Dragon Ball is the quintessential anime for young-to-elder millennials, as well as a foundational franchise for the medium as a whole. Its franchise particularly peaked for many fans during its Dragon Ball Z era, needing practically no explanation for its influence in the ’90s and 2000s as a battle shonen anime. Its power system was approachable, its characters enjoyable, and its legacy untouchable, for the most part.

But while followups have created middling-to-great subsequent Dragon Ball anime projects, with Dragon Ball Super embodying the franchise’s greatest days the most closely, younger audiences have latched onto a different, more eclectic anime. Now championed as a Netflix-exclusive, even with the baggage that comes with Netflix’s unfortunate execution when it comes to new episode distribution, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has weaponized its weirdness and utterly unique battle system to win over fans. Now, with Steel Ball Run’s release, the anime is achieving a near-perfect image for itself, barring some obvious quirks in its release schedule.

Netflix’s Best New Anime Offers a Different Form of Excellence Compared to Dragon Ball

Everybody loves Dragon Ball, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is far from a 1:1 comparison, despite its manga similarly starting in Weekly Shonen Jump only a few short years after Dragon Ball’s debut. It hails from a seemingly distant era to the current fandom, that of the ’80s, where the protagonists were beefier, the violence occasionally more unhinged, and multiple franchises set the gold standard for anime and manga to follow in the years to come. After all, Berserk hails from this same decade, if only barely.

But while JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and its multiple iterations may differ sharply from Dragon Ball’s more conventional power-scaling, this hasn’t stopped it from becoming a modern phenomenon in its own right. David Production has stayed faithful to Hirohiko Araki’s monumentally iconic style, maintaining its strong character designs, and seeing it through its rough Phantom Blood start, to its controversial-yet-inevitable Stone Ocean reset button, with the anime now landing in San Diego, CA, United States.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run only released one OVA-length premiere episode to cover its 1st Stage Arc, yet that didn’t stop it from briefly rocketing into first place on MyAnimeList like Gyro Zeppeli. It’s hard to see why not, too: the visuals were crisp, the framing of each character eased viewers into this new vision and roster, starting with its striking backdrops and Spaghetti Western-inspired background music. Everything is an homage to an extent, yet the obvious anachronistic fashion makes JJBA, as usual, an impossibly stylish twist on a bygone era. Finally, alongside killer shot composition and character designs, Steel Ball Run functions well as a surprising entry point even for newcomers.

While Dragon Ball Z newcomers could easily watch the series while getting key plot elements from the original Dragon Ball rehashed in its story, even during the Androids and Cell Saga, its obvious past left a curiosity gap to uncover much of its story. Following Part 6, Stone Ocean, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure technically launched a new continuity. But as viewers see characters like Diego Brando and Johnny Joestar grace their screens, they will still be enticed enough to check out the previous continuity, especially so as to match the absurdity of Pocoloco’s cow carcass surfing moment.

Dragon Ball Is the Quintessential Shonen Anime but JJBA Contains Multitudes

Generally speaking, most Dragon Ball fans in the modern era and even from decades past, have typically been won over by adult Goku’s antics in Dragon Ball Z alongside his growing family and former demonic/alien nemeses, namely in key battles. The real ones often admit the Cell Saga has the most satisfying moments in the series, especially as Gohan pushes the upper limits of the Super Saiyan form against Perfect Cell. Others, reasonably, love the Frieza Saga for how much of a game-changer it truly was. Despite the franchise being technically founded more on Akira Toriyama’s appreciation for adventure and humor, Dragon Ball eventually became a poster child battle shonen.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, despite a wildly different premise, was also created with typical battle shonen series trappings in 1987. But as it continued to evolve from Battle Tendency onward through Steel Ball Run, it not only occupied genres like mystery, thriller, or Western—JJBA changed demographics entirely, going from shonen to mature seinen audiences in Ultra Jump during Steel Ball Run. Instead of competing for readers’ attention indefinitely, it moved to Ultra Jump, where readers would seek the series out monthly simply to continue enjoying the ride.

