Steel Ball Run
Steel Ball Run (スティール・ボール・ラン, Sutīru Bōru Ran) is the seventh part of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series. Initially serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from January 19, 2004 to October 18, 2004, the part's publication later moved to Ultra Jump, where it was serialized from March 19, 2005 to April 19, 2011.
Set in the U.S. in 1890, the story follows Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic ex-jockey, and Gyro Zeppeli, master in the mystic art of the Spin, as the two compete in the trans-American Steel Ball Run race and uncover its benefactor's sinister motivations.
Steel Ball Run marks the start of a new universe entirely divorced from the events of Parts 1-6. Despite this, the story retains several core features of JoJo, including Stands, as well as numerous references to the original continuity.
Plot Summary
The Steel Ball Run Begins
Countdown to the Race's Beginning
Promoter Steven Steel holds a press conference to announce the Steel Ball Run: a multi-stage horse race across America, with a grand prize of $50,000,000. Participants flock to America from all over the world: among the favorites are cowboy Mountain Tim, Mongolian horseman Dot Han, and British jockey Diego Brando. Even relative unknowns like the emancipated slave Pocoloco and Sandman sign up to join the race.
Gyro Zeppeli is introduced as he registers his entry. He challenges a thief in a duel and, by throwing a Steel Ball at his shoulder, makes his opponent shoot himself in the head. Interested, a bystander in a wheelchair touches the Steel Ball as it spins in its holster, causing him to momentarily stand up. The man is introduced as Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey who became paraplegic after a petty fight.
Though Johnny is amazed at the miracle produced by the Steel Ball, Gyro refuses to explain its secret. Undeterred, Johnny buys a horse and enters the race. As the race begins, Johnny manages to mount his horse by spinning his own body.
The First Fifteen Thousand Meters
Steven Steel and a team of reporters board a train to follow the racers through the first of the race's nine stages. Gyro quickly gains the lead and incapacitates two of the crowd favorites, Urmd Avdul and Diego Brando, with the power of his Steel Balls. Gyro is then challenged by Pocoloco, who makes up for his late start with uncanny luck and a strange ability. Despite Gyro's efforts to attack Pocoloco, he only manages to put Sandman in danger; nevertheless, the Native American overtakes both of them to become the frontrunner. After a tense battle near the finish line, Gyro turns his cape into a sail to catch the tailwind and barely takes first place.
Interlude: Steven Steel's Past
Steven Steel's colorful past is explored. It is revealed that the Steel Ball Run race was first imagined by a young girl named Lucy, who suggested the idea to a downtrodden and despairing Steven. After awakening from a drunken stupor, Steven was approached by a group of sponsors who expressed interest in the event and offered to finance it, making Steven rich. Out of gratitude toward Lucy, Steven later married her.
The West: First Battles
A Bloodthirsty Competition
Despite his impressive performance, Gyro receives a penalty for having endangered Sandman earlier in the race and is demoted to 21st place. After exacting petty revenge by ruining Steven's party, Gyro agrees to let Johnny follow him and tells him that what matters is the Steel Ball's Spin itself. Meanwhile, Steven and his wife are brought to a murder scene indicating that a murderer is taking out competitors. The local sheriff calls the famous cowboy Mountain Tim, who memorizes the horseshoe prints and briefly flirts with Lucy.
The second stage of the Steel Ball Run begins. This time, the racers are tasked with crossing 1,200 km (750 mi) of desert. Gyro and Johnny are attacked by fellow racer Mrs. Robinson, who uses explosive cacti to harass them. Gyro promptly defeats Robinson with the same cacti. Later, after finding Mrs. Robinson's horse, Mountain Tim realizes that the horseshoes don't match and the murderer is still at large.
Johnny and Gyro make camp and Johnny makes some progress in the Spin. The two are then attacked by Andre, Benjamin, and L.A. Boomboom, who wield the magnetic Stand Tomb of the Boom 1 2 3. After a brief fight, Gyro and Johnny flee but are sprayed with Andre's blood. Benjamin disguises himself as Johnny Joestar, confronting Mountain Tim and managing to frame Johnny for the murders. Mountain Tim soon catches up to Johnny and Gyro, and the three of them realize that the enemy is still attacking them. Tim presents his power, Oh! Lonesome Me, which he refers to as a Stand. He reveals that he acquired this power by stepping into a Devil's Palm, a moving phenomenon granting people Stands. Benjamin Boomboom uses his Stand to immobilize the group, but Johnny awakens his own Stand, Tusk: in truth, the group had entered the Devil's Palm without realizing it. Johnny kills Benjamin and incapacitates L.A., who reveals that they were hired to kill Gyro and is promptly left to die in the desert.
