Adorkable: Gyro has a number of moments showing off just how much of a lovable goofball he is, some notable ones being his "Pizza Mozzarella" song and his reaction to Johnny liking it.
Was Valentine truly motivated by a desire to help his country? Or were his ideals just a self-righteous excuse to Take Over the World? His words at the end of the part suggest the former, but his speech about the "taking first napkin" heavily suggests the latter.
Badass Decay: Alternate Universe Diego's Stand, THE WORLD, has the same powers and abilities it once had back in Stardust Crusaders. But it's gone from the unstoppable force it once was, that only Star Platinum could go toe to toe with in Part 3 to being rather underwhelming and lackluster. Diego only uses its signature Time Stop ability to set up traps for Johnny and nothing else. We never see it in direct combat and the only reason Diego even had a chance to beat Johnny with it was because of Funny Valentine telling him about Tusk's abilities. Ironically, he's the only iteration of DIO to actually defeat his opponent.
Base-Breaking Character: Pocoloco. Depending on who you ask, he's either a boring fool with an absurd amount of luck who never grows as a person, or he's a fun Plucky Comic Relief who, like many of the racers, deserved more attention than he got. The fact that he wins 1st place in the Steel Ball Run instead of Johnny only deepened the divide.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Many of Gyro's jokes, typically preceded by Gyro announcing he's about to tell one, and typically followed with Johnny looking very unimpressed shortly before showering Gyro's skits with praise. None of them have been treated kindly by fan translations — they rely on Japanese-only punsExample Gyro's "Let me pass" joke; he says "excuse me, let me pass", while holding up four fingers, then two fingers, then none. Four in Japanese is "Shi", zero is "rei", and two in English would be pronounced "tsu", thus "shitsurei", meaning "excuse me" in Japanese or references to Japanese cultureExample The "days of the week" gag, where Gyro suddenly turns insane on Wednesday, references a skit by Atsumu Watanabe where the comedian turns silly in the presence of the number 3, with Wednesday being the third day of the week — and not a single one of the gags are mentioned ever again after they debut. In particular, the "days of the week" gag gets its own chapter dedicated to it, which is only five pages long, being the shortest chapter in the series' history. The most famous "gag" is Gyro's song about two different types of cheese, which doesn't use any words except "Pizza mozzarella" and "Gorgonzola". Unlike his recurring bizarre sense of humor, his desire to sing never gets brought up ever again.
Is the Art Evolution that took place a good thing? Fans are split between those who like the more detailed and realistic art, saying that it pushed JoJo to a level it's never been before, and others bemoan it due to it making Araki fall into Only Six Faces and stiffer facial expressions as the series went on.
DIO vs. Diego. While fans do agree to liking both characters, which one is the better character is up for debate. Was DIO better because of how unapologetic an antagonist he was, which, in turn, made him one of the most memorable shōnen villains, or was Diego the better character, since he had his evil tendencies toned down, went through Character Development, and still kept the unapologetic charm of the original DIO?
The final battle being against an Alternate Universe Diego instead of Funny Valentine. A lot of fans were disappointed that Funny Valentine who is often regarded as one of the best antagonists in the series didn't get the grand finale he deserved and that Araki was just trying to pander to nostalgia. Others however thought it was a nice call back to Stardust Crusaders and that as good a final villain as Valentine was he wouldn't have made for an interesting final battle. There's also the fact that some fans were disappointed by the Stardust Crusaders final battle and feel as if this battle makes up for it. A third contingent argues that, while not the finale battle, Valentine's finale fight against Gyro and Johnny is still very much one of, if not the best in the part, maybe the whole series, and the battle against Diego was if anything a continuation of Valentine's battle given how he was only there because of him and leads to the Corpse not being able to be used against America, ensuring that Valentine's greatest fear wouldn't come to pass.
