Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run’s Schedule Remains A Mystery

With a week passing since the release of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run on March 19, 2026, fans have been itching for a confirmation of an actual schedule for the rest of the anime’s episodes.

For AnimeJapan 2026 on March 28th, we got a trailer for the “2nd Stage” of the Steel Ball Run race.

The trailer only shows Steven Steel finding three racers being murdered, which is at the end of Chapter 12, followed by the Devil’s Palm and the place sinking them into the sands of the Arizona desert, which takes place around Chapter 18: “The Devil’s Palm, Part 1”

Fans anticipating an answer have been left disappointed as the trailer ends with only 2026 being the definitive response, rather than any specific month or day.

This means Netflix itself has not finalized the release date of Episode 2.

Furthermore, this also means there might be some issues in episode production within David Production or release date schedules within Netflix that have not been finalized.

Rather than a batch release of 12 episodes in one day, a move that has been clearly unpopular to the fanbase or a weekly release that is favored by fans, Netflix has chosen not to give a final response, only confirming more episodes are coming.

One Episode or Multiple?

Titled “The 2nd Stage- the 750-mile desert crossing into Devil’s Palm”, this next part of the anime covers Chapter 12: “First Stage: Disqualified from Victory” to Chapter 31: “Scary Monsters, Part 4”, which is 20chapters long and 4 volumes: Volume 3: “Second Stage: Arizona Desert Crossing” to the start of Volume 7: “A Little Grave on the Wide, Wide Prairie”, the 83rd to 87th volumes of the entire franchise.

By Chapter 24: “Interlude”, which has 24 pages, Steel Ball Run and Jojo’s in general have been moved from Weekly Shonen Jump to the monthly Ultra Jump magazine, with each Steel Ball Run chapter having higher volume of pages than most monthly manga, going up to 66 pages.

The 1st stage covered 2 volumes and 11 chapters, with a portion of Chapter 1 skipped, with a total of 340 pages in a 47-minute episode, titled “Steel Ball Run”.

However, the 2nd Stage is more than double the length, with a whopping 842 pages.

With such a large episode, it is likely that the 2nd stage will be an example of a new “batch” release system at play.

Alternatively, with the chapters shown in the trailer, this might mean the episode will run from Chapter 12 to Chapter 20: “Gyro Zeppeli’s Mission, Part 1” or Chapter 21, 9 to 10 weekly chapters and 2 volumes (Volumes 3-4) for a total of 293 pages or 325 pages, much less than the previous episode but still fit for another hour-length episode.

However, since Netflix has committed to the “by stage” division and the pacing across the nine stages differs, we could be seeing this new “batch release” style, spread across seasons.

For example, the 2nd stage might be released at the end of the Spring Season 2026 like how the 1st stage was released right around the last month of Japan’s Witner Season 2026.

But unlike the 1st stage, which condenses 2 volumes into one hour-long episode, this might be split into normal-length episodes given each stage has multiple arcs.

Episode 2 could be the start of the second stage, covering Chapter 12 to Chapter 14: “Across the Arizona Desert: Continuing Along the Shortest Route”.

Episode 3 could be Chapter 15: “The Desert Born Outlaws, Part 1” to Chapter 18: “The Devil’s Palm, Part 1”.

Episode 4 could be Chapter 19 to Chapter 21 and end the batch from there.

A New Type of Batch Release?

This sort of format has not quite happened outside of some US live-action and animated shows streamed in Amazon (some release two episodes in one date).

Some fans may also worry that Steel Ball Run could suffer the fate that once fell Fate/Strange Fake, which was once set to start on December 31, 2022 but instead released a 55-minute TV special titled, “Fate/strange Fake: Whispers of Dawn” on July 2, 2023, followed by the first episode on November 23, 2024, more than a year after the special.

While the remaining episodes were set for a 2025 release, this was once again delayed and so the 2nd episode onwards began release on January 10, 2026.

Following the release of the first Steel Ball Run episode, on March 20th, Steel Ball Run director, Yasuhiro Kimura, has stated that he was unsure about the release of the rest of the episodes as he anticipates the confirmation himself.

Either way, this is quite an interesting time for Jojo fans as the fate of the anime adaptation rests in Netflix’s executive decisions.

Source: Twitter

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アニメ『スティール・ボール・ラン ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』
2nd STAGE ティザーPV解禁！
2026年Netflixにて独占先行配信予定！！

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STEEL BALL RUN JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure 2nd STAGE New Teaser… pic.twitter.com/D25H9QAa0m

— 『ジョジョの奇妙な冒険』アニメーションシリーズ公式 (@anime_jojo) March 28, 2026

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