Spoiler warning: this review covers Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure episode 5, including how the fight ends. The section on the manga names the chapters behind the episode but does not spoil anything the anime has not reached.
Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure episode 5, "The Terrorist from a Faraway Country", is the first episode of the weekly run that feels like Steel Ball Run at full speed. It has one villain, one chase, one fight and a flashback that finally tells us who Gyro Zeppeli is. It also does all of that in a single episode, after the show spent two weeks on its previous opponents.
That makes it the right week to ask the two questions I set for this review. How is the race pacing now that Netflix releases it weekly instead of in one batch? And how good is this week's Stand fight? This is my first article on Steel Ball Run, so I start with where the story stands. I am judging the anime as an anime, and nothing below depends on reading ahead.
The short version
Steel Ball Run episode 5 pits Johnny and Gyro against Oyecomova, a terrorist from Gyro's home country whose Stand turns almost anything into a timed bomb. The fight becomes a chase upriver to a healing item Gyro needs, and ends with a combined attack from Johnny's Tusk and Gyro's steel balls. A flashback to Naples explains Gyro's past. The pacing is the best of the run. I give it 8 out of 10.
Where the story stands
Steel Ball Run is the seventh part of Hirohiko Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and it starts over in a new world. In 1890, riders gather in San Diego for a horse race across the United States to New York, with a fortune for the winner. Johnny Joestar, a former jockey who cannot walk, enters to learn the Spin, the strange rotation technique of a racer named Gyro Zeppeli. The two become allies.
The first episode, a 47-minute special, came out on Netflix in March 2026. The weekly run began on 25 September. Episode 2 set up the second stage of the race and made the cowboy Mountain Tim a deputy investigating bodies on the course. Episodes 3 and 4 spent two weeks on the Boom Boom family, three iron-controlling Stand users. In episode 4 Johnny awakened his own Stand, Tusk, which spins his fingernails into bullets, and the surviving Boom Boom revealed that Gyro has a $200,000 price on his head.
What happens in Steel Ball Run episode 5?
The episode picks up with Gyro's secret out. A man from his home country is already hunting him. Oyecomova is a terrorist from the Kingdom of Naples who escaped prison and made his way to America, and he holds a grudge against the Zeppeli family, Gyro's father above all.
Mountain Tim tries to face him first, and it goes badly. Oyecomova's Stand can plant timed explosives on almost anything, and Tim learns how hard that is to fight the moment he gets close.
Gyro is injured, and the second half becomes a race within the race. Gyro and Johnny need to reach the Zombie Horse, a healing item that can fix Gyro's wounds, while Oyecomova follows and turns the ground around them into a minefield. The chase runs up a river, and the episode finds ways to make water and even a swarm of bees part of the danger.
Between the action, the episode cuts back to Naples and Gyro's youth as the son of the royal executioner. It ends with Johnny and Gyro combining their attacks to catch Oyecomova off guard and finish him, and the two of them riding on.
My review: one villain, done properly
The best thing in the episode is the way the bomb Stand rewrites every scene. Once you know anything he touches can explode, a riverbank, the water itself or a cloud of insects becomes a threat, and the safe-looking parts of the frame stop being safe. That is the JoJo formula at its best: the power is simple, and the fun is in how many places it hides.
The flashback is the other half of why the episode works. Gyro has been the cool, joking half of the double act for four episodes. Seeing him as a boy raised to kill on the state's behalf, and failing at the coldness his father demanded, changes how every joke he has made lands.
The production has held the step up that critics noticed from episode 2, when the horses started moving like horses, and David Production is still happy to let a frame look like an Araki page.
What didn't work for me is how quickly the flashback is cut against the fight. The Naples scenes are the most important material in the episode, and they arrive in pieces between explosions. I would have taken one longer block. The ending song, "Shinu ka Ikiru ka" by Yuki Chiba, still sits oddly after an episode like this; it has been the most criticised part of the season since episode 2, and five weeks in I have not warmed to it.
How is the race pacing in its weekly format?
Better than I expected, and episode 5 is the proof.
The first three weekly episodes had a shape I was starting to worry about. Episode 2 was set-up. Episodes 3 and 4 gave one villain family two full weeks, which works in a batch release, when you press play on the next episode straight away, and drags a little when you wait seven days between halves of one fight. Several critics also complained that the Boom Boom family were not threatening enough to carry that much time.