The Neapolitan Killers
At Johnny's behest, Gyro reveals his past as an executioner for the Kingdom of Naples. For his first execution, Gyro was to behead Marco, a little boy condemned to death by mere association with a treasonous lord. After meeting the boy and seeing his kind heart, Gyro objected to Marco's execution and thus decided to participate in the Steel Ball Run race, as winning could spur the Neapolitan king to proclaim a general amnesty, and in any case the prize money could pay for Marco's appeal.
Some time later, a terrorist from the Kingdom of Naples named Oyecomova arrives at a relay village, ready to kill Gyro as an act of disdain against the kingdom. Mountain Tim confronts Oyecomova, but is incapacitated by his exposive-planting Stand Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitekure. Oyecomova catches up to Gyro and Johnny, having heard of a healing item called the Zombie Horse from a letter Gyro left behind. After a long pursuit upriver, Johnny and Gyro incapacitate Oyecomova with a combination attack. The two reach the Zombie Horse, which Gyro uses to heal an earlier leg injury.
The Steel Ball Run's True Purpose
A flashback reveals that Joseph of Arimathea, the man who lowered Jesus Christ from his cross, later drew a map depicting an unknown land and several points of interest.
Johnny and Gyro are attacked by Fritz von Stroheim, who they quickly dispose of. Johnny, confused by the frequency of the attempts on their lives, suddenly realizes that his left arm contains a mummified arm. Meanwhile, Steven Steel converses with Funny Valentine, President of the United States. With Joseph of Arimathea's map in his possession, Valentine covets the divided relic known as the Saint's Corpse. Lucy overhears Valentine's plot to obtain the Saint's Corpse, and glimpses its heart within his chest.
A short distance before reaching Monument Valley, Johnny and Gyro are attacked by Pork Pie Hat Kid, one of Valentine's subordinates. Pork Pie Hat Kid captures Gyro and isolates Johnny, but Johnny's Tusk fully materializes to help its user and whispers the phrase "movere crus" before disappearing. Johnny, realizing the Steel Ball Run's true purpose, manages to reach Gyro and defeat Pork Pie Hat Kid. Having seen his legs being influenced by Tusk, Johnny diverts his attention to the Saint's Corpse and convinces Gyro to help him obtain it.
During the final dash of the second stage, Johnny discovers the location of the next Corpse Part on a nearby newspaper, distracting Gyro and causing Diego to take first place. Gyro barely has time to rebuke Johnny before the race moves onward to its third stage: a 510 km (320 mi) trek through the Rocky Mountains.
Gyro and Johnny meet with Diego, and the three take shelter in a village as night falls. However, Diego suddenly transforms into a raptor and attacks Gyro and Johnny, who are forced to flee upon discovering that the entire village has suffered the same fate. Diego's backstory is revealed: he once spent his youth working on a farm with his mother, but the bad treatment they received and his mother's death made Diego ambitious and resentful of humanity. His talent led him to search for glory in the Steel Ball Run. Gyro transforms himself into a dinosaur, but Diego manages to snatch the corpse's eyes away from them. Johnny, remaining human due to the Corpse's Left Arm, confronts Dr. Ferdinand, who explains that his Scary Monsters is controlling the pack of dinosaurs. Johnny unexpectedly abandons the Left Arm and partially transforms in order to toss one of the Eyes at Gyro, who regains human form and acquires an ability called Scan. Dr. Ferdinand is incapacitated and eaten by cougars, but Diego escapes with the Left Eye and keeps his dinosaur abilities.
During the final dash of the third stage, Gyro again challenges Diego. Johnny, having known Gyro for long enough, declares that Gyro lacks the proper drive to win and will lose to Diego. Gyro angrily rebukes Johnny, but Diego remains ahead of him despite his best efforts. Johnny unexpectedly passes Diego and reaches the finish line, only to be told that another racer, Hot Pants, has already taken first place. Defeated, Gyro admits that he does lack the drive to win.
