more in depth with its characters and themes that is left unfulfilled in favor of filling up the runtime with fights. The fact that chapters are usually named after whatever stand we're fighting always bothered me, but I couldn't figure out why until now. It's because that decision is symbolic of Araki's approach to writing the series. And after 80+ volumes, I'm at a point where that's just sound and noise between the good bits.
January 16, 2022
there was a moment in the second last chapter where it looked like jesus christ's pink latin-speaking stand had emerged from johnny's left arm to detach his spinning toenails and hurl it at the enemy
August 9, 2023
i aspire to someday see it animated
March 6, 2026
it is still wild that one character’s power is just straight up turning into a frickin’ velociraptor
May 25, 2022
Johnny and Gyro's dynamic keeps getting better. This volume is so much better the last one, featuring tusk's first appearance, Gyro hanging from his hair and being his silly self. Also I completely forgot hat Stroheim is in SBR.
August 26, 2020
I hate that it took me so long to finish it. I'm too busy to read as much as I want. However, I really like it and I can't wait to read more (and to understand more, haha).
Read
May 5, 2025Jesus Joestar has entered the chat
April 7, 2025
TUSK! HES HERE. AND HES JUST A LITTLE GUY. also i feel like - 5 volumes in - we are finally get the true point of the story and the race. trying to find like idk fucking jesus or something??? johnny is jesus?!?! and some weird president showed up... hmmm - cant be that important right? ANYWAYS. LOVE IT. LOVE THE LITTLE HEARTS ON TUSK UGH
April 12, 2024
Que geis
April 20, 2026
A lot of adventure, a lot of fun! But I don’t feel like this one didn’t have as much excitement as the previous volume, I didn’t like this one as much, the pacing felt slower or more awkward.
This volume begins with a continuation of the president and Darkmore’s search for Lucy. Lucy is saved and pulled out of the bathroom where she was hiding by a well liked character whom we haven’t seen for awhile and I personally thought was dead. So that was a shock and nice surprise for me to see. But sadly it doesn’t end well for her rescuer. Before her rescuer leaves he tells her to find and help Johnny and Gyro and give them as they can be trusted and he believes they can help save her life and her husband’s life, Mr. Steel!
When Lucy and her rescuer part, Darkmore finds her rescuer and they battle with their stands with a fatal outcome for one of them.
Not being able to trust the president who wants to dispose of Mr. Steel once he is no longer useful. Lucy decides to grab get the corpse part and find Johnny and Gyro. Therefore, she steals a government horse, sneaks away snd makes a break for the spine corpse part as she deduces the location of it from Ringo Roadagain’s message that she stole from his pigeon that was supposed to be delivered to the president.
Lucy finds the spine at a burial site and then Dio sees the corpse spine and senses that someone has found the spine through his corpse eye as the corpse parts are drawn to each other.
After Lucy gets the spine she encounters Darkmore again who takes the spine from her, but doesn’t hurt her or battle her because he said her and her husband’s fate is up to the president and he doesn’t have the authority to decide their fate.
When Darkmore gets the spine he is transported back into Kansas City somehow and sees a holy figure, and then instantly becomes greedy and wants to keep the corpse spine for himself. Could the holy figure be of the corpse? While Darkmore is up by the telephone pole trying to call the president, Lucy takes the opportunity to shoot him several times.
Meanwhile Johnny and Gyro are trying to catch up to Dio and overtake him to beat him to the next corpse part, which we already know was last in Lucy’s possession which she had taken back from Darkmore. Obviously Dio senses them coming between his dinosaur senses and knowledge of their horses. He uses different tactics to keep them behind like using his horse to kick up mud at them and confuse them about following him. Eventually Gyro catches up to Dio, right on his ass, Dio his stand to infect Valkyrie’s eye with parasites. Johnny catches on to this and shoots his nail bullets at Johnny. Dio becomes pissed off, turns partially into a dinosaur and grabs Johnny around the throat with his tail. While distracted, Gyro uses his steel balls to hit Dio right in the face! Then Dio’s horse gets worn out and falls to its knees too exhausted to get back up. Gyro and Johnny beat Dio, for now…
Finaally, despite having a fight, Gryro and Johnny continue to ride on together until they see someone approaching them, Lucy Steel with the corpse arm!
