It's now been well over a year since the anime
adaptation of Stone Ocean has concluded and it's getting to be around that time where everyone
starts asking when the next part will be animated which is the highly anticipated 7th Part, Steel
Ball Run so typically my answer has always been give it a year or two that's when we should
expect to hear an announcement as if we take a look at the JoJo animation cycle it's been
pretty consistent for over a decade now with Season 1 ending in April of 2013 and Part 3
starting one year later in April 2014 then in between Parts 3 and 4 there was a 9-month
break in between Parts 4 and 5 was a 21-month break and most recently in between parts 5 and
6 was a 29-month break so the wait times for each part are clearly getting longer although
I wouldn't say that necessarily spells anything good or bad for the series it's most likely just
logistics as since 2012 David Production have grown significantly and taken on more projects
like Captain Tsubasa, Cells at Work, Fire Force, Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe and more all between
the years of 2018 to 2021 so that could explain the slowdown in production post Part 4 they
just have more on their plate now and during the 29-month break there was obviously covid
which slowed down the production of just about everything so on average let's say a year and a
half in-between Parts is typical and considering the circumstances has been pretty consistent
so right now at the time of making this video it's been 16 months since Part 6 ended and we
are getting close to that time frame for a new part although for the first time really since
I started watching JoJo that next announcement doesn't feel as certain as it did before which
from an anime watcher's perspective you might think "well what's the problem why stop now just
keep going in order" although as readers of the manga may understand there is a handful of unique
qualities to Part 7 that could prove difficult to adapt so let's talk about if we will ever see
a Steel Ball Run anime and if so then when so starting with the positives
there is some supporting evidence that gives hope for a part
7 anime in the near future ♪ Johnny jamming out ♪ Such as the animation director of Parts 1 through
5 Naokatsu Tsuda, had said in a 2017 interview he wants all parts of JoJo animated and when asked
which part he would be most excited to animate, Tsuda said Part 8 and you can't get to Part 8
without going through Part 7 first also during a Crunchyroll interview in 2020 Tsuda said
that we're still in the middle of the story and there's a lot more to watch and experience
and this was shortly after Golden Wind so clearly Tsuda wasn't considering Stone Ocean the end
of the project which are some promising words coming from the man who was at the head
of the production also back in 2021 there were new patents filed by Shueisha related to
JoJo under the names JOJOLands, Stone Ocean, and Steel Ball Run and since then Stone Ocean had
received its anime and The JOJOLands started its serialization which shows that Shueisha had plans
relating to these new patents although Steel Ball Run is the only one yet to be seen so either
it's in the works or it was just filed ahead of time or maybe just some upkeep but if you
remember back in 2018 the Golden Wind anime was also leaked through early Shueisha trademark
fillings of its name and logo which I think adds at least a little credibility to this patent
but outside of Twitter leaks and rumors that's about all of the solid evidence we have that
supports Part 7's anime besides the obvious fact that JoJo has been a wildly successful
IP for David Production it's the foundation of their studio and what put them on the map so
you could imagine they would like to continue adapting the series but as Funny Valentine once
said "there is always a balance between the positives and the negatives" so now let's take
a look at what stands in Steel Ball Run's way So remember the chief animation director I
mentioned earlier Naokatsu Tsuda who had been working on JoJo since episode 1 and has been
extremely passionate about the series since he was a child well the most recent adaptation
of Stone Ocean was the only season Tsuda wasn't involved in and last year he left David production
altogether so all I can do is speculate but this may or may not have been related to the Netflix
acquisition and the lack of Tsuda's direction may have caused some of the season's issues
but we really just don't know what I do know is that it's unfortunate to see someone who
has been advocating for the series and wanted to animate all of it has now left the studio
capable of doing so but his departure could just be a personal matter and that's not to
say there isn't still talented people who are passionate about JoJo at David Production there
of course still is as they managed to produce an incredible conclusion to the original universe but
that's the other thing at the end of Stone Ocean it really seemed like it was over JoJo has ended
as in a sense it has with its complete roundabout ending and connecting back to the first opening
fulfilling the prophecy of Sono Chi no Sadame, so if David production are going to go into
the alternate universe with Part 7 would they commit to adapting the entire story by doing
something similar to Part 1 and showing manga panels of Jodio and Josuke that would of course
be really cool but but are they ready to make that commitment especially considering how long
and detailed the later parts of JoJo had become with new seasons estimated to be upwards of 50 to
60 episodes so when you really start to visualize it you can see there are a lot of things David
Pro need to consider before going into a Part 7 anime and it's not as simple as it was going
from Parts 4 to 5 or 5 to 6 it's the beginning of a new story and should be presented as such