Steel Ball Run starting a new continuity in the franchise. Considering the acclaim this part has received, a lot of fans like the idea of Araki being able to revisit alternate versions of old plotlines as his writing skills have improved over time. Additionally, Funny Valentine's Stand opens up the possibility of a multiverse, which could potentially mean a crossover between the old parts is possible. Others, while fine with Steel Ball Run (and its direct sequel JoJolion) as a whole, aren't fond of the fact that Araki has essentially abandoned the initial continuity, especially those who wanted to see sequels to Diamond is Unbreakable and Golden Wind.
It's commonly believed by newer fans that Steel Ball Run's continuity is that of the rewritten universe created in Stone Ocean's climax. It's not: thanks to Emporio and Weather Report's interference, the only major change to the original universe was Pucci never coming into being, implying that Parts 1-3 still happened in much the same way.Steel Ball Run and its sequels take place in their own continuity, independent from the events of the previous parts.
Pocoloco's Stand, Hey Ya!, is subject to two different widespread misconceptions. Some fans mistakenly attribute Pocoloco's immense luck to Hey Ya!'s ability: this is wrong, he was simply blessed with good luck for a few months according to a fortune teller. On the other hand, some claim that Hey Ya! is a completely useless Stand that doesn't do anything other than cheer for Pocoloco, which is also wrong as it is shown to be nearly omniscient, using its knowledge to give extremely useful advice.
The Alternate Universe counterpart of Diego "Dio" Brando is completely devoid of his main counterpart's nobler qualities. Brought into the universe by the dying Funny Valentine, Alternate Diego agrees to secure the corpse parts solely so that all good fortune in the world would be centered on him, dooming most of the world to calamity. During his battle with Johnny, Alternate Diego tricks him into killing several of Diego's fans by using them as shields, mockingly blaming Johnny for their deaths. Upon being confronted by the young Lucy Steel, Alternate Diego attacks her, proudly claiming that he'll take his time raping and torturing Lucy before killing her.
The nameless soldier from Ringo Roadagain's backstory is a slavering, despicable presence who put Ringo on his path of villainy. Having apparently deserted from his army, the soldier breaks into Ringo's home and murders his mother and two young sisters with a knife before trying to rape the 10-year-old boy. Planning to keep and "raise" Ringo for more disgusting intentions, the soldier threatens to force the child to watch his family's corpses be butchered and Fed to Pigs if he resists the soldier's attempts to force himself on Ringo.
Designated Villain: Quite a few fans consider Diego to be this, especially compared to his alternate world counterpart —both of them. Whereas Dio weasels his way into the Joestar family, taking Jonathan's father's love, killing his dog and ultimately ruining Jonathan's life (and by extension the lives of all his descendants), Diego is... a really good jockey who Johnny's dad just happens to like and is mildly antagonistic to Johnny as a competitor in the race, even eventually working towards Johnny and Gyro's goal of killing Valentine, albeit in his own way. He's searching after the Corpse Parts just like everyone else, but outside of some Jerkass moments, doesn't do anything that would cement him as significantly more evil than the rest; the closest he gets is leaving Wekapipo to die in order to understand D4C's ability as well as the unproven rumor that he married an old woman and poisoned her to inherit her fortune. One has to take into account Dio's father. One can point at his mistreatment of Dio and say that he's the reason why Dio is very evil. Diego was raised by his mother and, while having a hard life, grew up without having to get beaten to eat. While he is still "evil", he's no where near DIO's level, and fundamentally, a different character altogether.
Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The author's notes for Volume 19 have an almost certainly intentional one of these from the Araki, consisting of The Rant admonishing readers to stop climbing trees even though "I understand you wish to defy gravity and the natural order of the entire planet." The picture accompanying the note? Araki climbing a tree.
Draco in Leather Pants: Funny Valentine frequently gets this treatment, with some fans saying that he has noble goals and only wants what's best for his country, while ignoring that his plan, had it succeeded, would have turned every country except the United States into a living hell. Some people are also ignoring the fact that he attempted to force himself on Lucy, who's only 14.