Interlude: The Story of Funny Valentine
A flashback reveals some of Funny Valentine's past. After surviving a trip into the desert, Valentine became a politician and discovered Joseph of Arimathea's map. The map indicated the whereabouts of the nine parts of the Saint's Corpse: the Torso, the Heart, the Left Arm, the Right Arm, the Spine, the Eyes, the Ears, the Legs and the Head. After becoming President of the United States, he sponsored Steven Steel's race in order to reassemble and seize the entire corpse.
The Midwest: Struggle for the Saint's Corpse
Entering the Real Man's World
At 650 km (400 mi) from Kansas City, Gyro and Johnny meet Hot Pants in a forest. They briefly fight over an allegedly stolen cow; Hot Pants revealing his "flesh spray" Cream Starter and Gyro managing to scan Hot Pants' back, sees the word “Turbo” on his spine, thus leading Gyro and Johnny to locate the next Corpse's part in Kansas City. Johnny defuses the situation and the three eventually have a truce against a gunslinger named Ringo Roadagain who claims that they won't escape the forest without killing him. The trio confronts Ringo who reveals his Stand Mandom, which rewinds time by six seconds when he winds up his wristwatch. A shootout ensues in which Johnny and Hot Pants are apparently fatally shot, leaving only Gyro alive. Ringo takes Johnny inside and spares the Napolitan but Gyro realizes that Johnny's wound isn't fatal.
Ringo Roadagain's story is revealed: he was once the sick youngest of an impoverished family. One night, his mother and sister were killed by a bandit and he saved himself by shooting the bandit. Ringo then became a gunslinger seeking challenges to "purify" himself. Finally, Funny Valentine employed him to retrieve the Corpse part from Johnny. Chasing away the last doubts within him, Gyro challenges Ringo again and uses Mandom to his advantage by going through a first loop then leads Ringo into a falling splinter of the roof that impales Roadagain. Acknowledging his defeat and Gyro's growth, Ringo honors him and is finished off. After his duel, Gyro heals Johnny and Hot Pants. Johnny discovers that Ringo has sent a message to Valentine and also that Hot Pants is a woman, choosing to keep it secret. Near Kansas City, the duo crosses path with Pocoloco and Sandman. They exchange information, making Johnny realizes that Diego has found the location of the next Corpse Part.
Lucy Steel the Traitor
Meanwhile, witnessing Ringo's pigeon arriving on the roof, Lucy infiltrates a governmental building and steals the message it carries. Almost surprised by Valentine and his henchman Blackmore, Lucy has no choice but to call Mountain Tim for help and they both escape incognito. Lucy then goes to retrieve the Spine at a local landmark known as the Green Tomb. However, Blackmore discovers Tim's involvement and kills him with his rain-controlling Catch the Rainbow. He then discovers that Lucy was the culprit and rushes toward her location as she uncovers the Spine. As Diego, Johnny and Gyro ride toward the Green Tomb, Lucy is discovered by Blackmore. He takes the Spine from Lucy but is distracted by Jesus-Christ; he is shot by Lucy who escapes with the Corpse Part. Exalted by the miracles around him, Blackmore seals his fatal wounds with raindrops and pursues Lucy. Meanwhile, Gyro and Johnny are unable to get ahead of Diego. In the tempest, they struggle to find the optimal path while Diego's enhanced senses help him. Nonetheless, Gyro's growth expresses itself when he manages to catch up to Diego. After a brief fight, Silver Bullet hurts its leg, throwing Diego out of the race.
The duo then meets Lucy and Blackmore almost at the same time and a fight ensues. Catch the Rainbow immobilizes Johnny and Gyro, but the latter manages to throw a Steel Ball on Blackmore by evaporating some raindrops. Blackmore dies from his wounds, and the Spine enters Johnny's body as the weather calms itself, and the next Corpse part's location reveals itself to the duo.
Johnny and Gyro reach the finish line in Kansas City. Earlier, Johnny, Gyro, and Lucy have seen the locations of the Ears, the Right Arm, and the Legs. The duo has also Lucy to steal the President's Heart, Gyro lending his Right Eye to enable this. In the present, Diego meets with Valentine's henchman. After Diego reveals that he knows about the traitor within Valentine's entourage, Valentine reluctantly cooperates with the British jockey.