Unfortunately, Darkmore catches up to them and a battle ensues as he tries to steal the spine once again!
Johnny uses his stand power and Gyro uses his steel balls, shockingly the ball is stopped by Darkmore’s stand which freezes raindrops in time, which can cut and slice anything that tries to move through them. As the rain begins to stop the frozen droplets evaporate, just in time to get hit in the face with Gyro’s steel ball, sending Darkmore flying, gone for good this time. Good and dead.
Seemingly the spine has disappeared until they realized it went into Johnny’s back! Johnny then falls off his horse and a map is revealed in the dirt to the next corpse location parts. Gyro devises a plan for Lucy to ride back with Johnny to Kansas City leaving behind the government horse in hopes that the horse will look like Darmore had taken it.
Jumping ahead to the finish line of this stage, Johnny and Gyro ride into the Kansas City finish line only to find out that some unknown Japanese man took first place. The results total in Dio and Sandman tied for first place, Johnny in 4th and Gyro somewhere after.
We get a glimpse of the strange old Japanese man when he meets Hot Pants at the water station. Then we see Dio dragging his butt and horse with him across the finish line into the 54th place in this 4th stage.
Flashback to the map and Gyro deciphers the map and realizes it shows the Great Lakes around Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and up through to New York. Revealing two locations for a the next corpse parts, but then Johnny finds a third! They determine the next parts are the legs, the ears and the right arm!
Finding out that the President has the corpse’s heart, he demands Lucy gets it for them as it is the only way to stop the President, which means preventing her and her husband’s impeding death.
In the next chapter Dio wants to meet with the President to make a deal, so the President’s right hand mans shows up to see what he wants. Dio is willing to give the corpse part eye and get the rest of the corpse parts from Johnny and Gyro in exchange for money and island of Manhattan as mayor of New York City, Due to his horse being weak, he asks for a stand user to help him defeat Gyro and Johnny to take revenge for them knocking him off his horse and to assist in stealing the corpse parts from them.
Gyro and Johnny ride on to find an old barn where they decide to take a break, only to hear strange noises like a hoarse of something coming towards them, they see these weird little dinosaur monsters who Alan shatter, break and set things on fire, based on the sounds/words on them. They at first think it’s Dio’s stand ability with dinosaurs, but soon discover they were followed by some dark mysterious figure and that this stand actually belongs to this mystery man.
The barn starts shattering and Johnny tells for them to get out, but Johnny ends up trapped under the boards and shards of wood. As the little destructive monsters come running towards Johnny and Gyro, Gyro encourages Johnny to take his hand and get pulled out before the whole thing is destroyed!
Flashback to Johnny’s childhood, where we learn his real name is Johnathan Joestar, whose father was a successful rancher and a successful horse jockey trainer. His father is a very strict man with high expectations,one day he catches Johnny at the table with a mouse, named Danny, when Johnny was just a little boy. His father considers it inappropriate to have the mouse out of the cage and especially rude to have it at the dining table so he commands Johnny to drown it in the pond. Poor little Johnny is so upset he runs out of the house to the pond crying. His brother Nicholas, a very talented rider comes out to comfort him and suggests they get a dead anatomy mouse from the school, but they realize their father is the sort of man who may figure out it isn’t the same mouse, so instead Nicholas suggests Johnny man up and release it into the woods, but that plan backfires in a fatal way. We learn that Johnny gets kicked out by his father one day when he tries to borrow his brother’s old boots and his father is very angry about this. Johnny then goes on to continue to race and even wins the Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately as fate would have it, possibly karma, Johnny is shot in the spine which paralyzes him from the waist down, so that he can’t ride again (until now) and so all his lady friends, fans and friends abandon him.