like Araki did in the original manga and then of course there is the horses which is always the
most brought up topic whenever it comes to the Steel Ball Run anime and how the part can never
be adapted or it would be crazy expensive because of the horse racing which I do agree with to
some extent as I understand it is difficult and expensive to animate horses moving fluidly
especially considering how much of Steel Ball Run is horse racing animators who have worked on
JoJo like Kohei Ashiya have even expressed their concerns saying it would be really expensive to
make and take a lot of time to do right although I also feel like this is an issue the community
has kind of blown out of proportion as instead of being viewed as a hurdle to overcome it's almost
turned into an impossibility when that's just not the case there are plenty of examples of horses
in anime even within JoJo that look just fine and yes Steel Ball Run would be much longer than
these examples but there are creative solutions to alleviate this problem like using a mix between
2 and 3D animation like we've seen in JoJo as well as framing I'm sure most of the shots would
be from the waist up of the characters talking with a shaky camera and galloping to sell the idea
and make it all feel real and these are just basic techniques anyone could notice animators use
so I understand I'm not breaking new ground or trying to offer solutions to the animators they
know better than me I'm more so just trying to show the community that it's not impossible and
JoJo has never been a crazy sakuga filed anime so I wouldn't expect that from Part 7 either
not every shot is going to be a fully detailed horse galloping so I've expressed this opinion
before but I just don't believe that horses are animations Achilles heel I understand they're
difficult but then again a lot of things are difficult to animate and I often hear the reply
that well horses are special because their anatomy is so complex and if the movements are even
slightly off it looks terrible because our brains have a reference for what a horse should look
like and honestly this argument is kind of BS, this would be the case if we were talking about
CGing a hyper realistic horse and trying to make it pass as real which often creates an Uncanny
Valley effect but for animal movements but when we're talking about anime we don't need to
see every muscle fiber or have it be hyper realistic and when I see a simple animation
of a horse running in a loop of 12 frames or so my brain doesn't explode I know I'm watching
an anime and don't expect it to look like real life so to wrap up this argument my point is I
think the horse problem is a bit overblown but I understand they're not easy and it would be
more difficult than the previous parts so the solution will have to come down to maybe more
time or just creative problem solving and work rounds from the studio as it seems so unbelievable
that a team that have already animated 6 parts of Jojo and all the wild Stands would just say to
themselves oh this part has horses that's too much we can't do it also that goes completely
against the studio's philosophy because if you guys didn't know the David in David Production
is named after David versus Goliath you know the biblical Underdog Story of the man who overcomes
great challenges through his creativity so taking on challenges should be embraced by the studio
and Steel Ball Run is just another Goliath they need to overcome so my personal take is that yes I
do think David Pro will animate Part 7 eventually it'll just be a longer wait than the previous
Seasons as they should take the time to figure out how to sustainably animate Araki's monthly
style authentically and the horse racing over the course of 50 or so episodes with a respectable
standard of quality so if Steel Ball Run is really coming one of my biggest concerns even more than
the horses is that they continue partnering with Netflix for the distribution it would just be
a damn shame if Steel Ball Run is given another batch release format but if we are stuck with
Netflix either of release episodes weekly or just do seasons like any other anime the batch
format was complete nonsense we all know that by now it didn't work well for animators or viewers
so my personal best case scenario is 2, 24 episode Seasons Stardust Crusaders style or do what
Bleach is doing and have four Cours 13 episodes a Cour which totals in at 52 episodes either way
just as long as they decide on a release format before or while animating I think that would be
best for the adaptation and would allow them to pace the episodes and Seasons accordingly unlike
Stone Ocean which was paced like Parts 4 and 5 but with a 9 month gap in the middle of its
release so closing things out with predictions optimistically announcement this year with a
2025 release realistically 2025 announcement with a 2026 release I just couldn't imagine they
would keep JoJo dormant within the studio for more than 4 years if they're going to do it why not
sooner than later and keep up the momentum from the previous Seasons especially if they plan on
tackling Parts 8 and 9 so those are my hopeful but also realistic expectations and I want to
hear what you guys think as well so definitely let me know in the comments down below and we can
continue the discussion also please drop a like on the video If you enjoyed or if you're looking
forward to the Part 7 anime and together we can manifest a 2024 announcement hopefully but you
know it wouldn't hurt to start building that hype early also subscribe to the channel for more JoJo
content 83% of viewers in the last 30 days are not subscribed for some reason so if you're in the 83
join the other side it's chill around here okay thanks for watching everyone I'll talk to you all
real soon in a new video, until then i'm out peace peace