The Golden Rectangle
Near the Mississippi, Gyro and Johnny are attacked by a combination of Diego's dinosaurs and a strange power which produces effects like cutting or burning whoever touched an affected object. The duo has to flee to the river. Johnny reminisces his sad youth, notably how he blames himself for his brother Nicholas' death and how poorly his father treated him. Considering that the universe is making him pay for his assumed unwitting murder, Johnny loses hope as his Stand proves ineffectual.
An angry Gyro reminds him that Johnny isn't close to master the Spin and introduces the Golden Rectangle, a ubiquitous proportion which is used to form a perfect and infinite rotation. However, Gyro refuses to say more. Sandman reveals himself as the enemy and inexorably corners the duo, even slicing Gyro's legs. On the brink of despair, Johnny realizes that the Golden Rectangle is present in the environment and upgrades Tusk to ACT2. An even shootout ensues, but Johnny surprises Sandman with a bullet made from Gyro's belt and kills the Indian. Suddenly, Hot Pants appears and knocks him out. She steals all the Corpse Parts save a fraction of the Spine.
Interlude: The Concept of Stands
The bonus chapter is an explanation of Stands and their rules. Some of the properties of Stands, such as their possible appearances and the rules they are subjected to are explained.
Lastly, Araki explains that items and techniques such as the Stone Mask, the Ripple, or the Spin were tools who emulate the power of the Stands.
Lake Michigan: To Accept Loss
At the beginning of the 6th stage, Gyro notices that 11 horses are nearing them with unnatural synchronization. They also meet Sugar Mountain, a young girl residing inside a giant tree who submits the duo to a trial of honesty. Gyro manages to obtain the Ears and the Right Arm plus various precious goods. However, Sugar Mountain warns the horse racers that they have to spend or exchange fairly everything they have before the sun sets lest they are absorbed into the tree. Gyro and Johnny decide to head to the city but find it difficult to spend their fortune. The Eleven Men attack them in a casino and almost kill them, but Gyro pays the local thugs to become their bodyguards, killing all but one man. However, Gyro is still turning into a tree and Johnny reluctantly trades his Corpse Parts with the last assassin. Sugar Mountain nonetheless salutes their resolve.
Near Lake Michigan, Diego meets with Mike O., head of Valentine's security staff. Diego reveals that the traitor is most likely a woman, causing the questioning of every woman associated with the Steel Ball Run race. Lucy sees that the search is closing in on her and takes the initiative by approaching the First Lady Scarlet Valentine. With soporifics given by Hot Pants, Lucy manages to approach Valentine while he's asleep but the heist goes wrong when Scarlet discovers Lucy. Hot Pants come to the rescue but a short fight ensues against Mike O. who is killed. However, Lucy is forced to disguise as Scarlet while Hot Pants departs with the Ears and Heart, leaving the Right Arm which was too big for her escape.
Johnny and Gyro have reached a frozen straits which they must pass, but unbeknownst to them their are observed by two enemies. Wekapipo's past is explored: once a member of the royal guard of Naples, Wekapipo broke his sister's marriage on the premise that she was beaten blind. Furious, the husband forced him into exile; having heard of his sister's death, Wekapipo enters Valentine's service.
Johnny and Gyro try to cross the frozen strait, a wolf following them for unknown reasons. In the middle of the strait, they are attacked by Wekapipo and Magent Magent whose Wrecking Ball and 20th Century Boy can make their victim not perceive anything to their left and make Magent invincible while kneeling respectively. Gyro takes out Magent Magent but Wekapipo isolates the duo from the Golden Rectangle by destroying all possible inspirations including Gyro's hand and manages to uncover the Legs from the wolf. At a climactic exchange, Gyro uses snowflakes to recreate the Golden Spin and beats Wekapipo. However, he also reveals that Wekapipo's sister is being taken care of by the Zeppeli Family and enlists him to search for Lucy.