Flash forward, Johnny Ang Gyro continue to be chased by those weird Dino things and now even flying dinosaurs appear (like pterodactyls!). How will Gyro and Johnny ever getaway from the chase and escape?!
Read the next volume to find out!
Thoughts:
First off, I LOVE Lucy as a character, she very badass and brave for how young she is. She’s also very cute!
I also loved seeing Lucy’s rescuer, I thought the character was gone, but it was a nice throwback to see a character from a previous volume. Araki does this a lot, bringing characters into other seasons or volumes like having Koichi investigate Giorno who is Dio Brando’s son. So it’s always fun to see a character come back, and a rewarding surprise.
Wow! We get a glimpse of who the corpse belongs to and it’s someone you would never expect! They certainly are a holy figure, so now it makes sense why Ferdinand the dinosaur, archaeologist guy talked about how revered this corpse would be and the person who found it would have fame and power, which is why Darkomore got greedy and wanted the spine corpse part for himself!
Speaking of Darkmore I thought it was interesting how Darkmore was shot but could use the rain frozen in time to fill up the bullet holes, so he was dead, but not dead, kind of like Bucharati, but not as zombified.
Loved when Dio got hit right in thebbb face with a steel ball, it was sweet,sweet karma!
I find having the government as the villains intriguing as there are always shady shit, secrecy, and shady dealing going on like Dio’s deal with the president.
I have a sinking suspicion that the Japanese man will come into play later as a stand user and a possible enemy or as an obstacle. He was fairly mysterious and I feel nothing in Jojo is just a “coincidence” no matter how weird the circumstances are.
Interesting how there isn’t just one corpse part next, but three! That was a big “Holy Shit” moment.
The next several scenes with the dark and mysterious stand user working with Dio were Craaaay-ah-Z! The little dinosaur guys were creepy, I totally understood the destruction they caused, but I didn’t quite understand how they worked, was it by the sound written on them or was it the word itself that was the type of damage? I felt like that part was a bit confusing and not explained very well.
Obviously one of the biggest things I need to cover is that Johnny is Jonathan Joestar, I was so confused when my husband talked to me about this, because I thought my husband was saying he’s “thee” Jonathan Joestar, but he’s not the same Jonathan Joestar we know from the canon series, he’s more like an alternate version of Jonathan Joestar with the alternate Dio and them both knowing each other from childhood. There was also a big connection with “Danny” the dog and “Danny” the mouse. Very ironic that if Johnny would have listened to his father, who wanted him to drown the pet mouse, that his brother would still be alive, considering the mouse came back and caused the incident that killed Nicholas. I felt so bad for Johnny that his father said right in front of him that “God took the wrong child.” That is a truly awful and evil thing to say to your own son!
I have a sister, bless her soul who died tragically as well and my dad was so hung up on it, but my mom said to him “you need to focus on your relationship mywith the one you have left.” Which was amazing that she said that considering she was probably my dad’s favorite child, because my sister was good at everything and I always felt like I was in her shadow, so on a personal note, I can really relate to Johnny, even with the fact that I loved and love my sister so much! Johnny was in the shadow of his brother’s horse riding skills.
My dad was emotionally and mentally abusive too, but I can never imagine him saying to me what he said and did to Johnny. What an awful, awful man!
Well can’t wait to see how Johnny and Gyro escape these weird little creatures!
And who is the mysterious stand user is (I suspect they are in the race themselves) that Dio mentioned he met at the water station, which implied they were giving their horse water after finishing the 4th stage of the race.
I hope all will be revealed in the next volume!
This volume begins with a continuation of the president and Darkmore’s search for Lucy. Lucy is saved and pulled out of the bathroom where she was hiding by a well liked character whom we haven’t seen for awhile and I personally thought was dead. So that was a shock and nice surprise for me to see. But sadly it doesn’t end well for her rescuer. Before her rescuer leaves he tells her to find and help Johnny and Gyro and give them as they can be trusted and he believes they can help save her life and her husband’s life, Mr. Steel!