Ending Fatigue: After Valentine's death, you'd think the arc would have finally ended, right? Nope. It turns out had one more ace up his sleeve in the form of Alternate Universe Diego.
Ringo Roadagain is the most popular minor antagonist of the part, especially among Western fans, for his design and personality. He was even intended to be playable in Eyes of Heaven but was scrapped.
For appearing for only a very small amount of pages, D-I-S-C-O still has a fair amount of fans due to his relatively restrained yet attractive design and Steampunk outfit, his very odd ability, and for being a reference to a particularly catchy J-pop song, of all things.
Even Better Sequel: After the much more divisive Stone Ocean was met with mixed reviews as a Grand Finale for the original continuity, Steel Ball Run is widely considered to be Araki's magnum opus, especially in the west, and has received almost unanimous praise in JoJo fandom. Fans of the series are especially fond of Araki reinventing the wheel when it comes to Stand abilities and doing it right, as well as the Darker and Edgier tone of the part and the JoJo of the story being the most morally grey of them all and having a unique backstory. Similarly, the Big Bad of Steel Ball Run is beloved in the fandom for being extremely memorable and having sympathetic motives. The biggest standout of the part is its pacing, having a Monster of the Week format done fresh and exciting, and having some of the most morally complex and fleshed out Stand users in the series.
Evil Is Cool: Funny Valentine is a fan favorite among readers for having one of the most powerful Stands in the series and being very charismatic and memorable.
Mountain Tim being an alternate universe counterpart to Robert E.O. Speedwagon is also a common theory among fans. While "Speedwagon" is mentioned early on as one of the sponsors of the Steel Ball Run Race, Tim's facial scar and one-sided crush on Lucy as well as the fact that Johnny, Gyro, Lucy, and Diego were all explicitly based on the core cast members of Phantom Blood cause a lot of fans to come to this conclusion.
The exact species of Diego's Scary Monstersform is never given. When it comes up, fans have universally agreed on it being a Utahraptor.
Lucy Steel's temporary Stand is known as "Love Train"; however, it appears in chapters called "Ticket to Ride" and was later confirmed to be named as such in JOJOVELLER.
Pocoloco's Stand is sometimes called "Buckethead" due to the shape of its head. Its actual name is "Hey Ya!".
"Dimes 4 Crimes" is a popular alternate localised name for D4C, mainly used by fans who dislike the narmy "Filthy Acts at a Reasonable Price".
Fan-Preferred Couple: In typical JoJo fashion, while Johnny meets Norisuke's daughter Rina in the final chapter, and JoJolion states that they got married and had children together, it's far more popular to ship him and Gyro due to the extremely close bond they form together.
Fashion-Victim Villain: Even among some of the more questionable-looking villains in the part like Benjamin Boom Boom and Blackmore, Oyecomova takes the cake for looking the absolute strangest, with his skin being a pale white with clock tattoos, his hair sprawling outwards in unorganized directions, and having fishnets on his face.
Fetish Retardant: Lucy Steel is one of the most attractive and cute female characters in the franchise. Yet in spite of her well-developed body, she's only 14 years old, which turns a lot of fans away from her.
While Steel Ball Run is not unpopular in Japan, it's still not as popular as Stardust Crusaders and Golden Wind over there. In the United States, however, Steel Ball Run is widely considered to be the best part of the entire franchise. It's probably the only part in the series that basically everyone unanimously loves with very few disliking it.
Funny Valentine is one of the most popular villains among the Western fandom for his patriotism and Gray-and-Grey Morality motives.
Many fans admit the beginning can be a little slow, but the appearance of Stands and especially the battle with Ringo Roadagain are cited as the point when SBR begins to truly shine.
