At last, we know what’s going with the release of Steel Ball Run: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Kind of.
As part of AnimeJapan, Netflix released a new trailer promising the show will enter a “Second Stage” later this year. That’s all well and good, but at time of writing, it’s unclear if this is one single episode dropping or several, and if the latter, how they’ll be doled out. Netflix has been weirdly vague about this show’s rollout, not helped by its Chile account once indicating a weekly schedule.
So fans have concerns, given how Stone Ocean’s release was handled back in 2022. The strangeness is all the more notable with comments coming from Jojo’s staff. On Saturday, the manga’s French translator Anthony Prezman asked Netflix to “consider whether your release strategy serves the story you’re investing in. Steel Ball Run is a story built on tension…arc by arc, week by week. Batch releases neutralize its narrative work.” Series director Yasuhiro Kimura also recently told AniTrendz that production was “going smoothly” and that he’s similarly in the dark about when new episodes will arrive.
io9 has reached out to Netflix for more information. Until then, the only thing to do is talk about the new trailer, which sees the racers prepare for the next leg of the journey. At nearly 750 miles, it’ll be a rough trip across the desert, aka “the Devil’s Path,” so named after 26 calvarymen died trying to cross it. And to make matters worse, one of the racers was murdered, meaning other participants are in danger and potential suspects as Mr. Steel tries to find who did the deed.
More Steel Ball Run will be exclusive to Netflix when it comes out, and we’ll have more on the situation as it develops.
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