When Lucy and her rescuer part, Darkmore finds her rescuer and they battle with their stands with a fatal outcome for one of them.
Not being able to trust the president who wants to dispose of Mr. Steel once he is no longer useful. Lucy decides to grab get the corpse part and find Johnny and Gyro. Therefore, she steals a government horse, sneaks away snd makes a break for the spine corpse part as she deduces the location of it from Ringo Roadagain’s message that she stole from his pigeon that was supposed to be delivered to the president.
Lucy finds the spine at a burial site and then Dio sees the corpse spine and senses that someone has found the spine through his corpse eye as the corpse parts are drawn to each other.
After Lucy gets the spine she encounters Darkmore again who takes the spine from her, but doesn’t hurt her or battle her because he said her and her husband’s fate is up to the president and he doesn’t have the authority to decide their fate.
When Darkmore gets the spine he is transported back into Kansas City somehow and sees a holy figure, and then instantly becomes greedy and wants to keep the corpse spine for himself. Could the holy figure be of the corpse? While Darkmore is up by the telephone pole trying to call the president, Lucy takes the opportunity to shoot him several times.
Meanwhile Johnny and Gyro are trying to catch up to Dio and overtake him to beat him to the next corpse part, which we already know was last in Lucy’s possession which she had taken back from Darkmore. Obviously Dio senses them coming between his dinosaur senses and knowledge of their horses. He uses different tactics to keep them behind like using his horse to kick up mud at them and confuse them about following him. Eventually Gyro catches up to Dio, right on his ass, Dio his stand to infect Valkyrie’s eye with parasites. Johnny catches on to this and shoots his nail bullets at Johnny. Dio becomes pissed off, turns partially into a dinosaur and grabs Johnny around the throat with his tail. While distracted, Gyro uses his steel balls to hit Dio right in the face! Then Dio’s horse gets worn out and falls to its knees too exhausted to get back up. Gyro and Johnny beat Dio, for now…
Finaally, despite having a fight, Gryro and Johnny continue to ride on together until they see someone approaching them, Lucy Steel with the corpse arm!
Unfortunately, Darkmore catches up to them and a battle ensues as he tries to steal the spine once again!
Johnny uses his stand power and Gyro uses his steel balls, shockingly the ball is stopped by Darkmore’s stand which freezes raindrops in time, which can cut and slice anything that tries to move through them. As the rain begins to stop the frozen droplets evaporate, just in time to get hit in the face with Gyro’s steel ball, sending Darkmore flying, gone for good this time. Good and dead.
Seemingly the spine has disappeared until they realized it went into Johnny’s back! Johnny then falls off his horse and a map is revealed in the dirt to the next corpse location parts. Gyro devises a plan for Lucy to ride back with Johnny to Kansas City leaving behind the government horse in hopes that the horse will look like Darmore had taken it.
Jumping ahead to the finish line of this stage, Johnny and Gyro ride into the Kansas City finish line only to find out that some unknown Japanese man took first place. The results total in Dio and Sandman tied for first place, Johnny in 4th and Gyro somewhere after.
We get a glimpse of the strange old Japanese man when he meets Hot Pants at the water station. Then we see Dio dragging his butt and horse with him across the finish line into the 54th place in this 4th stage.
Flashback to the map and Gyro deciphers the map and realizes it shows the Great Lakes around Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and up through to New York. Revealing two locations for a the next corpse parts, but then Johnny finds a third! They determine the next parts are the legs, the ears and the right arm!
Finding out that the President has the corpse’s heart, he demands Lucy gets it for them as it is the only way to stop the President, which means preventing her and her husband’s impeding death.
In the next chapter Dio wants to meet with the President to make a deal, so the President’s right hand mans shows up to see what he wants. Dio is willing to give the corpse part eye and get the rest of the corpse parts from Johnny and Gyro in exchange for money and island of Manhattan as mayor of New York City, Due to his horse being weak, he asks for a stand user to help him defeat Gyro and Johnny to take revenge for them knocking him off his horse and to assist in stealing the corpse parts from them.