A supplementary chapter first describes Johnny and Gyro's daily routine in the Steel Ball Run. It transitions into the last dash of the 6th stage, in which Johnny and Gyro are racing against Pocoloco. Hey Ya! guides him out of the way of a rift, but Gyro and Johnny cooperate to cross it directly with a makeshift steel rope made from a ball, effectively beating Pocoloco's luck. Gyro finishes at the 1st place and Johnny at the 2nd place. Meanwhile, Magent Magent crawls back to civilization.
The Northeast: The Hunt Concludes
Valentine Takes All
A flashback details the discovery of Lucy Steel's body from the Fox River. A distraught Steven Steel is convinced that the woman before her isn't Lucy.
145 km West of Philadelphia, Gyro and Johnny are lured by Hot Pants to a local garbage dump inside a building. Gyro and Johnny are attacked simultaneously by various objects they have left behind throughout their lives, who fuse with them and covering them both with a membrane. Hot Pants is then completely covered in the membrane and disappears. A flashback exposes Hot Pants' past: she is a nun who covets the Corpse to absolve herself after she abandoned her brother to a bear.
Johnny is warned to purify himself with water to dissolve the membrane and manages to escape. Suddenly, Johnny witnesses Jesus telling "not to shoot if he doubts, then a new path will open to him". When Johnny goes back into the garbage dump, Axl RO, an agent of Valentine, uses his Civil War to materialize objects of guilt including the specters of people. Johnny is attacked by his father and brother and the situation gets worse when he shoots Ax RO as the attack transfers' Axl RO's own objects of guilt to him. Nonetheless, he suddenly understands Jesus' hint and shoots himself. Gaining the ability to travel into the wormhole created by the spinning nails, Johnny gains the upper hand and grabs the Corpse from afar. He thus forces Axl RO to stab him and is then absolved of his sins. Suddenly, Axl RO is shot in the chest and Funny Valentine reveals himself. The President seizes the nearly all the Corpse Parts and departs before Johnny can attack.
Assembling the Saint's Corpse
Gyro and Johnny enter Philadelphia. Seeing that Diego Brando is at the 1st place, they decide to confront him and steal the Left Eye from him. At the same time elsewhere, Steven Steel ruminates in his coach. Comparing recent photos, he discovers that somehow Scarlet Valentine is Lucy in disguise. However, Magent Magent appears and shoots Steven because he's no longer useful to Valentine. Soon after, Wekapipo intervenes to protect Steven. The fight ends as Wekapipo imprisons Magent at the bottom of a river by using the Spin.
A flashback details the past of Lucy Pendleton: she was once the eldest daughter of a farmer indebted with the mafia. However, Steven bluffed the mafia who wanted Lucy as a prostitute by telling them he took her virginity and married Lucy to trick them. Grateful, Lucy became loyal to Steven.
In the Independence Hall, Valentines makes a lengthy motive rant to his "wife", who has let the Right Eye slip on the ground and has tried to distract the President. Aroused, Valentine tries to rape his wife's impersonator but when Lucy reveals herself, Valentine is stunned and is stabbed in the throat. Agonizing, Valentine suddenly disappears when a chair falls over him and reappears unharmed. Lucy tries to hide from Valentine in the next room and accidentally finds the Corpse which fuses with her. When Valentine breaks into the room, he realizes Lucy is the host for the Head.
Interlude: A Joke from Gyro
Gyro tells Johnny a joke, reciting the days of the week while acting progressively crazier, at Sunday, he regains his calm. Johnny notes the jokes and comments that it's really good.
The West Coast: An Invincible Miracle
Free-for-All in Philadelphia
- Main article: Chocolate Disco (story arc)
A series of flashback finally reveal that Valentine's Stand, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap or D4C, can make parallel universes coexist in the same plane, explaining everyone's confusion during the last minutes. Valentine attacks Diego and Wekapipo and traps Diego in an alternate dimension through a flag. He steals the Left Eye and disappears but Diego then sacrifices Wekapipo to escape to the base world. Confident that the Corpse Parts are only found in his world, Diego continues his pursuit.
