JoJo part 7: Steel Ball Run

 "It is good to have an end to journey towards,
  but it is the journey that matters, in the end"
- Ursula Le Guinn

At the end of the road: a masterpiece of visual storytelling

I haven't been posting about the other parts because I was very immersed to the story as they got better and better since part 4 but I've now finally finished JoJo part 7: Steel Ball Run... Hirohiko Araki's highly acclaimed masterpiece...

Steel Ball Run tells a story about two men journeying thousands of kilometers through the continent of America in the SBR race, in the new universe created by Pucci in part 6, so it goes without saying that there would be no older characters or plotlines, however, Hirohiko Araki managed to make this the best part for the older fans - dozens of references to older things exist in this story and I'd rather not spoil any of them but they are done in a fantastic way where it does not feel like a ripoff of the past.

And yeah, it was a very good part where the author focused on the story being written more professionally rather than it being just about bizarrely insane shit happening one after another but it's not untouchably above the earlier parts. It was mostly about surpassing all expectations and raising the stakes and tension and making the characters go at the most ridicilous odds but when Valentine personally started to go at them the story kind of fell off and there are some obvious pacing problems with 14 parts of D4C all of a sudden out of nowhere because of the corpse. The corpse and the story after that was done just like the Green Child and going out of prison in part 6, it's the "final stretch of the story" that just starts pretty damn randomly. It was "because of the corpse/GC falling into the villains hands and now there's nothing more to do- time to end the story"-type of deal. Even though we could have seen more of Gyro's and Johnnys adventure from the last 3-4 stages, aside from the final one which was also too short but I guess that was too late to have a slow pacing going on, those stages felt irrelevant despite the series's name. I don't think that utilizing the corpse of Jesse was handled that well in the end either.

Foreshadowing the end of SBR race.

There's alot of unpredictable foreshadowing Araki clearly took his time writing the story and rewriting how to constantly surprise the readers in crazy ways, although I think his twists were equal to 6's in this one. Funny was a decent villain with a nice power. Love Train I feel should have been more overpowered than that, didn't impress me. D4C did however because of the way Araki presented the story from 3 different angles. 
Fights were about as good as in Part 5 and 6 but 7 had some great characters like Ringo Roadagain that the earlier parts didn't. The problems arise when you are familiar with Araki's writing style though... SBR might be better for people who don't, and the end with Diego is more like nice fanservice for older fans.

The story of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure now evolves from a fight of the week type of series into having a real story. The main characters: our JoJo named Johnny Joestar  and the deuteragonist of the story Gyro Zeppeli are the two best characters in the series in my opinion.  They are very alive and I like most JoJo main characters and villains to begin with (considered P6 the best before this).
+Handling of Johnny and Gyro was obviously amazing. Araki gave them both alot of cringe moments that you don't normally see for a hero-type MC and because of that, them showing their badass sides felt all the better.
The art and the final fight were pretty fantastic. Araki's paneling and transitioning styles are out of this world. The fan coloring is also top tier. Best out of any manga I've seen to date.
Diego was a great "addition" to the story. There were alot of sidestories that made the whole thing feel more alive which was great.
Part 7 is by far the most emotional part of them all... It can feel too "safe"
-Handling of Wekapipo - lame/obvious, handling of Sandman who was made to be important in the first chapter - lame, he never even brought up Gyro training where he was from..
Didn't really like how Lucy was handled also her birthing the head of the corpse was unsettling even though I understand that Araki does that Bizarre stuff on purpose (that went nowhere either after the corpse became perfect after Valentine died).

Ringo Roadagain is my favourite JoJo underling villain to date. A very strong character.

I laughed my a** off at Diego appearing at the end. that felt random as hell just to have the Joestar vs Dio thing go on even in this universe (I know it was going on as a side story before this with Dinodiego). Hidden spoilers: Him getting taken out by a (XXX) was the same as what happened in last part except worse, because I sadly saw that coming a mile away. The story with Diego "Dio" appearing at the end was great because it was that "final stretch of the story" that goes at insane high pace that comes out of nowhere for the readers (makes sense when explained) - it makes the ending fascinating. It gives off a feeling that "the final villain was taken out but there's something else going on!?"