Gyro and Johnny ride on to find an old barn where they decide to take a break, only to hear strange noises like a hoarse of something coming towards them, they see these weird little dinosaur monsters who Alan shatter, break and set things on fire, based on the sounds/words on them. They at first think it’s Dio’s stand ability with dinosaurs, but soon discover they were followed by some dark mysterious figure and that this stand actually belongs to this mystery man.
The barn starts shattering and Johnny tells for them to get out, but Johnny ends up trapped under the boards and shards of wood. As the little destructive monsters come running towards Johnny and Gyro, Gyro encourages Johnny to take his hand and get pulled out before the whole thing is destroyed!
Flashback to Johnny’s childhood, where we learn his real name is Johnathan Joestar, whose father was a successful rancher and a successful horse jockey trainer. His father is a very strict man with high expectations,one day he catches Johnny at the table with a mouse, named Danny, when Johnny was just a little boy. His father considers it inappropriate to have the mouse out of the cage and especially rude to have it at the dining table so he commands Johnny to drown it in the pond. Poor little Johnny is so upset he runs out of the house to the pond crying. His brother Nicholas, a very talented rider comes out to comfort him and suggests they get a dead anatomy mouse from the school, but they realize their father is the sort of man who may figure out it isn’t the same mouse, so instead Nicholas suggests Johnny man up and release it into the woods, but that plan backfires in a fatal way. We learn that Johnny gets kicked out by his father one day when he tries to borrow his brother’s old boots and his father is very angry about this. Johnny then goes on to continue to race and even wins the Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately as fate would have it, possibly karma, Johnny is shot in the spine which paralyzes him from the waist down, so that he can’t ride again (until now) and so all his lady friends, fans and friends abandon him.
Flash forward, Johnny Ang Gyro continue to be chased by those weird Dino things and now even flying dinosaurs appear (like pterodactyls!). How will Gyro and Johnny ever getaway from the chase and escape?!
Read the next volume to find out!
Thoughts:
First off, I LOVE Lucy as a character, she very badass and brave for how young she is. She’s also very cute!
I also loved seeing Lucy’s rescuer, I thought the character was gone, but it was a nice throwback to see a character from a previous volume. Araki does this a lot, bringing characters into other seasons or volumes like having Koichi investigate Giorno who is Dio Brando’s son. So it’s always fun to see a character come back, and a rewarding surprise.
Wow! We get a glimpse of who the corpse belongs to and it’s someone you would never expect! They certainly are a holy figure, so now it makes sense why Ferdinand the dinosaur, archaeologist guy talked about how revered this corpse would be and the person who found it would have fame and power, which is why Darkomore got greedy and wanted the spine corpse part for himself!
Speaking of Darkmore I thought it was interesting how Darkmore was shot but could use the rain frozen in time to fill up the bullet holes, so he was dead, but not dead, kind of like Bucharati, but not as zombified.
Loved when Dio got hit right in thebbb face with a steel ball, it was sweet,sweet karma!
I find having the government as the villains intriguing as there are always shady shit, secrecy, and shady dealing going on like Dio’s deal with the president.
I have a sinking suspicion that the Japanese man will come into play later as a stand user and a possible enemy or as an obstacle. He was fairly mysterious and I feel nothing in Jojo is just a “coincidence” no matter how weird the circumstances are.
Interesting how there isn’t just one corpse part next, but three! That was a big “Holy Shit” moment.
The next several scenes with the dark and mysterious stand user working with Dio were Craaaay-ah-Z! The little dinosaur guys were creepy, I totally understood the destruction they caused, but I didn’t quite understand how they worked, was it by the sound written on them or was it the word itself that was the type of damage? I felt like that part was a bit confusing and not explained very well.
