Steel Ball Run Anime Returns September 25 With New Trailer, Cast and the Devil’s Palm
STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is finally ready to continue its race across America. The anime’s newest trailer confirms that the next wave of episodes will begin streaming on Netflix on September 25, 2026, with one new episode arriving every Friday.
The update covers the 2nd & 3rd STAGE of the story, which will be released as 11 episodes in total. The first stage, a special 47-minute opening episode, is already available worldwide on Netflix.
The new trailer focuses on the brutal next step of the Steel Ball Run race: a dangerous desert crossing tied to the feared region known as the Devil’s Palm. It also reveals three major new characters joining the anime’s cast: Mountain Tim, Hot Pants and Funny Valentine.
For longtime JoJo fans, this marks the true beginning of the long, strange road ahead. The first episode introduced Johnny Joestar, Gyro Zeppeli and the massive cross-country race. Now, the anime is moving deeper into the mystery, violence and supernatural danger that make Steel Ball Run one of the most beloved arcs in Hirohiko Araki’s entire saga.
Steel Ball Run Returns on September 25
STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will resume streaming on September 25, 2026.
Netflix will release one new episode every Friday, covering the 2nd and 3rd stages of the race across 11 episodes. This release schedule confirms that the adaptation will continue as a split-cour project across the full run of episodes.
The schedule is important because Steel Ball Run is a long and ambitious story. Unlike a short arc built around a single villain or location, this part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is structured around a massive race across North America. Each stage can introduce new terrain, new enemies, new rules and new layers of the mystery behind the competition.
The first stage served as a cinematic introduction. The next episodes will begin expanding the race into something much larger than a contest for prize money.
The New Trailer Introduces the Devil’s Palm
The newest trailer highlights the next major challenge facing Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli: a punishing desert route stretching roughly 750 miles.
This section of the race brings the competitors into contact with the Devil’s Palm, a terrifying location surrounded by mystery and fear. In the story, the Devil’s Palm is connected to strange incidents, disappearances and supernatural phenomena that push the race beyond the limits of a normal Western adventure.
That detail is crucial because Steel Ball Run begins with the appearance of a historical sports epic, but it gradually reveals itself as something far stranger.
At first, the premise seems straightforward: a massive horse race across the United States, with a $50 million prize waiting at the finish line. However, the deeper Johnny and Gyro ride, the more they realize that the race is connected to hidden powers, political schemes and forces no ordinary competitor could understand.
The Devil’s Palm is one of the earliest signs that this race is not only about speed.
What Is Steel Ball Run About?
Steel Ball Run is set in 1890s America and follows a massive horse race across the North American continent.
The race spans approximately 4,000 miles and offers a grand prize of $50 million, attracting riders, adventurers, criminals, gamblers and opportunists from many different backgrounds.
At the center of the story is Johnny Joestar, a former genius jockey who lost the use of his legs after a tragic accident. Once admired for his talent, Johnny now lives in despair, cut off from the life and identity he once had.
Everything changes when he encounters Gyro Zeppeli, a mysterious outlaw from the Kingdom of Naples. Gyro uses strange steel balls that create impossible effects, and Johnny witnesses a phenomenon connected to that power that gives him hope for the first time in years.
Driven by that hope, Johnny enters the Steel Ball Run race and forms an uneasy alliance with Gyro. Each man has his own reason for riding, but their partnership becomes the emotional and narrative core of the story.
Johnny Joestar Is a JoJo Unlike Any Before Him
Johnny Joestar is one of the most complex protagonists in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
He is not introduced as a confident hero ready to fight evil. He begins the story broken, bitter and desperate. His disability is not treated as a simple obstacle to overcome instantly, but as part of the emotional foundation of his character.
Johnny enters the race because he sees something in Gyro’s power that might change his life. At first, his motivation is intensely personal. He wants to understand the mysterious phenomenon that moved his body and discover whether it could give him back what he lost.
This makes his journey different from earlier JoJo protagonists. Jonathan was noble, Joseph was clever, Jotaro was cool, Josuke was kind, Giorno was ambitious and Jolyne was rebellious. Johnny begins from a place of need, pain and obsession.
That vulnerability makes his growth especially powerful. Steel Ball Run is not only about Johnny crossing America. It is about whether he can find a reason to move forward, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Gyro Zeppeli Brings Mystery, Humor and Danger
Gyro Zeppeli is the other half of Steel Ball Run’s central partnership.
He enters the race with his own goal, connected to a child facing execution in his homeland. Unlike Johnny, Gyro is physically capable, confident and strange in a way only a JoJo character can be.