Episode 5 shows the other way to do it. One villain, introduced, explained, fought and beaten in about 24 minutes, with the backstory folded inside. As a weekly episode it is complete. You can watch it, stop, and feel you got a whole story. That is what the "Stand user of the week" structure Araki used in this part is for, and the weekly schedule suits it.
The cost is that the race itself has faded. We have not seen the standings matter since episode 2, and the horses are now mostly transport. I do not mind for now, because the race was always the frame and not the story. But a show called Steel Ball Run needs to remind us there is a finish line before long.
Who is Oyecomova in Steel Ball Run?
Oyecomova is a terrorist from the Kingdom of Naples, Gyro's country. He was caught, escaped, and crossed to America. His grudge is aimed at Gregorio Zeppeli, Gyro's father, and he goes after Gyro because the son is the one within reach.
One fan reference says he bombed a royal carriage two years before the race in a failed attempt on the king, killing five people, two of them children. I have that from a single source and the recaps I read did not repeat the numbers, so treat them as unconfirmed. What the episode makes clear is that his earlier attack killed innocent people, which is why he is not a villain the show asks us to understand.
His name follows the series' habit of naming characters after music. It is generally taken to come from "Oye Como Va", the Tito Puente song made famous by Santana.
What is Oyecomova's Stand, and how does it work?
His Stand is called Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitekure in Japanese, given in English as "Listen to My Rhythm". It lets him attach timed explosives to objects, and to things that are not really objects, such as water and smoke. In practice, anything he has touched may be a bomb, and you do not know until it goes off.
The clever limit is that it is a trap power. Oyecomova does not need to win a straight fight, and the episode never lets him have one. He wins by preparing ground and waiting for his targets to cross it. That is why the fight turns into a chase: the only way to beat him is to stop playing on his terms.
Gyro Zeppeli's backstory explained
Gyro was born in the Kingdom of Naples, and his family are its executioners. His father, Gregorio, believes an executioner must cut every trace of sentiment out of himself, because feeling for the condemned only adds to the world's suffering.
The flashback shows Gyro failing that test. A prisoner attacks him and takes his ceremonial collar, and Gregorio blames Gyro's soft heart for letting his guard drop. The collar turns up with a boy named Marco, who had been mending it. Gyro takes pity on him, even though Marco is the first person Gyro is due to execute.
The episode strongly implies this is why Gyro is in a horse race on the other side of the world. I am not going to spell out more than the episode does. But it reframes him completely. The man laughing about his own teeth is carrying a child's life on this race.
Is this the best Stand fight of the season so far?
Yes, for me, and by a clear margin.
The Boom Boom fight was gory and strange, but it was mostly about surviving one unpleasant power. This one is a puzzle with three moving parts: a trap Stand, an injured Gyro, and a goal on the far side of the battlefield. Every step towards the Zombie Horse costs something. And it is the first fight where Johnny and Gyro truly fight as a pair. Tusk gives Johnny range, the steel balls give Gyro control, and the finish only works because each covers what the other lacks.
The best single moment is the one where the river itself becomes a weapon. Water is the thing you run to in a fire, and the episode turns that instinct against its heroes. BakaBuzz called Oyecomova the season's best villain concept, and on this episode I would not argue.
Steel Ball Run episode 5 ending explained
Oyecomova is defeated and does not survive the fight. Johnny and Gyro reach safety and ride on.
The win does not fix the real problem, which is the one episode 4 raised. Gyro has a bounty on him, a past that has followed him across an ocean, and people who want him out of the race for reasons that have nothing to do with winning. One assassin is gone. The episode is clear that he will not be the last. I did not find any mention of a scene after the credits.
Details that are easy to miss
- The episode title is about distance. "From a faraway country" fits Oyecomova, and it fits Gyro too: both are Neapolitans a long way from home for reasons tied to their king.
- Johnny is getting inventive with Tusk. A week ago he had just discovered it. This week he is experimenting with it under fire.
- Gyro's father's rule against sentiment is the opposite of how Gyro acts with Johnny. The flashback explains the friendship as much as it explains the race.
- Mountain Tim going first and failing is a point about the Stand, not about Tim. He is the most experienced fighter in the group, and that is exactly why his failure tells us how dangerous Oyecomova is.