Obviously one of the biggest things I need to cover is that Johnny is Jonathan Joestar, I was so confused when my husband talked to me about this, because I thought my husband was saying he’s “thee” Jonathan Joestar, but he’s not the same Jonathan Joestar we know from the canon series, he’s more like an alternate version of Jonathan Joestar with the alternate Dio and them both knowing each other from childhood. There was also a big connection with “Danny” the dog and “Danny” the mouse. Very ironic that if Johnny would have listened to his father, who wanted him to drown the pet mouse, that his brother would still be alive, considering the mouse came back and caused the incident that killed Nicholas. I felt so bad for Johnny that his father said right in front of him that “God took the wrong child.” That is a truly awful and evil thing to say to your own son!
I have a sister, bless her soul who died tragically as well and my dad was so hung up on it, but my mom said to him “you need to focus on your relationship mywith the one you have left.” Which was amazing that she said that considering she was probably my dad’s favorite child, because my sister was good at everything and I always felt like I was in her shadow, so on a personal note, I can really relate to Johnny, even with the fact that I loved and love my sister so much! Johnny was in the shadow of his brother’s horse riding skills.
My dad was emotionally and mentally abusive too, but I can never imagine him saying to me what he said and did to Johnny. What an awful, awful man!
Well can’t wait to see how Johnny and Gyro escape these weird little creatures!
And who is the mysterious stand user is (I suspect they are in the race themselves) that Dio mentioned he met at the water station, which implied they were giving their horse water after finishing the 4th stage of the race.
I hope all will be revealed in the next volume!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2020
Memes in this volume:
Narration: "Our main character, Gyro Zeppeli"
Johnny: "Am I a joke to you?"
German science has arrived
Gyro: "You want me to drop these steel balls?"
JOHNNY NO
IT'S SO CUTE
Now that the truth has been revealed, I think this meme is appropriate
Narration: "Our main character, Gyro Zeppeli"
Johnny: "Am I a joke to you?"
German science has arrived
Gyro: "You want me to drop these steel balls?"
JOHNNY NO
IT'S SO CUTE
Now that the truth has been revealed, I think this meme is appropriate
February 9, 2025
Siento que uno de los grandes valores de esta historia es Johnny. La forma en que se desarrolla su personaje, considerando que no puede mover sus piernas, es simplemente brutal.
Muchas veces tengo la sensación de que esta historia no gira solo en torno a la carrera, sino también a la autosuperación. Y en ese aspecto, Johnny brilla con muchísima más fuerza que Gyro. Su mentor ya es un personaje carismático, seguro de sí mismo y con un estilo marcado desde el inicio. En cambio, Johnny tiene un camino mucho más complejo que recorrer, y eso es lo que hace que su evolución sea tan poderosa.
Poco a poco, el trasfondo real de la historia empieza a salir a la luz, permitiéndonos analizar lo que hay detrás de esta aventura. Me encantan los homenajes a personajes del pasado, pero también quiero seguir conociendo nuevos rostros, como Sandman, que aporta un aire fresco a la trama.
Muchas veces tengo la sensación de que esta historia no gira solo en torno a la carrera, sino también a la autosuperación. Y en ese aspecto, Johnny brilla con muchísima más fuerza que Gyro. Su mentor ya es un personaje carismático, seguro de sí mismo y con un estilo marcado desde el inicio. En cambio, Johnny tiene un camino mucho más complejo que recorrer, y eso es lo que hace que su evolución sea tan poderosa.
Poco a poco, el trasfondo real de la historia empieza a salir a la luz, permitiéndonos analizar lo que hay detrás de esta aventura. Me encantan los homenajes a personajes del pasado, pero también quiero seguir conociendo nuevos rostros, como Sandman, que aporta un aire fresco a la trama.
February 19, 2024
Super dziwaczna przygoda Janka i Gyrosa na biegu stalowej kulki nyo ho. A tak na serio to podoba mi się jak rozwija się relacja głównych bohaterów, że zaczynają się przyjaźnić i nie są już tylko zwykłymi towarzyszami w trakcie wyścigu.