He is a master of the Spin, a technique involving rotational energy and steel balls. At first, the Spin seems like an eccentric combat style, but it gradually becomes one of the most important concepts in the entire arc.
Gyro is also one of the reasons Steel Ball Run balances darkness with absurd comedy. He can be serious, dangerous and deeply principled, but he is also ridiculous, theatrical and unpredictable.
His partnership with Johnny works because the two men challenge each other constantly. Gyro pushes Johnny forward, while Johnny forces Gyro to confront the emotional weight behind his own mission.
The Race Is More Than a Race
The Steel Ball Run competition is one of the most brilliant structures in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
On the surface, it is a sports event. Riders must cross deserts, mountains, plains and dangerous territory while competing for position and survival.
However, each stage of the race also functions like an arc of its own. New opponents appear. New terrain changes the rules. New secrets emerge. A simple contest gradually transforms into a supernatural conspiracy with national and even spiritual consequences.
This structure gives the story constant momentum. The characters are always moving, but the meaning of the race keeps changing.
At the beginning, Johnny wants answers. Gyro wants victory for a personal cause. Other racers want fame, money, glory or power. But as the route continues, the race becomes the battleground for something much larger than any individual competitor understands.
Mountain Tim, Hot Pants and Funny Valentine Join the Cast
The new trailer revealed three major new Japanese cast members.
Tomoaki Maeno will voice Mountain Tim, a charismatic cowboy and one of the important competitors introduced during the race. Mountain Tim brings a strong Western presence to the story and quickly becomes tied to the strange events surrounding Johnny and Gyro.
Yoko Hikasa will voice Hot Pants, one of the most mysterious figures in the Steel Ball Run race. Hot Pants plays a major role in the arc’s deeper conflicts and is connected to some of the most unusual abilities in the story.
Tomokazu Sugita will voice Funny Valentine, a character whose importance grows dramatically as Steel Ball Run develops. Valentine is one of the most consequential figures in Part 7 and a key reason the story expands beyond the race itself.
The newly announced Japanese cast includes:
- Tomoaki Maeno as Mountain Tim
- Yoko Hikasa as Hot Pants
- Tomokazu Sugita as Funny Valentine
These additions are a major sign that the anime is preparing to move beyond the introductory phase and into the larger machinery of the story.
The Returning Japanese Cast
The main Japanese cast includes several major voice actors leading the Steel Ball Run adaptation.
- Shogo Sakata as Johnny Joestar
- Yohei Azakami as Gyro Zeppeli
- Kaito Ishikawa as Diego Brando
- Rie Takahashi as Lucy Steel
- Kenta Miyake as Steven Steel
- Masaaki Mizunaka as Sand Man
- Kenichiro Matsuda as Pocoloco
- Tomoaki Maeno as Mountain Tim
- Yoko Hikasa as Hot Pants
- Tomokazu Sugita as Funny Valentine
The cast reflects the wide range of personalities that define Steel Ball Run. The story is not only about Johnny and Gyro. It is about an entire field of competitors, each with personal motives, strange powers and hidden roles in the race’s larger mystery.
The English Dub Cast
Netflix has also listed the main English dub cast for the anime.
- Daman Mills as Johnny Joestar
- Kaiji Tang as Gyro Zeppeli
- Damien Haas as Diego Brando
- Frankie Kevich as Lucy Steel
- Jamieson Price as Steven Steel
- Alejandro Antonio Ruiz as Sandman
- Cedric Williams as Pocoloco
The English dub is especially important for Steel Ball Run because the story is set in the United States and uses a Western setting more heavily than any previous JoJo part.
The performances need to carry both the melodramatic intensity of JoJo and the rough atmosphere of a cross-country race filled with gunslingers, outlaws, politicians and riders chasing impossible dreams.
David Production Returns for Part 7
david production is once again handling animation production for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime.
This continuity matters. Since 2012, the studio has shaped the anime identity of JoJo, adapting multiple parts across more than a decade. Steel Ball Run is a major challenge even by JoJo standards because it requires a different kind of production problem: horses.
Director Yasuhiro Kimura has specifically mentioned the difficulty of translating horse animation into the anime and noted that the team had been preparing for years to bring those scenes to the screen.
That preparation is essential. Steel Ball Run depends on movement across vast terrain. Horses are not background decoration. They are central to the action, strategy and identity of the story.
The anime must make the race feel physically real while still preserving the exaggerated poses, supernatural powers and stylized intensity that define JoJo.