Is often seen as another jump forward for the series itself much like Battle Tendency and Diamond is Unbreakable. The shift from Shonen to Seinen allowed Araki to write something he was more comfortable with, and when this part went monthly it allowed for more fleshed-out stories and fights. Needless to say, many fans were pleased with the more mature approach Araki took with the franchise.
Hard-to-Adapt Work: Steel Ball Run is a specific part that is hard to produce an anime for. The story revolves around an American cross-country horse race, and horses are notoriously difficult to animate in 2D. Even David Productions admitted that they would rather wait for technology to advance to help with 2D horse animation, as they don't want to rely on CGI to animate the horses.
Hot Pants is named after an album/song by James Brown, but if you're a Bob's Burgers fan, you might connect it instead with the Disco parody song "Hot Pants Rain Dance" that appears in one episode of the show and came out the year the Part ended.
Gyro Zeppeli's main form of combat up until he gains a Stand involves tossing spinning metal balls at his opponents. The fourth generation Pokemon games introduced a move called Gyro Ball, a Steel-type attack that has the user spinning rapidly and ramming into their foe at high speed.
After the death of his brother, a paraplegic goes on a journey of self-discovery, being able to temporarily walk at times due to outside methods, and gains new power through Pieces of God...sound familiar?
Ho Yay: To be expected, given the setting and focus on Johnny and Gyro's bond. It's hard to find moments between them that don't fall into this trope.
Hype Backlash: Not since Diamond is Unbreakable has a part received such praise, with a significant portion of fans considering Steel Ball Run to be the best part of the franchise. It's thus inevitable that some felt that it did not live up to the standards that fans made it out to be.
Johnny has suffered through the death of his older brother, is largely ignored by his father, and lost the use of his legs. He does get better however as he adventures with Gyro and his father eventually comes to root for him in the final leg of the Steel Ball Run. But then again, Gyro ends up dying. and he doesn't win the Steel Ball Run. JoJolion later reveals that he didn't live much longer after the events, as he dies trying to save his family from a disease.
Diego has a horrible case of Abusive Parentsas his father tried to drown him when he was a baby in order to have one less mouth to feed. His mother saves him but later lived at a stable where she has to put her health on jeopardy in order feed him regularly.
It Was His Sled: One of the major mysteries of this part is whose mummified corpse the heroes and villains are trying to reassemble. Thanks to Memetic Mutation, anyone who's heard about this part knows that it's Jesus Christ.
Diego "Dio" Brando, while ruthless, is completely devoid of his original counterpart's viler qualities. A genius jockey who swore revenge on society for his mother's death, Diego entered the Steel Ball Run, analyzing the competition's horses and adapting to their condition. After stealing a Holy Corpse Part and Dr. Ferdinand's Stand Scary Monsters, Diego got involved in the search for the Holy Corpse Parts, working for himself, then for Funny Valentine and finally with the heroes, switching sides as it suited his interests. Whether good, evil or neutral, Diego proved to be as good with Scary Monsters as he was with horses, using it offensively, as support — in tandem with Sandman's Stand — or even for infiltration purposes. Ultimately teaming up with Johnny Joestar, Wekapipo and later on Hot Pants against Valentine, Diego, despite Valentine's efforts to lure and outsmart him, saw through the latter's strategies, adapting to them and figuring out Valentine's Stand ability, later on doing his best with Hot Pants to prevent Valentine from using it, nearly killing him and only losing due to bad luck.
