What to Know About ‘JoJo’s Weird Journey’ Earlier than Beginning ‘Metal Ball Run’

Steel Ball Run, the seventh a part of Hirohiko Araki’s wacky, long-running JoJo’s Weird Journey saga, is off to the races on Netflix—or at the least, its lengthy first episode is. And with a brand new half comes the identical large questions for curious newcomers who’ve absorbed the present from memes on-line: what’s the present even about, and do I want to observe its six different components to grasp its superpowered supermodels on horseback?

As io9’s resident JJBA sicko, I’ve taken the freedom of letting you copy my homework. I’m going to interrupt down what Metal Ball Run truly is, the way it suits into the bigger JJBA universe, and—sure—the controversial query that has followers grumble on intuition: can you skip parts?

What’s JoJo’s Weird Journey‘s deal?

Initially created by Araki in 1987, JoJo’s Weird Journey began out as a muscular, supernatural battle shonen wherein Jonathan Joestar battled his adopted brother-turned-vampire, Dio Brando. Principally, assume Fist of the North Star, however with characters and their powers named after popular culture musicians. The massive level of intrigue with JJBA is Stands: the superpowered ghosts with tune names that grant their customers, good and unhealthy, world-bending powers. The sequence’ subsequent components observe the descendants of Jonathan Joestar as they go on, properly, weird adventures that every one fall into totally different genres.

Phantom Blood is a vampiric epic within the vein of Van Helsing and the aforementioned Fist of the North Star. Battle Tendency, its second half, is principally Indiana Jones. Stardust Crusaders, by far the most well-liked and acknowledged a part of the sequence, is a globetrotting journey that performs like a hodgepodge of The Final Campaign, The Mummy, and Massive Bother in Little China. Diamond is Unbreakable is principally Twin Peaks; Golden Wind is mobster-inspired; and half six, Stone Ocean, is a jail break. Briefly, in the event you’re not significantly vibing with the style of 1 half, comprehend it’ll change issues up subsequent time.

Whereas the varied components of JJBA discover totally different genres, they aren’t stand-alone anthologies. JJBA components span from the late Eighteen Eighties to 2011, with recurring characters showing because the digital camera shifts between members of the family, utilizing their powers and wit to beat unattainable odds, enjoying psychological chess with their powers, and being hella photogenic whereas doing so.

What’s Metal Ball Run about?

Metal Ball Run‘s entire deal is principally Death Race 2000 on horseback. Set in Eighteen Nineties America, the sequence sees horse riders take part in an anything-goes cross-country race from San Diego to New York for a $50 million prize. The story follows Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic ex-jockey who, after having his capacity to stroll restored by touching the mysterious metal balls of fellow rider Gyro Zeppeli, decides to hitch the race to uncover their secret. These two are by far probably the most regular guys on this race. There’s a Native American participant named Sandman, who insists on racing on foot; Pocoloco, a Black rider with uncanny luck; and a menacing rider named Diego Brando. Hmm?

Its first episode is fairly nice, quelling all fans’ worries that animation studio David Manufacturing would wrestle with its horses, which are famously hard to draw. The primary concern for followers is whether or not Netflix will launch the season with weekly episodes, just like the previous Crunchyroll custom of “JoJo Fridays,” or if it’ll repeat its previous mistakes with Stone Ocean by releasing episodes in massive batches with little promotion. 

However that’s an previous fear for JJBA followers. What newbies are frightened about is how misplaced they’re gonna be in the event that they watch Metal Ball Run with out finishing a single earlier season of JJBA.

Can I skip components and nonetheless watch this?

Get excited, the first STAGE is simply across the nook! pic.twitter.com/dv5MvQ34lC

— Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime) March 18, 2026

Whereas Betteride’s law of headlines would dictate that any headline ending with a query mark will be answered with the phrase “no,” that’s not essentially the case right here. Whereas sure, skipping components in JJBA is a sacrilegious offense to many followers, the truth that Metal Ball Run isn’t joined alongside its predecessors as a brand new season and stands alone as its personal present in Netflix’s library does increase the query of whether or not you possibly can simply dive into it with out watching the earlier components. Hell, even Netflix’s official account gave beginner followers the go-ahead, a lot to the chagrin of diehards.

The brief model of this regularly requested query is: “sure, you possibly can leap straight into Metal Ball Run. It’s a contemporary continuity for the sequence.” (There’s a “however” coming, I promise.)

Metal Ball Run is a hotly contested exception to the longstanding “We don’t increase part-skippers on this family” rule of the fandom. Nonetheless, skipping earlier components with SBR isn’t like beginning Star Wars with The Power Awakens—it’s extra like leaping into the equally long Yakuza video game series with Like a Dragon: a brand new protagonist, a brand new canon, and a few connective tissue to what got here earlier than.

For probably the most half, something that echoes earlier components of JJBA reveals up as harmless cameos in SBR‘s premiere; they’ll tackle additional that means because the story progresses. On the entire, you gained’t be misplaced, however you’ll be lacking some “Marvel after Endgame” spectacle that has longtime followers laud half seven as the very best one of many total sequence due to the way it solely works as a remix of Araki’s mythology with JJBA to this point.

Explaining why it’s nonetheless preferable to not skip forward will get difficult with out spoilers. So in the event you’re fantastic with these, let’s dig in.

Metal Ball Run is much less a brand new continuity than it’s another timeline of the sequence rebooted after the cataclysmic finale of Stone Ocean. Bear in mind earlier after we mentioned that powers get extra sophisticated because the sequence evolves with its trailing components? Nicely, Stone Ocean noticed protagonist Jolyne Cujoh and Jotaro Kujo combat and fail to defeat villain Enrico Pucci. Utilizing his advanced stand, Made in Heaven, Pucci resets the universe after horrifically fast-forwarding time to the purpose the place the universe experiences an enormous bang.

What emerges is a brand new timeline the place characters from the JJBA canon nonetheless exist, however in a remixed context. It’s type of like how Marvel Comics could have an enormous reboot however nonetheless riff on character archetypes and powersets, however it’s simpler to observe as a result of there aren’t determined points to maintain monitor of and nail down context for namedrops in a separate run. That’s, except you part-skip straight to SBR.

Why SBR is praised as the best of all JJBA is especially as a result of it acts as a remix of all of the JJBA components, with callbacks and character reintroductions that evolve from being fascinating to extraordinarily necessary. From half seven onward, by way of its subsequent components, JoJolion, and the continued sequence, JoJoLands, Araki takes the constructing blocks he’s developed over the previous 40 years and molds them into new clay.

For instance, the facility Gyro makes use of all through its premiere episode, the Rotation, is a remix of the Ripple, an earlier JJBA energy that was rapidly deserted as soon as Stands grew to become its sequence powerset going ahead.

It’s not a failing grade for you, as a first-time viewer, to not know that, and the sequence will clarify issues the second they want explaining. Nonetheless, future callbacks and remixes of the pop-off selection are within the wings with SBR, rewarding those that have skilled earlier components. So you possibly can see why followers warn newcomers to not skip them, on the threat of lacking the delicate and apparent references which can be constructed into SBR. Whereas nice on their very own, they’re much more significant as a part of a reimagining of previous JJBA parts that Araki takes one other stab at.

However total, it’s not that deep. You’re fantastic to skip to Metal Ball Run and be part of within the merriment of its wacky anime races so long as you possibly can tolerate the phenomenon of somebody on Twitter performing just like the pal in your sofa who has already seen a film and is droning on about why stuff you didn’t assume twice about are so necessary.

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