The “Steel Ball Run” anime aired on Netflix, and I’ve been forever transformed.
When we first started dating, En got me to watch Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. It’s something I had tried watching previously, but couldn’t quite get into. (Many such cases. Ask around and few will tell you the introductory arc is their favorite part.) Maybe it’s love or maybe it’s timing, but when En sat me down to watch JJBA, I was hooked. Joseph was (and still remains) my favorite character! En told me at the time that “Steel Ball Run” was their favorite part, but it wouldn’t be animated for years to come.
It’s been years since that introduction, and now Netflix is finally giving us a taste of the “Steel Ball Run” anime. After watching those first few 40 minutes of the show, I immediately understood why this part of the series is so beloved. The characters immediately set up shop in my brain, and I was sucked back into all the adventure of “Stardust Crusaders” and the faggotry of “Battle Tendency” (my two fave parts).
Then I found out the airing schedule is heinous and extended and full of months long gaps. Heartbreaking. Of course, I had to find out what happened next so I plowed through the manga in a matter of days. I was in Chicago at C2E2 reading manga behind the table, rapidly cooking my brain into Gyjo soup.
It was my first time reading JJBA, but it was so obvious the level of comic making skill here— the dynamic poses, compositions, and paneling. Hot wires electrified my skin while I read. I was observing art historical references and noting how Araki chose close up panels for expressions to interject into the larger scene. In the story aspects, I admired how much the author followed the Rule of Cool and freely changed character design over the course of years just to better suit his changing tastes and style. It was fun! It was delightful! It really inspired me to pursue my own tastes, unrestrained by conventions.
There’s a chapter where a character can turn objects into bombs– standard stuff for Jojo’s. The way it is visually introduced made me stop and explain to my friends what I loved about it. He touches something; he tells you he’s going to back away from it (so you can intuit it’s going to explode or do damage of some kind). Then, the object grows little clocks on it. You know, to visually signify the countdown timer for bombs. It’s so… man, I don’t know if I can put into words what that storytelling technique was doing to me. But I had a million more lightbulb moments like that while reading “Steel Ball Run”.
Part of what appeals to me visually about “Steel Ball Run” is how Romantic the art style is. Despite this series's fantasy elements and anachronistic costume choices (of which I am also a devout practitioner and fan), the art style fits with the time period and setting (ie: the American West in 1890). Big sweeping landscapes, intense poses, rearing horses. The Romantic period was my specialization in school while pursued my degree in art history, and it’s still my favorite era. When I reference art history in my own work, this is often the era I’m pulling from, or at least, it’s where I go first to seek reference and inspiration for compositions. I was moved to make my own landscape illustration fan art for this series.
Two horses and their riders, speeding across the Midwest plains, while a supercell forms overhead. Rain falls in the distance, trees bend sideways in the wind behind them, and god rays burst ahead. Johnny’s spinning pointer finger is raised to the heavens like a tornado in the center, while Gyro looks back at him, hair covering his eyes as the first to step into the golden light. Studying Romantic paintings in college is what helped me understand what images are trying to tell us within the limitations of a 2D rectangle. Fun fact, Slow Dancer, the horse Johnny is riding in this piece, is referenced from a Géricault painting, which is currently in the Art Institute of Chicago. Next time I’m in Chicago, I’ll have to go take a peek!
Now that I’ve finished the manga and drawn some fanart and listened to some playlists and rewatched the episode and picked up a poster from the Kinokuniya event, I feel like I’ve gotten the fandom flu out of my system. I will take all this whirling inspiration with me as I move forward in my own art practice. Realizing that this manga came out over 20 years ago and is only just now getting animated, just now touching my life… Never give up! You have to keep going!! You never know who needs the work you’re making, if not now, then ten, twenty, thirty years from now. One hundred years from now when someone wants to trace your oil painting of a horse!!!! You have to create! The world needs your voice! And you will only get better the more you practice, the more you make, the more you share.
Go go go go go go!