The ever-calm, infinitely polite Ringo Roadagain discovered his Stand Mandom after killing a burglar that had slaughtered his family. With this action Ringo came to the realization that fighting and near-death experiences harden one's willpower and make them a "true man," and made it his life's goal to both spread this message, and strengthen himself. Sent by President Funny Valentine to track down parts of the Holy Corpse, Ringo lays a trap for any racers of the Steel Ball Run who venture too close to his shack, trapping them in an infinite time loop until they fight him. In one of these fights, Ringo gives his opponent pointers on how to better combat him, only for his opponent to ignore them and get easily taken down by Ringo, who nonetheless thanks his fallen foe for a good fight. Upon confronting Gyro Zeppeli, Hot Pants and Johnny Joestar, Ringo duels the trio, outsmarting Hot Pants's attempted sneak attack before capturing Johnny, offering Gyro a chance to walk away unharmed. When Gyro refuses, Ringo gives Gyro one of the hardest fights of his life, culminating in Ringo forcing Gyro to kill him, proclaiming that Gyro has now gained willpower he will need for his coming fights and welcoming him to "the true man's world".
Blackmore is a loyal adherent to President Funny Valentine, gifted with the powerful Stand "Catch the Rainbow". Having a natural talent for deduction and hyper attention to his surroundings, Blackmore easily deduces Lucy Steel's subterfuge against Valentine through things as simple as water droplets, and tracks her down after effortlessly murdering Mountain Tim. Though his temporarily distraction by the Holy Corpse's power enables Lucy to fatally wound him, Blackmore uses his Stand to seal up his wounds and keep him alive long enough to pursue Lucy and nearly murder her, Gyro, and Johnny all at once. Accepting of his inevitable death, Blackmore dedicates his last moments to retrieving the Corpse for Valentine, his determination matched only by his creative usage of his powers in combat.
Lucy Steel is a rare female example of this trope in the franchise. Especially gets such portrayals in fanart.
A lot of fans would describe Johnny as this, at least until he Took a Level in Badass, due to his emotional vulnerability.
Memetic Molester: Tusk ACT 4. No matter what doors or walls you put up to protect yourself, it will break them down trying to get you while crying "chumimi~in".
Look, I Know We Have To Win This Race, But Jesus Told Me We Have To Kill The President.note The premise of Part 7 is a meme itself, given that involves a cross country race to stop the American President from screwing with Jesus Christ's corpse for his own motives.
All rise for the national anthemnote D4C's namesake song is often used as a replacement for the actual national anthem, seeing that its owner is the American president. This often comes up around American Independence Day
Funny Valentine wants to "Make America Great Again!" note Donald Trump used the phrase "Make America Great Again" for his 2016 presidential campaign. Fans often use this term in reference to the parallels between Trump and Valentine's rhetoric and visions for the US. Their prominent blond hair helps comparisons.
Pizza Mozzarella note At one point in the story, Gyro randomly starts singing a song he titles Pizza Mozzarella.
"Filthy Acts at a Reasonable Price"note Another casualty of the series' Writing Around Trademarks problems, where Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap's Great Heat Attack got changed in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle. Fans had an absolute field day with this one, especially considering you can hear Valentine say his Stand's proper name in English in the game.
Johnny Joestar's scream of "I MUST KNOW THE SECRET OF THE BAAAAALLLLSSSS" is more hilarious (or ridiculous — take your pick) than the serious and emotionally impacting line it's supposed to be.
Likely just a quirk of translation, but Hot Pants' tragic and genuinely disturbing backstory (in which she unconsciously pushed her brother into the maw of a hungry grizzly bear to save herself) culminates with her telling Johnny to wash his knife with pure water before his heart tells him that he "can't bear it".
Nausea Fuel: Gyro figuring out which direction Diego ended up heading by tasting Silver Bullet's manure.
Never Live It Down: Fans who don't side with Funny Valentine often like to bring up his Attempted Rape on the 14-year old Lucy, saying that it's hard to sympathize with him when attempting to pull such an act.
No Yay: Mountain Tim's, both the Valentines', and alternate Diego's advances on Lucy, especially taking into consideration the fact that Lucy is only 14 years old.
Rooting for the Empire: Gray morality is a common theme in Steel Ball Run as Johnny, Diego, and Funny Valentine all have understandable motivations and all do things that aren't necessarily justified. In spite of all of this, Johnny and Gyro are still undeniably the protagonists, but some fans choosing to side with Diego or Valentine instead. Then again there are fans who chose to root for all three sides.
