Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part 7: Steel Ball Run vol. 3

Okay, so the bit about the zombie horse is a letdown, but as for everything else…

That there are random mummified body parts strewn throughout the desert course of this leg of the Steel Ball Run is perhaps the least surprising thing about this volume.  Yet it turns out that there are some very powerful people looking for them, because they may have powers beyond mortal comprehension.  Which is something of a problem for guys like Johnny and Gyoro who just want to race and now find themselves having to deal with even crazier Stand wielders.  Then there’s that charismatic young jockey, Diego Brando, who’s clearly been up to something since the start of the race.  What is it, and how does it threaten our protagonists?

You’ll get your answers before the end of the volume and while the business with Dio is solidly executed by this series’ standards (while also being just as bizarre) I can’t help but feel like it’s something of an anticlimax.  Given that this guy shares his name with the big bad of the “Jojo’s” series up to this point, I was expecting more.  Unless this was mangaka Hirohiko Araki’s plan from the start in order to drive home the fact that this is a reboot that won’t be beholden to the weight of the series’ previous stories.  I commend his efforts if that’s the case; though, I just wish the reveal here was a bit more satisfying.

Like the story before it where Johnny and Gyoro are menaced by a kid with a bamboo hat.  He doesn’t sound all that threatening, what with only having a bamboo hat to distinguish himself by.  Yet his powers are used unsettlingly at first before their true nature is revealed and the battle between him and the surviving protagonist turns into a classic battle of wits for this title.  It’s good stuff that indicates the change in the series’ storytelling is off to a good start.

That’s right, this is the first volume of “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” where its chapters weren’t beholden to the weekly schedule of Shonen Jump.  The series adopted a monthly schedule after moving to Ultra Jump and the change doesn’t make what you read here feel like anything less than what’s come before.  What’s changed is that the storytelling no longer feels as dragged out as it has been in the past when Araki has had to deliver a cliffhanger every twenty pages or so.  Even if the two arcs here aren’t necessarily any shorter than previous ones, they feel easier to digest without sacrificing any of the series’ trademark style – which is a definite win in my book.