JoJo Fans Rejoice as Steel Ball Run Anime Announced

Five years after the release of the first batch of episodes to part six of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Stone Ocean, the animated adaptation of the Steel Ball Run manga (JoJo: Part Seven) is set to be released.

On April 12th, 2025, for the JoJoday event, David Productions, the company that produced the television series of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, announced that an anime adaptation for the Steel Ball Run manga was being worked on behind the scenes. On September 23, 2025, during a livestream, the production team confirmed the release date and platform of the anime. It is supposed to come out on Netflix globally on March 19th, 2026.  

Set in 19th century America, the story will follow Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli as they race on the Steel Ball Run race across the Americas for a chance to win $50,000,000. Villains will lurk afoot to disrupt the protagonists, and to achieve the true goals of the American President, Funny Valentine.

The Japanese voice actors for some of the characters have since been revealed. Shōgo Sakata will voice Johnny Joestar, Yōheo Azakami as Gyro Zeppeli, Kaito Ishikawa as Diego Brando, Rie Takahashi as Lucy Steel, Kenta Miyake as Steven Steel, and Kenichiro Matsuda as Pocoloco.

Minor controversy surrounds the anime as fans criticize the CGI usage and key art that have been presented through small teasers. Defenses have been made, such as the anime always lessening the level of detail of characters compared to the detail they have in the manga.

Worries around how the anime will be released have long been present. JoJo fans reportedly prefer having an an episode per week release order rather than multiple episodes released at once with another batch released months later.

A weekly release is preferred due to its ability to sustain engagement longer than batch releases, as well as to avoid quickly binging episodes. JoJo’s part 6, Stone Ocean, controversially had a batch release, which fans theorized led to less engagement.

Steel Ball Run, the seventh part to the nine part series, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was written and illustrated by mangaka Hirohiko Araki. Originally on the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, the series ran from January 19th to October 16th, 2004. It was moved to the monthly magazine Ultra Jump, running from March 19th, 2005, to April 19th, 2011.