Okładka jest piękna (jak wszystkie).
Z chęcią zobaczę jak będą postępować poszukiwania rozrzuconych po pustyniach Ameryki części ciała Jezusa...
Okładka jest piękna (jak wszystkie).
Z chęcią zobaczę jak będą postępować poszukiwania rozrzuconych po pustyniach Ameryki części ciała Jezusa...
August 24, 2024
five stars for the cover alone
January 13, 2019
This is my favorite SBR volume so far!
It was so much fun! The fight with the hook guy was intense and in perfect Jojo tradition. There are bits about Gyro's backstory, lots of cool scenes between Gyro and Johnny. The mystery of Steel Ball Run is finally opening up and it's connected to something very cool.
I am slowly falling in love with part 7, I'm not there yet, part 6 is my one true love, but SBR is crawling up there.
The illustrations are mind-blowing. I'm forever spoiled by Araki to any other manga ever. This art is unbelievable. After all of these volumes I probably should have calmed down about his art, but nope. The art wows me every time, with every page.
Also I am convinced that we are going to assemble mummified body parts of jesus christ and you can't change my mind.
Gyro is the most beautiful man I've ever laid my eyes on and that's just facts.
It was so much fun! The fight with the hook guy was intense and in perfect Jojo tradition. There are bits about Gyro's backstory, lots of cool scenes between Gyro and Johnny. The mystery of Steel Ball Run is finally opening up and it's connected to something very cool.
I am slowly falling in love with part 7, I'm not there yet, part 6 is my one true love, but SBR is crawling up there.
The illustrations are mind-blowing. I'm forever spoiled by Araki to any other manga ever. This art is unbelievable. After all of these volumes I probably should have calmed down about his art, but nope. The art wows me every time, with every page.
Also I am convinced that we are going to assemble mummified body parts of jesus christ and you can't change my mind.
Gyro is the most beautiful man I've ever laid my eyes on and that's just facts.
June 26, 2023
O rany rany, robi się coraz ciekawiej, uwielbiam jak współpraca Johnnyego i Gyro zamienia się w przyjaźń z każdym utrudnieniem jakie muszą przejść dalej
March 10, 2025
god steel ball run kicks ass
March 25, 2026
Finished this RIGHT as my loan expired lmao
May 1, 2026
this cover gay as hell for no reason…anyway this was my favourite volume so far!
January 6, 2025
je suis seulement au t5 et pourtant je peux déjà dire que c’est une des meilleurs partie de tout l’univers de jojo’s bizarre adventure
October 7, 2025
i am sensing intense homosexual energy from johnny and gyro
July 9, 2025
wallah they are going to ride each other when they get the chance i knowwwww
January 11, 2025
Gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy
January 10, 2021
ayo cover art 👀👀👀👀 nothing straight about that lol
SO
more of gyros background, more enemies and more mysteries! The steel ball run? A conspiracy to find the scattered corpse parts of .... (wait for it) a saint
😀
A saint is someone that can cause miracles after they die.... and their bodies have this ability to create miracles and invoke prosperity...?
honestly,,, not gonna lie this story is a lot more meta that any other preceding parts...
They’re about to be done with the second part of the race and (gasp) DIO and sandman! show up!
SO
more of gyros background, more enemies and more mysteries! The steel ball run? A conspiracy to find the scattered corpse parts of .... (wait for it) a saint
😀
A saint is someone that can cause miracles after they die.... and their bodies have this ability to create miracles and invoke prosperity...?
honestly,,, not gonna lie this story is a lot more meta that any other preceding parts...
They’re about to be done with the second part of the race and (gasp) DIO and sandman! show up!
