After nearly a month of silence and fan backlash on when we’d see Gyro and Johnny’s adventures again, Netflix has finally come out with a response: a weekly release! …Sorta.
A Weekly/Batch Hybrid
Thank you for all the incredible support for STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The series is currently in production and will be available for everyone to enjoy. We are planning a split‑cour release across the entire run of episodes. The next cour (2nd STAGE) will begin…
— Netflix Anime (@NetflixAnime) April 6, 2026
Early on April 6th, the official @NetflixAnime X account posted a major update on Steel Ball Run’s release.
At the behest of fan complaints after Stone Ocean’s scheduling issues, Jojo’s has returned to mini-cour split weekly releases. Each cour covering each stage of the Steel Ball Run race. It’s not a total win for Jojo’s fans, but at least it will give us weekly discussions and online momentum while the anime gets to air.
While Jojo’s fans can be relieved that we FINALLY have a date, it’s hard not to look back at how strange Netflix’s strategy has been.
Why did Netflix wait so long to confirm this? Frustrations have been mounting up since the pilot and have only increased with the 2nd Stage trailer, which only gave a vague “2026” release date. These reactions became such a boiling pot that an online campaign of “where’s Part 7”, review bombing, mass unsubscriptions, and anti-piracy horror images of Johnny would be all you could see on Netflix’s comment sections.
The movement is becoming so big that even online business accounts such as Axe Body Spray and KFC have made their own contributions.
It’s all the more strange with how random the schedule confirmation was, with hardly any fanfare. The phrase “this release schedule is part of our original plan and reflects the wishes of the production committee” implies that there was some confidence in the plan from both Netflix and David Productions that just didn’t show up until now.
Was this really always the plan? Or were Netflix’s higher-ups afraid to give an outright confirmation? Would they have said anything at all if it wasn’t for the backlash? What is going on with Netflix?
Waiting and Waiting and Waiting
There’s still the question of how far Netflix is willing to commit to the “batch release per stage” gimmick, considering that the Steel Ball Run manga treats each stage very unevenly. Some stages are much shorter than others, while the later ones take up significant portions of the manga.
That’s also adding to the anxiety around how long the wait between stages will take, considering the gap between Episode one and two is more than half a year. And there are nine stages, will that mean we’ll need to wait nine times for each release?
Better yet, is it even guaranteed that we’ll get an immediate announcement for the third Stage after the second is done? Will it also take another half a year?
At least for now, we can rest easy knowing that Steel Ball Run will momentarily return sometime in the fall…. And then we’ll have to wait indefinitely for the next one.
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