The Main Staff Behind Steel Ball Run
The official staff includes several returning and experienced creators from the JoJo anime project.
- Original Creator: Hirohiko Araki
- Directors: Yasuhiro Kimura and Hideya Takahashi
- Series Director: Toshiyuki Kato
- Series Structure: Yasuko Kobayashi
- Character Design and Chief Animation Director: Daisuke Tsumagari
- Sub Character Design: Yui Kinoshita, Grand Guerrilla, Minoru Murao and Chii
- Music: Yugo Kanno
- Sound Director: Yoshikazu Iwanami
- Animation Production: david production
This staff lineup is important because Steel Ball Run needs both continuity and reinvention. It is still JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but it is also the start of a new continuity within the manga’s larger structure.
Why Steel Ball Run Feels Like a New Beginning
Steel Ball Run is Part 7 of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but it does not continue the previous anime story in a simple linear way.
After Stone Ocean, the series enters a new continuity. That means Steel Ball Run can be watched as a new beginning, even though longtime fans will recognize names, echoes and thematic connections to earlier parts.
This is part of what makes the arc so exciting. Johnny Joestar is a new JoJo. Gyro Zeppeli carries a familiar family name with a completely different role. Diego Brando evokes the legacy of Dio, but he is not simply a repeat of the original villain.
The result is a story that feels both familiar and fresh. It uses JoJo’s history as a source of resonance while building a new world with its own rules.
For new viewers, Steel Ball Run can function as an entry point into JoJo’s bizarre style. For longtime fans, it feels like Araki rebuilding the saga from the ground up with greater maturity, sharper themes and one of the strongest protagonist duos in the franchise.
The Spin Replaces the Stand-Focused Formula
Stands are still important to JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, but Steel Ball Run introduces the Spin as one of its defining power concepts.
Gyro’s steel balls are not ordinary weapons. They use rotational energy in ways that can affect bodies, movement and perception. The Spin begins as a technique, but it gradually becomes a philosophical and tactical system.
This makes the action feel distinct from earlier JoJo parts. Instead of relying only on invisible spiritual manifestations, Steel Ball Run grounds many of its early supernatural moments in physical technique and mathematical motion.
Johnny’s connection to the Spin becomes one of the most important parts of his development. He does not simply gain power. He studies, struggles and slowly begins to understand a force that could change his body and his life.
This gives the battles a strong learning curve. Johnny and Gyro must outthink opponents, read terrain, manage their horses and understand powers that do not always announce themselves clearly.
Diego Brando Brings Rival Energy to the Race
Diego Brando is one of the race’s most dangerous competitors.
As a character, Diego immediately carries the weight of his name. Fans of JoJo know what “Brando” means, and Steel Ball Run uses that expectation carefully.
Diego is ambitious, talented and ruthless, but he belongs to this new continuity and has his own reasons for entering the race. He is not just a nostalgic reference. He is one of Johnny and Gyro’s most important rivals.
His presence helps make the race feel competitive even before the story’s deeper mysteries take over. Diego is the kind of opponent who can win through skill, calculation and cruelty.
With Kaito Ishikawa voicing him in Japanese and Damien Haas in English, Diego’s role should become increasingly important as the anime continues beyond the introductory stage.
Lucy and Steven Steel Ground the Race’s Human Side
Steven Steel is the promoter behind the Steel Ball Run race, while Lucy Steel becomes one of the story’s most important human figures.
At first glance, the race appears to be Steven’s grand project, a massive public spectacle designed to capture attention and create history.
However, Lucy’s role grows far beyond what viewers might expect from her introduction. She is not a fighter in the same sense as Johnny, Gyro or Diego, but she becomes tied to the political and emotional stakes of the story.
Steel Ball Run is filled with dangerous men chasing power, glory or salvation. Lucy’s perspective helps show another side of that world: vulnerability, courage and the terrifying cost of being caught in conflicts driven by people far stronger than you.
Funny Valentine Changes the Scale of the Story
The reveal of Funny Valentine in the new trailer is especially important.
Without entering major spoiler territory, Valentine is one of the central figures who pushes Steel Ball Run beyond the structure of a simple race.
His role connects personal ambition to national power, and his presence gives the arc one of its most memorable sources of conflict.
Tomokazu Sugita’s casting is a major announcement because Valentine requires a voice that can carry authority, charisma and danger. He is not the kind of antagonist who exists only to fight. He represents a larger idea about patriotism, sacrifice, power and the frightening logic of leaders who believe history belongs to them.
As the anime continues, Valentine’s importance should become increasingly clear.
