The anime revealed new information through a livestream.
Warner Bros. Japan held a special livestream on YouTube today, 23 September, to announce new updates about the upcoming “Steel Ball Run” anime adaptation, which is a new entry to the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure franchise.
The date of the event also coincides with the date of the press conference in the manga held by Steven Steel kicking off the Steel Ball Run, a cross-country horse race featured prominently in this specific arc.
Unfortunately, Warner Bros. Japan entreated fans and viewers to refrain from screen-recording or screen-capturing the livestream. Regardless, here are the announcements made:
A brand-spanking new teaser trailer and cast reveal
The trailer for Steel Ball Run featured the commencement event of the horse race, and provided a first look at the characters we’ll get to meet.
The main cast and their characters are as follows:
- Johnny Joestar - Shogo Sakata
- Gyro Zeppeli - Yohei Azakami
- Diego Brando - Kaito Ishikawa
- Lucy Steel - Rie Takahashi
- Steven Steel - Kenta Miyake
The cast members also appeared during the live event, which by then was revealed via an official press release for the anime, and discussed their insights, experiences, and impressions regarding their roles for the upcoming Jojo franchise entry.
Yasuhiro Kimura and Hideya Takahashi are once again co-directing the upcoming season at David Production. Other returning staff members include series director Toshiyuki Kato, script writer Yasuko Kobayashi, character designer Daisuke Tsumagari, music composer Yugo Kanno, and sound director Yoshikazu Iwanami. Netflix will stream the anime exclusively as it airs, which is sometime in 2026.
What is “Steel Ball Run” all about?
Steel Ball Run is the seventh main story arc of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure manga series, written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. It was serialised in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump from January to October 2004 as a shounen series, before being moved to Ultra Jump, and thereby being classified as seinen, from 2005 to 2014.
Initially, Steel Ball Run was published without any connection to the overarching lore of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. However, it was later revealed that the serialisation was the official seventh arc of the series. The manga had a total of 95 chapters, which were combined into 24 tankobon volumes as volumes 81 to 104 of the entire series.
The manga has recently been licensed for an English release by Viz Media, with the first volume released in May 2025. The plot is described as:
Riders from around the world gather in the Wild West for the race of the century! Johnny Joestar, a former jockey paralyzed from the waist down, comes to spectate, and momentarily regains the ability to walk while watching a duel fought by Gyro Zeppeli. Desperate to learn more about this power, Johnny joins the race alongside Gyro and embarks on the most epic and bizarre race to ever cross the American frontier!
