Steel Ball Run is a Japanese manga franchise written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki, and it is the seventh installment in the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Series.

The manga was serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump at first and then moved to Ultra Jump in 2005. Its chapters are compiled and published into 24 separate volumes. The manga series has over 80 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best selling manga’s ever.

An anime adaptation has yet to be announced.

The story follows the adventures of Johnny Joestar, a paraplegic former jockey, and Gyro Zeppeli, a disgraced former executioner. Both of them have their own reasons for doing what they're doing. Gyro seeks to secure amnesty for a youngster on death row, while Johnny wants to restore use of his legs.

The story begins in an Indian village, whose villagers, known as the red Indians, are protesting to their tribal leader that the person known as Sandman was caught reading ‘The White Man’s Book’, which according to the village rules, is forbidden. The village chief has no choice but to order the scalping of Sandman.

They chase after Sandman with their horses, but Sandman manages to outrun them using a unique running technique. They chase after him with weapons, and just as one of the axe is about to hit him, he slides under his horse and gets kicked by it towards the rocks.

Sandman quickly begins climbing, while the leader of the chase party orders his men to fire arrows. But, before anyone releases their arrows, Sandman uses a STAND and disappears.

At the top of the cliff we see Sandman’s sister waiting for him as she beats him up for going against the tribe.

Sandman says that he cannot give up reading the ‘White Man’s Books’ as one must understand their enemy in order to defeat them. He says that the tribe’s old way of thinking will lead to their downfall.

As the conversation proceeds, Sandman shows her a newspaper, headlining the Steel Ball Run, a race with a Grand Prize of 50,000,000.

We cut to the office of Mr. Steel, the organizer of the Steel Ball Run. An underling comes and informs him of all the problems that they are facing due to the large influx of participants. He tells him to take care of it and to announce to everyone that while they are here, they are under his rule and must obey him.

We see a lot of people gathered on their horses, ready for the Steel Ball Run. While getting ready for a press conference, Mr. Steel breaks into tears and falls into the arms of the girl by his side. She motivates him by telling him to have faith in himself and to do his best. The press conference begins and he explains to everyone what the race is about. It will be a 6000KM race with a grand prize of 50,000,000 Dollars. The participation fee is 1200 Dollars, against which some people protest but Mr. Steel believes that it is fair, as he will be taking care of the participant’s needs while the race lasts.

Mr. Steel explains that participants can use anything they like, be it horses or automobiles and that the expected completion of the race is 60 to 80 days. Moreover, each person's security during the race is the person’s own responsibility and so carrying arms is allowed. The carrying of arms was also supported by American Law.

Mr. Steel lists off a couple of favorites to win the race and says that there won’t be any failure in this race and there will only be adventures. To him, the spirit of pioneering is more important than some success or failure in the race, or so it seems.

We again cut to a different scene, where a person named Gyro Zeppelin is signing up for the race. A man approaches Gyro from behind, trying to steal from him, but as soon as he touches Gyro, his STAND forces him to the ground. The clerk present there notices that 20 dollars are missing from Gyro’s entrance fee. Gyro finds the missing 20 dollars from the thief. He gives a smirk while holding him down, revealing his golden teeth, as the chapter comes to an end.

What sort of eccentric characters will the race attract?