Hot Pants Adds Mystery to the Rider Lineup
Hot Pants is another major addition revealed in the new trailer.
She is one of the most intriguing characters in Steel Ball Run because her role is layered, secretive and emotionally complex. She enters the story as another competitor, but her motivations and abilities gradually reveal more about the strange forces surrounding the race.
Yoko Hikasa’s casting gives the character a strong vocal presence, which should be important as Hot Pants becomes more involved in the supernatural and moral conflicts of the arc.
Steel Ball Run excels at introducing characters who seem like side competitors before revealing that they carry far more weight than expected. Hot Pants is a perfect example of that structure.
Mountain Tim Brings Western Charm and Danger
Mountain Tim is one of the characters who helps emphasize the Western atmosphere of Steel Ball Run.
He fits naturally into the race’s frontier setting, bringing cowboy imagery, confidence and a strong personality to the story. However, like many JoJo characters, his charm exists alongside danger and strangeness.
Tomoaki Maeno’s casting suggests that the anime will lean into Mountain Tim’s charisma and presence.
His introduction also helps expand the world around Johnny and Gyro. The Steel Ball Run is not only populated by anonymous racers. It is filled with memorable individuals who could become allies, rivals or threats depending on the stage.
Why the Devil’s Palm Matters
The Devil’s Palm is one of the first major signs that the race is connected to something unnatural.
Stories surrounding the location describe fear, death and strange phenomena. For Johnny and Gyro, crossing this region is not only a physical challenge. It becomes a confrontation with forces that bend the rules of the world.
This is where Steel Ball Run begins to reveal its true shape.
The desert stage is not just about endurance. It is about survival, transformation and the possibility that the race is being guided by something hidden beneath the surface.
For anime-only viewers, the Devil’s Palm may become the point where the series fully shifts from Western adventure into JoJo-style supernatural mystery.
Why Fans Consider Steel Ball Run One of JoJo’s Best Parts
Steel Ball Run has an enormous reputation among manga readers.
Many fans consider it one of Hirohiko Araki’s strongest works because it combines everything JoJo does well with a more focused emotional core.
The art is ambitious. The setting is memorable. The race structure creates constant momentum. The cast is strange, layered and unforgettable. Most importantly, Johnny and Gyro’s relationship gives the story a powerful emotional center.
The arc also benefits from its new-continuity status. It can echo earlier JoJo ideas while reimagining them in a new context. That gives the story the thrill of recognition without making it feel repetitive.
For anime viewers, the continuation beginning on September 25 may be the moment Steel Ball Run starts showing why manga readers have spent years waiting for this adaptation.
A Weekly Release Could Help the Race Feel Bigger
The weekly release schedule may work especially well for Steel Ball Run.
Because the story is structured around stages, weekly episodes can give viewers time to absorb each new development. The race itself feels long and punishing, so a slower release rhythm may help preserve the sense of distance and progression.
It also gives fans time to discuss new characters, powers and mysteries as they appear.
JoJo has always thrived on conversation. Each episode can introduce a strange ability, an outrageous pose, a shocking twist or a line that immediately becomes a meme. A weekly schedule gives those moments more room to breathe.
For Steel Ball Run, that could be a major advantage.
What Has Not Been Announced Yet?
Although the September 25 return date is confirmed, several details remain unclear.
The official announcement confirms 11 episodes for the 2nd & 3rd STAGE, but the full episode count for the entire Steel Ball Run anime has not been fully detailed in official materials.
The release timing for later stages after this 11-episode run has also not been confirmed.
Additional cast members will likely be revealed as the anime progresses, especially because Steel Ball Run contains many important competitors and antagonists not yet introduced in the anime.
Theme song details for the continuing episodes may also receive more focus closer to the release.
When Does Steel Ball Run 2nd Stage Premiere?
STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure returns on September 25, 2026, with weekly Friday episodes on Netflix.
The next release covers the 2nd & 3rd STAGE across 11 episodes, continuing Johnny Joestar and Gyro Zeppeli’s journey through the dangerous cross-country race.
The new trailer reveals Mountain Tim, Hot Pants and Funny Valentine, expanding the cast and pushing the anime closer to the deeper mystery behind the Steel Ball Run competition.
The first stage introduced the riders and the impossible promise of a race across America. The next stage brings the desert, the Devil’s Palm and the first signs that this competition is far more bizarre than it appears.
Johnny and Gyro have entered the race for their own reasons.
On September 25, the road ahead becomes stranger, deadlier and unmistakably JoJo.