Even JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s power system is less focused on ascending power levels, raised upper limits, and flashy energy attacks, and more on the unique manifestations of one’s soul that can be used in battle, or Stands. It enables greater focus on strategy than raw might, creating a different type of thrill for the audiences, with an impressive pool of creative resources to keep pumping out fresh Stand users. In this, JJBA takes a deviation to typical shonen battle systems, like that of Hunter x Hunter from Yoshihiro Togashi’s previous manga, Yu Yu Hakusho, in how it prioritizes strategy more. Instead of being seen as a correction to Dragon Ball and its ilk, JJBA should be seen as a glorious alternative.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Fans Have Proven Their Dedication

Dragon Ball’s influence is immortal, but it’s also not a monolithic that has to stand alone in its medium. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has become more potent as a global presence, especially with its Gucci collabs, and even its creator Araki famously having his work featured at the Louvre. But beyond high-profile public participation, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans have recently demonstrated their fierce dedication to the cause.

Almost a month ago, it was almost impossible to avoid the hype for Steel Ball Run’s release on Netflix on March 19, 2026. It was everything fans wanted it to be, but when news emerged that it’d not immediately release new episodes, with its particular issue being an utter lack of a release roadmap, it was clear that Netflix fatally underestimated the JJBA fan base. Things got..bizarre.

Under much of Netflix’s social media posting, an absolute ocean of Steel Ball Run memes would crop up. While the avalanche of public outrage was genuinely noticeable, it was hard to not see these memes as almost vaguely threatening. Netflix was, seemingly, successfully bullied into confirming a revised weekly release schedule following the launch of its 2nd Stage installment in Fall 2026.

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While online campaigns on this level are difficult to rationalize when some users participate in bad faith or worrying extremes, it’s hard to deny the results. The JJBA King Von edits, for lack of a better term, were so strangely unsettling, and their reversals upon Netflix’s concessions were truly hilarious, but it’ll likely be remembered in the same vein as the time Sonic the Hedgehog fans bullied the 2020 movie into fixing the character’s uncannily human features.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fans were simply making their voices heard, and Dragon Ball fans can’t help but respect this dedication. After all, their unanimously poor reception to Dragonball Evolution led Toriyama to create Super, so if anything, game should be recognizing game here.

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  Created by

  Akira Toriyama

  First Film

  Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

  Latest Film

  Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

  First TV Show

  Dragon Ball

  Latest TV Show

  Super Dragon Ball Heroes

  First Episode Air Date

  
  April 26, 1989
  

  From the creative mind of Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball is a mega multimedia franchise that spans back to the 1980s. Dragon Ball expanded quickly, starting as a serialized manga for Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. It made its way overseas via manga and an anime adaptation that is enjoyed worldwide. Dragon Ball was the initial starting animated series that followed the adventures of the young Son Goku as he sought after the Dragon Balls. These mystical orbs would grant the wish of any who gathered them together. Then, the series would branch off into the immensely popular Dragon Ball Z, which followed Goku as an adult and featured high-intensity battles and Goku’s never-ending search to be the strongest. The series has also enjoyed several popular video game adaptations and continues to release several new animated series and theatrical films up to the recent popular Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

  
  

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  Created by

  Hirohiko Araki

  TV Show(s)

  JoJo Bizarre Adventure

  Character(s)

  Will A. Zeppeli, Jonathan Joestar, Giorno Giovanna, Jotaro Kujo, Joseph Joestar, Jolyne Cujoh, Johnny Joestar, Josuke Higashikata, Gyro Zeppeli

  Video Game(s)

  JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R

  JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a Japanese multimedia franchise created by Hirohiko Araki. It follows the adventures of the Joestar family, spanning generations, each with unique abilities and battling supernatural enemies. Known for its eccentric characters, distinctive art style, and creative battles, it includes manga, anime, games, and merchandise.