February 17, 2015
Pero qué larga que se me hizo la lucha contra el cargoso del Pork Pie Hat Kid. Lo contrario a la mucho más corta y entretenida pelea contra F.V. Stroheim. La aparición de Funny Valentine y que vayan mostrando qué esconde tras la fachada la publicitada Steel Ball Run suman, pero vuelvo a promediar para abajo para que Araki se ponga las pilas y al próximo enemigo pedorro no le dé tanta cabida.
April 10, 2024
The move that SBR had from shounen Jump to Ultra Jump is hella noticeable in this volume the art went from being great to incredible Araki is that guy
September 29, 2023
Series: Steel Ball Run #5
Rating: 4 stars - It was really good
This volume we finally get to see the physical reveal of Johnny’s stand and learn the true purpose of the Steel Ball Run race. This volume jumped back and forth a lot between the past and present. We learn more about Gyro’s country, his father, his life and more about the child he wants to save. Gyros’ whole history and upbringing is very interesting and unique. I really like that we are getting to know more about him and his reasons for joining this race.
A lot happens during the race in this volume. Johnny and Gyro fight against racer F. V. Stroheim, they fight another stand user named Pork Pie Hat Kid (what a name), the true reason why this race is happening, and we see Johnny’s stand finally manifests. Johnny’s stand Tusk was a really cute little guy and I can’t wait to see what else Johnny can do with him. Also I was not expecting the true reason for this race and who is pulling the strings Mr. Stephen Steel (the race creator and benefactor).
I am really enjoying this crazy story especially since it keeps me guessing as to wth will happen next.
Rating: 4 stars - It was really good
This volume we finally get to see the physical reveal of Johnny’s stand and learn the true purpose of the Steel Ball Run race. This volume jumped back and forth a lot between the past and present. We learn more about Gyro’s country, his father, his life and more about the child he wants to save. Gyros’ whole history and upbringing is very interesting and unique. I really like that we are getting to know more about him and his reasons for joining this race.
A lot happens during the race in this volume. Johnny and Gyro fight against racer F. V. Stroheim, they fight another stand user named Pork Pie Hat Kid (what a name), the true reason why this race is happening, and we see Johnny’s stand finally manifests. Johnny’s stand Tusk was a really cute little guy and I can’t wait to see what else Johnny can do with him. Also I was not expecting the true reason for this race and who is pulling the strings Mr. Stephen Steel (the race creator and benefactor).
I am really enjoying this crazy story especially since it keeps me guessing as to wth will happen next.
March 18, 2025
Some key backstory is revealed in this volume.
The history of holy relics and their supernatural powers.
And in particular a body buried by Joseph of arimathea in the new world and the map he left to find it.
That map was acquired by funny valentine, president of the USA. And the secret purpose of the race is to collect the parts of the mummy which will bestow invincible power.
We also learn Gyro’s motivation to win the race — he wants to win a pardon for the innocent child who mended his honor collar. So he doesn’t just want glory, but to save someone else — this is the royal road of manga!
So the above episodes were interesting. There is also a stand battle which was pretty lame against a little freak who shoots wires from his mouth and uses hooks and bait. We see Tusk, Johnny’s stand. But the villain was one dimensional and the battle perfunctory.
The art is pretty bad. Many of the characters look the same, such as Johnny and Gyro. The facial expressions are enervated. Jojo art peaked in part 3.
The history of holy relics and their supernatural powers.
And in particular a body buried by Joseph of arimathea in the new world and the map he left to find it.
That map was acquired by funny valentine, president of the USA. And the secret purpose of the race is to collect the parts of the mummy which will bestow invincible power.
We also learn Gyro’s motivation to win the race — he wants to win a pardon for the innocent child who mended his honor collar. So he doesn’t just want glory, but to save someone else — this is the royal road of manga!
So the above episodes were interesting. There is also a stand battle which was pretty lame against a little freak who shoots wires from his mouth and uses hooks and bait. We see Tusk, Johnny’s stand. But the villain was one dimensional and the battle perfunctory.
The art is pretty bad. Many of the characters look the same, such as Johnny and Gyro. The facial expressions are enervated. Jojo art peaked in part 3.
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