Theories: what I think happens next
These are guesses from the anime alone.
Someone sent Oyecomova, or at least let him go. A terrorist escapes a royal prison and turns up on the exact route of the executioner's son. The other reading is that he simply read about the race and came for revenge. I lean towards the first, because this show does not do coincidence without a hand behind it.
The bounty brings a wave of hunters. $200,000 is a fortune in 1890. I expect the next episodes to bring Stand users who do not care about Naples at all and only want the money.
The race comes back into focus. The show has gone two weeks without the standings mattering. I expect the next stage finish to remind us that Johnny and Gyro are still behind.
Which manga chapters does Steel Ball Run episode 5 adapt?
The manga's Oyecomova arc is three chapters: "The Terrorist from a Faraway Country", parts 1 and 2, and "Interlude", which are chapters 22 to 24 of Steel Ball Run (774 to 776 in the series' overall count), according to the JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia fan wiki. The episode shares the arc's title and covers the same fight and flashback, so it most likely adapts all three. That is my inference; I did not find a source matching the episode to chapters directly.
If that is right, the anime is moving at about three chapters an episode, which explains why this week feels brisk. The fan wiki lists the next arc as "Tusk". I have not checked what the episode changed from the page.
Rating: 8 out of 10
For this episode alone: 8 out of 10. The trap Stand, the river chase and the Naples flashback earn it. The choppy cutting of the flashback and a race that has gone quiet hold it back.
Steel Ball Run episode 6 release date and time
Episode 6 is due on Netflix on Friday 23 October 2026 at 1:00am Pacific time, which is 1:30pm IST. Netflix releases it worldwide, India included, at the same moment. I could not find a confirmed title.
The weekly run has 11 episodes and ends on 4 December 2026. Expect the consequences of Gyro's bounty and, if the fan wiki's arc list is a guide, more of Johnny's Tusk.
FAQ
What is Steel Ball Run episode 5 called?
It is called "The Terrorist from a Faraway Country". It is the 195th episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime overall.
When did Steel Ball Run episode 5 come out?
It was released on Netflix worldwide on Friday 16 October 2026 at 1:00am Pacific time, which is 1:30pm IST.
Who is Oyecomova?
He is a terrorist from the Kingdom of Naples who escaped prison and followed Gyro to America. He has a grudge against Gyro's father, Gregorio Zeppeli.
What is Oyecomova's Stand?
His Stand, Boku no Rhythm wo Kiitekure ("Listen to My Rhythm"), attaches timed explosives to objects and even to water and smoke.
Does Oyecomova die?
Yes. Johnny and Gyro defeat him with a combined attack at the end of the episode, and he does not survive.
What is the Zombie Horse?
It is a healing item that Gyro and Johnny race to reach in episode 5, because it can treat Gyro's injuries.
Why is Gyro in the Steel Ball Run race?
Episode 5's flashback strongly implies it is tied to Marco, a boy Gyro was due to execute in Naples and took pity on. The episode stops short of spelling everything out.
Who is Gyro's father?
Gregorio Zeppeli, the royal executioner of the Kingdom of Naples, who taught Gyro that an executioner must have no sentiment.
What is Johnny's Stand?
It is Tusk, which awakened in episode 4. For now it lets Johnny spin his fingernails and fire them like bullets.
How many episodes does Steel Ball Run have?
The weekly 2nd and 3rd Stage run has 11 episodes, from 25 September to 4 December 2026, after the 1st Stage special released in March.
Where can I watch Steel Ball Run in India?
On Netflix, which streams it worldwide. New episodes arrive on Fridays at about 1:30pm IST.
Who made the Steel Ball Run anime?
David Production, with Toshiyuki Kato as series director, Yasuhiro Kimura and Hideya Takahashi as directors, and Yasuko Kobayashi on series composition. Shogo Sakata voices Johnny and Yohei Azakami voices Gyro.
My verdict
Episode 5 is the strongest answer yet to whether weekly JoJo works. One villain, one clever power, one fight that needs both heroes, and a flashback that gives Gyro a reason to be on this road. The race has slipped into the background, and the show will need to bring it back. On this evidence, a weekly Steel Ball Run is worth waiting for every Friday.