Sacred Cow: Steel Ball Run is widely considered the best part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. While every part has its supporters and detractors due to how wildly different they can be from each other, most fans will rank Part 7 highly on their list (almost always top 3), and ranking it too low may cause your opinion to be disregarded by some.
HotPants. A lot of fanart like to depict her as far more feminine-looking than she actually does.
In a hopefully non-sexual variant, Diego's Scary Monsters form is often drawn as cuter or just sleeker than it actually is, sometimes giving him feathers. A lot of fan-art also depicts him as a human with a dinosaur tail, which, in canon, is him in the process of shifting into his (hideous-looking) Partial Transformation, rather than an actual form he uses in any meaningful way.
Shocking Moments: During the fight against Civil War, none other than Jesus Christ himself shows up to give Johnny some pointers.
People who haven't read the manga are most likely to know about the scenes where Gyro tells Hot Pants off by saying "Eat shit, asshole! Fall off your horse!", or sings a song about cheese.
Of sorts. A lot of fans thought a Steel Ball Run contestant based on Hol Horse would have fit perfectly, given the Western setting and the presence of other Expies based off of characters like Avdol and Stroheim. Though some felt that Mountain Tim is an expy of Hol Horse due to their similar designs.
A complaint for the supporting cast established early on in general. The first few chapters barely treat Johnny and Gyro as much more important than any other racer with an established personality, in particular the first stretch of the race and sections immediately after focusing quite a bit on the likes of Pocoloco, Mountain Tim, and Sandman. Mountain Tim is almost killed and exits the plot before too long, ultimately coming Back for the Dead midway through, Sandman is hyped up a lot as someone with a lot to gain from winning the race, a potential sympathetic Stand user at that, only to, again, drop off the map for a little while only to come back later as an enemy and die, and Pocoloco, despite winning the entire race on a technicality, barely does anything after the opening of note. Of the characters we're introduced to in the very beginning of the story, only Johnny, Gyro, and Diego really get to be as relevant as they seemed to be, potential core cast members sort of sidelined for the growing buddy dynamic of Johnny and Gyro.
Norisuke becomes a retroactive example of this after Part 8. We learn that Johnny marries his daughter and that the Higashikata family descended from him. And yet, he has a relatively small role in the story.
An alternate version of Dio with a dinosaur Stand, now on the heroes' side? Wait, never mind, he's dead.
Gyro's Stand, Ball Breaker, only manifests at the very end of Gyro's life and only launches one attack, which comes very close to instantly killing Valentine, only failing because the Steel Ball Gyro used was cracked.
Ugly Cute: Tusk ACT1 is a tiny pink creature with sad Black Bead Eyes and a beak that makes a "Chumimi~n" noise.
Oyecomova has one of the tackiest character designs in the entire franchise with what appears to be a net covering his entire face and conspicuously white skin.
The more realistic art style leans into this towards the end of the series, particularly the colored lipstick and accusations of sameface. Made even more apparent when Araki draws his older characters in this style as seen on the Jojonium covers.
Unexpected Character: No one really expected the appearance of an alternate universe Diego Brando, with THE WORLD as his Stand instead of Scary Monsters.
Diego's joke about escaping a cougar by running towards a nest of rattlesnakes (which, in the Fan Translation, is because they were ssssleeping) adds that the reason the snakes were sleeping is because their alarm clock didn't ring, which works since the French word for rattlesnake translates to "ringer snake". It also adds a second joke about the cougar telling him to beware. ("Gare à toi!", which becomes "cou-gare à toi!")
Gyro's "excuse me, let me pass!" joke was scrapped completely and replaced with an exchange of gratitudes. ("C'est four aimable à vous!" "Oh, mais deux rien!")Translation "That was quite nice of you!" "Oh, it was nothing!"
, of all things.