JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run getting an anime has been a hot topic ever since the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime first premiered. Steel Ball Run is one of the most popular parts of the manga, if not the most popular, and as soon as the anime started taking off, most people started hoping it would last long enough for Steel Ball Run to finally get animated.

Fans have wanted a Steel Ball Run anime for years, and it appears to be on the horizon. A special JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime event called “JoJo Day” was announced for 2025 where the past and future of the anime will be discussed, and in all likelihood, the Steel Ball Run anime will most likely be announced at the JoJo Day event in 2025. There’s never been more hope for a Steel Ball Run anime, and if it is coming out, there are a few things the anime needs to do right to succeed.

6 The Steel Ball Run Anime Needs To Nail Gyro’s Cheese Song

Steel Ball Run's Most Iconic Scene Explained

One of the most iconic scenes in Steel Ball Run isn’t a fight or a dramatic death, but a comedic moment between Johnny and Gyro. While competing in the Steel Ball Run Race, in a scene that almost verged on non-sequitur, Gyro asked Johnny to listen to a song he wrote that was just him saying the words “pizza” and “mozzarella” repeatedly. Johnny sat silent for a moment before going on about how much he loved it, and whether he was being serious or sarcastic, it worked as a great bit of comedy for the series.

Not only is Gyro’s Cheese Song hilariously absurd, but the scene perfectly shows off Johnny and Gyro’s differing personalities and how great their chemistry is, something that’s always been a major selling point of Steel Ball Run. The animation and voice acting for the Steel Ball Run anime need to perfectly sell the comedy of the Cheese Song, both in the actual song and how Johnny and Gyro react to it, as anything less would be a disservice to one of the most iconic scenes in Steel Ball Run and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, as a whole.

5 The Steel Ball Run Anime Needs To Better Sell Johnny & Diego’s Rivalry

JoJo's Biggest Rivalry Needs More Attention In Steel Ball Run

Many of the conflicts in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure stem from the conflict between the Joestar family and Dio Brando, and Steel Ball Run is no different. In the Steel Ball Run universe, Johnny Joestar and Diego Brando were rival jockeys who carried their rivalry into the Steel Ball Run Race, the two constantly fighting whenever the story would allow for it. The final battle of Steel Ball Run was even between Johnny and an alternate version of Diego with The World, so Steel Ball Run perfectly illustrates how fundamental the conflict with Dio is to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

As important as Johnny and Diego’s rivalry is to Steel Ball Run, oddly enough, it didn’t start that way. In Johnny and Diego’s first few interactions, the story never depicted them as having a personal relationship, which is especially odd with the eventual reveal that Johnny’s inability to beat Diego in a race helped spark one of the biggest moments in Johnny’s backstory. Hirohiko Araki likely didn’t have Johnny and Diego’s dynamic fully planned out from the start, but regardless, the Steel Ball Run anime would do well to give Johnny and Diego’s rivalry more setup than the manga did.

4 The Steel Ball Run Anime Needs To Make Valentine’s Stand Less Confusing

The Power Of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Explained

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, commonly shortened to D4C, is the Stand of Funny Valentine, the main villain of Steel Ball Run. In of pure physical strength, D4C is weaker than many other Stands of major heroes and villains, but what makes Valentine stand out, however, is the power of his Stand, as Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap lets Valentine travel between dimensions, transfer his Stand to other versions of himself, and destroy anything when it comes into with an alternate version of itself, making for some of the most unique and creative fights in the entire franchise.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap has a simple, yet effective ability, but it wasn’t always like that. In the first fight with D4C, its power revolved around a rather convoluted ability to merge alternate realities, something made even worse by how that power is blatantly never used again after that first fight. As such, the Steel Ball Run anime should rewrite the first fight with Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap to keep its powers more consistent with later appearances, as that would make the story flow better and, more importantly, make things far less confusing for viewers, as well.

3 Funny Valentine Can’t Look Sympathetic In The Steel Ball Run Anime

Steel Ball Run's Main Villain Can't Look Like A Hero

In addition to how unique his Stand is, Funny Valentine, himself, is written rather uniquely for a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure villain. While Valentine is undeniably a villain, he’s often depicted as being fairly honorable and sympathetic, with even Johnny considering him virtuous after learning about his plans for the Holy Corpse and becoming willing to work with him because of it. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven went so far as to have Valentine work with the heroes to defeat Heaven-Attained DIO, so the idea of him being the most reasonable JoJo villain doesn’t come from nowhere.

That being said, Valentine is anything but a hero. While Valentine frames his actions as noble and just, his plans for the Holy Corpse were to use it to protect America by ing all misfortune onto the rest of the world, and everything he said to Johnny to invoke sympathy was done so to kill Johnny when he let his guard down. Valentine is often made out to be more heroic than he actually is, and as such, the Steel Ball Run anime can’t do anything that would frame Valentine as being anything other than a villain.

2 Steel Ball Run Needs To Use As Little CGI As Possible

Steel Ball Run Can't Get Bogged Down With Bad Art & Animation

Anime has been integrating CGI more and more in recent years to consistently mixed results, and unfortunately, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has been no exception. While the series has largely avoided CGI since its early days, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean infamously used poor CGI to render Stands and characters in some scenes, with its use for Whitesnake being both egregious and all-around inconsistent, as well. The CGI became less frequent by the end of the series, but it was still a major sticking point for old and new fans alike.

CGI was a major problem for Stone Ocean, but it can’t be one for Steel Ball Run. Steel Ball Run is often regarded as the most visually unique and all-around gorgeous story in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and as such, the Steel Ball Run anime needs to use as little CGI as possible so it can fully capture the breathtaking nature of the manga’s artwork. That might be difficult to pull off when so much of the action revolves around horseback riding, as horses are famously difficult to animate, but hopefully, David Production will find a way to make it work.

1 Steel Ball Run’s Anime Needs To Be Released On A Weekly Basis

Steel Ball Run Needs A Proper Release Schedule To Be A Success

While Stone Ocean was just as fun to watch as the parts that came before it, it failed to generate anywhere near the same level as hype as its predecessors. It was one thing for the series to be a Netflix exclusive, but whenever new episodes came out, Netflix released them all at once as opposed to on a weekly basis, as was the norm for the series up until then. Netflix subjecting Stone Ocean to a batch release system made it impossible for it to generate hype, and the anime is still suffering for it years after the fact.

A hypothetical Steel Ball Run anime would probably be a Netflix exclusive, and if that does happen, then Netflix needs to release Steel Ball Run on a weekly basis so it can generate the hype a series like it deserves; Netflix has gotten into the habit of doing weekly releases for anime in recent years, so there’s a precedent to see something like that happen. Whatever the case, that’s the biggest thing a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run anime would have to do to succeed, and hopefully, when the anime finally does come out, it will do just that.