In the Independence Hall, a heavily pregnant Lucy is contacted by a mysterious voice compelling her to get away. Due to a series of coincidences, her guards are all incapacitated or killed, allowing Lucy to escape with a wounded Steven. Meanwhile, Gyro asks Johnny to abandon the chase for the Corpse Parts, considering that they've lost. However, Johnny stands up briefly, showing the evolution of his legs, and reaffirms his will to get hold of the Corpse. Gyro accepts to help him and reveals the last level of the Spin, which can be used only by the most skilled horse riders, harnessing a power which can beat Valentine. Unable to locate the Corpse Parts, they resolve to chase Lucy's trail instead. For her part, Lucy has been guided to the river by the voice but realizes that Valentine had lured her to his ship.
Valentine is Blessed
Finally, Gyro and Johnny catch up to the locomotive but Valentine has made it impossible to stop the train. Moreover, Valentine is invincible as "harm" itself is being redirected to random places in the world. Gyro throws a Steel Ball, to seemingly no effect. The duo can only stop Valentine's wagon and retreat temporarily. It is then that Gyro exposes some hair attached to the Ball he's thrown. If they harness the rotational energy of their horses when they run according to the Golden Scale, Gyro and Johnny will reach Valentine. Both charge the wagon. The President defeats Johnny first and forces Gyro to waste a Steel Ball to save his partner. Fortunately, Steven Steel transports Lucy out of the wagon and entrusts her to Gyro, forcing Valentine to pursue them toward the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, Johnny sees Valentine's ear stuck on the Steel Ball, and realizes that Valentine didn't notice his wound. Near the water, a wind gust does make Valentine realizes that he's missing his ear, and as Gyro rushes toward him, the President finally grasps the danger of the Spin.
The Phenomenal Power of the Spin
Tusk ACT4 forces its way into the dimensional gap then pummels D4C with enough force to form a crater on the ground at the bottom of which Valentine escapes. The President soon discovers that the Golden Spin is following him no matter which dimension he flees to and despairs.
A flashback details a young Funny's meeting with his future father-in-law Captain Valentine and his lesson about patriotism. Given resolve by this memory, Valentine recomposes himself. The President reappears in the base world but admits his loss and proposes Johnny to bring back Gyro Zeppeli. The Holy Corpse begins to extract itself from Lucy. Meanwhile, Valentine continues his parley, countering each of Johnny's arguments. At the end, the jockey is nearly convinced.
Johnny nonetheless throws the gun Valentine emptied earlier back at him, daring him to pick it up as a test. Valentine's plans are foiled. A final shootout ensues between the jockey and the President, which Johnny wins. Johnny witnesses a final apparition of Gyro's ghost and says his farewell. He then puts a final nail bullet in Valentine's head, killing him. Valentine's body is dragged underground by the Spin, and all traces of him disappears.
New York City: The Center of the World
Diego's World
After healing everyone, Johnny realizes that the Corpse has been stolen by a last unknown enemy, identified as at least a Steel Ball Run contestant. Johnny pursues his final foe. Johnny catches up to the mysterious culprit, and confronts Diego Brando, alive and well, now wielding a time-stopping Stand called THE WORLD. Valentine has convinced an alternate version to fulfill his goal in his place.
Both racers realize what the other is capable of and aim to devise a plan which will counter the other's power. As he begins the final stage Johnny meets with his father George, and they silently reconcile.
The Corpse's Burial
Johnny joins the rest of the racers on the Brooklyn Bridge for one final attack. Both perform their plans but although The World's leg is hit by the rotation, the Stand cuts it and throws it at Johnny who's now imbued with the Golden Spin. Incapacitated, Johnny is powerless as Diego wins the Steel Ball Run and head to the safe in which the Holy Corpse will be put.
In the shelter Diego meets with Lucy, who kills Diego by fusing his head with the original's head.
At the same time, Steven rescues Johnny by taking him on his horse, so that Johnny can shoot himself.
After a brief narration of the after effects of the race, Johnny embarks on a boat to give Gyro's corpse back to his family, in which he meets his future wife Rina Higashikata. We last see Johnny giving one last prayer, and smiles as he goes to Europe to bury his friend.
Characters & Stands
Battles
Locations
Steel Ball Run is set in the United States during the 19th century, following the route set by the Steel Ball Run race. Both real-life cities and the wilderness of the United States are featured in the story, along with other strange locations, as the characters travel eastward from San Diego to New York.
