JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 7: Steel Ball Run Review


Story (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.80/10) Great+

The story for the critically acclaimed Part 7 of JoJo's did indeed live up to the hype as the best JoJo's Part from a story standpoint. It's not perfect just like any other series and it's the best Araki has ever written. Now my personal issues with the story is the climax of this Part which also hindered my enjoyment so I'll put those in that section. But that's not the only thing that urked me as we know JoJo's has never made 100% sense and as a reader of JoJo's one must admit that and accept that accordingly. Araki tries his best (or at least I hope he does) to explain the supernatural or scientific situations that occur in his series and some times it makes sense and some times it doesn't which is forgivable depending on the individual reader and the situation at hand. One thing that didn't sit well with me for this entire part was the power of the spin. Now ripple made some what sense and so did stands they were some sort simple and easy forms of powers araki made up in the past that you could wrap your head around but the power of the spin made little sense at the start of the series but then just started to make less and less to me and damn near lost me at the part where Gyro needs to see a perfect rectangle to activate his true potential, I can't let araki ride out with that one. Other than that the story plot of the actual Steel Ball Run Race was amazingly unique and the biggest flip from JoJo's we've seen since Part 4's slice of life spin (and it's even more than that). You get the same sensation of watching or reading a really good sports manga with JoJo's flavor on top of it and majority of it was done great and I can cosign it as the best story Araki has written thus far.


Art (10/10) Outstanding

The art in JoJo's Part 7 is Araki's best work he's ever done in my opinion. Of the time of me writing this review I've already read Part 8 and I am caught up with it. Part 7's art is superior to Part 8's. I don't know what happen after he was done with Part 7 but that was his pinnacle he has never drawn anything that has looked as good as it did in any other Part of JoJo's or any other manga he drawn before JoJo's.


Characters (10/10) Outstanding (Spoilers)

What made the characters outstanding to me in Part 7 were not how likeable they were but because of the backstories they have. Johnny's, Gyro's, Diego's and Funny are some of the best backstories for characters Araki has ever written. The only character's backstory to be honest that rival's the back stories of these characters I mention and aren't apart of Part 7 were Part 6's Weather Report and Enrico Pucci's. Likeable is subjective and I indeed enjoyable the company of how main characters Johnny and Gyro their chemistry as duos outshines any duo we've seen in previous parts Joseph and Ceaser? Nope, Josuke and Okuyasu? Nah, no duo is touching Johnny and Gyro. Now Diego Brando as a character does indeed outshine the orginal Dio from a character standpoint. Although i like the og Dio more as a character Diego shows that he's more deep and interesting than OG Dio. Although Dio got more characterization in Part 6 during Enrico's flashback that made Dio seem more than just some 1 Dimensional villain that hates the Joestar bloodline and I appreciated it, I still think Diego is a better character from the ground up. My only gripes about Diego is the way he got his dinosaur abilities, it still doesn't make sense to me and when the 2nd Diego got pulled into the picture which is basically a completely different character and I felt it wasn't really needed and felt more like a lazy attempt to bring The World back into the picture, although the idea I think was cool i think getting completely rid of the original Diego so earlier wasn't too much of a good move. Diego Brando is a great antagonist and I don't feel he was a villain which is why I feel since I don't consider him a flat out villain like Dio Brando I feel he was a better character by default. Funny Valentine on the other hand can be looked at as both villain and antagonist. His complex mind and way of thinking was outstanding I do feel he is a better villain than Dio but I do like Dio more. With all that being said even though I am giving this section a 10/10 it's because like I say time and time again all a 10/10 means to me is that it has reached my pinnacle of satisfaction I was looking for when it came to this section doesn't necessarily mean it's perfect.


Enjoyment (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.60/10) Great+

My enjoyment for Part 7 was great I enjoyed majority of it. I do feel the start of Part 7 took a minute to get going but once it did it was smooth sailing from there on out. Enjoyment is a 100% subjective category so it's different for everyone. So for me I felt when it came to the conclusion on how the final opposing villain was handled, it was good but the whole Diego Brando from an alternate universe with the Stand power of The World? When that came into the picture I my enjoyed kind of hit a wall, because I just felt it was quite an ass pull even by JoJo's standards. Honestly this was more of an ass pull than Part 3's Jotaro getting the power of time stop right at the end of the series yeah it's that much of an ass pull to me. Apart of Diego getting The World was spoiled for me before I got to it in the manga and I thought that the original Diego was going to get the that ability somehow and I was interested to figure out how he gets it. But when I figured out it's not even him it's another Diego from a parallel universe it kind of disappointed me and hindered my overall enjoyment for a conclusion to the critically acclaimed SBR, I guess I felt it could have been handled better, example could you imagine if the original Diego wasn't dead and the new Diego teamed up with him and that had some sort of 2v2 fight with Johnny and Gyro? That would have been far better to me. Another issue that hindered my enjoyment was the fact that just like the previous Joestar (which would be Jolyne) Johnny couldn't finish the job. Sure one could say Johnny defeated Funny who was the true main antagonist of Part 7 but the fact that it's because of Funny that this 2nd Diego is here still makes me uncomfortable in the same way that I did when Jolyne couldn't finish the job against Enrico Pucci back in Part 6. It doesn't sit well with me that Lucy Steel (just like Emporio) is the one to lay the final blow on the final opposing threat of Part 7. Nonetheless it didn't completely destroy my enjoyment as you can tell because it still ended up getting a 9.60 it's far more forgivable than the big issues of previous Parts of JoJo's (Part 4,5 and 6 in particular which all had that one big thing that is unforgivable in each of them). Nonetheless points (just like i did for Part 6 when this happened) had to be deducted from my score but not as much.


Overall (9/10) Great
More Specifically (9.85/10) Great+

So the hype was indeed real, I can see why this is considered the best Part of JoJo's. And as of me writing this review and also being caught up with JoJo's Part 8. I would say my ranking for my personal favorites would be 4,2,3,7,5,1,8,6. I do feel this is superior than it's counter Part which is Phantom Blood, but everyone feels that way. All and all Part 7 was a great Part and I can cosign it as one of the if not the best from a critical standpoint.

Update*
After sitting down and thinking about it hard an long my new ranking as far as favorite parts rank as the following now. 7, 4, 2, 3, 5, 1, 8, 6. So yeah Part 7 is like wine although the issues that I have with have not gone anywhere, comparing it to the issues I've had with my previous #1 favorite i felt bothered me far more than the issues I've had with Part 7. The anime for Part 4 that aired, made me realize how many issues I have with Part 4 that bother me to the point where it made me do a deep comparison on everything Part 4 and Part 7 has done in every category and Part 7 came out on top. So yeah Part 7 is my new favorite.