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| A total of 3,652 participants gather on the beach for the Steel Ball Run, the first transcontinental horse race in human history, covering a distance of approximately 6,000 kilometers. |
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| In the church at the end of the abandoned wilderness, so many spectators gather here to see the goal of the 1st STAGE! |
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| Goal of the 2nd STAGE. Harsh natural terrain! Unrelenting climatic conditions! Eighteen days later, they've come all the way across! Although it's a 1200km process, the leading group consists of skilled equestrians! It's like the 1st STAGE all over again! |
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| Goal of the 3rd STAGE. Johnny Joestar! Johnny Joestar! Surprisingly, the order of arrival is Johnny Joestar, Diego Brando, and Gyro Zeppeli. |
The Green Tomb
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| 39 degrees 6 minutes 24 seconds north latitude, 94 degrees 40 minutes 6 seconds west longitude. A small old ruin of the indigenous people, known as the Green Tomb, in the middle of a meadow. |
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| Goal of the 4th STAGE. With a mileage of about 1250km, more than 1450 of the 1918 participants were affected by a storm and retired. The crowd at the goal is dozens of times larger, and the number of bets seems to have increased a great deal. |
Chicago by Lake Michigan
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| Goal of the 5th STAGE. Pocoloco is in 1st place, Norisuke Higashikata in 2nd, and Hot Pants in 3rd. In the overall rankings, Pocoloco is in first place, with 233 points, 18 points ahead of second place. |
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| An object dropped into the 'fountain' transforms into a top-quality item! If one lies, the tree pulls out their tongue. Honest answers are rewarded with highest grade goods, which must be traded before nightfall. Otherwise, the person will become the tree's 'fruit'. |
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| Goal of the 6th STAGE. The one that conquered the blizzard and the dreaded frozen strait is Gyro Zeppeli! Gyro finishes in first!! |
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| Wondering what Hot Pants is up to after stealing the Corpse Parts, Johnny and Gyro follow her into a building and discover strange pieces of trash which they threw away a long time ago. |
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| The results of the 7th STAGE are Diego Brando in 1st place, Norisuke Higashikata in 2nd place, and Pocoloco in 3rd place. |
Declaration of Independence Plaza
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| Gyro hears a gunshot and heads for Johnny, but is attacked by a Stand user who draws squares on the floor! |
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| When Lucy wakes up after hearing a mysterious voice, she begins to move as if guided by it. |
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| The goal of the 8th STAGE. Each rider will board a steamer that runs on pistons for each horse and cross to Coney Island. They can conserve their energy for two hours until the next stage. |
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| Goal of the Final STAGE. September 25, 1890, 10:00 AM! The total number of riders participating in the race is 3652, the distance traveled is approximately 6400 kilometers, and the days traveled are 116 days, 6 hours, 33 minutes, and 12 seconds. |
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| The basement of Trinity Church in Manhattan. It's built in such a way that if you put a body inside and lock it, no Stand User or army will be able to destroy it for 80 years. When Dio arrives to 'become the center of the world', he receives an unexpected package from Lucy! |
Other Maps
Route of the Steel Ball Run
Adaptations
VOMIC
- An official VOMIC adaptation was made in December 2007. The first episode released on December 7, 2007, and the 4th and final episode released on December 28, 2007.
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- In order to research the American landscape, Araki knew he couldn't cross the United States in one journey and thus split his research trips into three. The first went from the West Coast to the deserts, the second was made from the Great Plains to the Mississippi River and Chicago and the third to the finish line in New York. The trips were mostly done by car. In there, Araki was struck by the openness of the landscape and sensed that he "could never make an escape from an adversary" and that there was nowhere to hide. The emptiness of the landscape also inspired in him an impression of emptiness and lifelessness. Although Araki asked himself if there was any fun in living there at all, he also says that the atmosphere felt rich for suspense. Araki was able to put his experience to use when he drew the manga.[1]
- During its initial serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump, Steel Ball Run was categorized as a different series without the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure title. The change was a request from the editorial department in an attempt to attract reader attention by introducing a "new series."[2] This was undone when the series moved to Ultra Jump in 2005, specifically in the May 2005 issue where the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure name was re-added to the title and the chapter numbering was reset.
See also
References
- ↑ Hirohiko Araki's Manga Technique, p.161
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 JOJOVELLER: [HISTORY] - P 153 - 154
- ↑ SBR Volume 1: Author's Note
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