- Interview Location: Anime Expo 2026
- Interview Format: In-person, Round Robin
Anime Herald: It’s been almost two years since Shohei Ohtani used your musicfor his warm up. Can you share some highlights from that time for you?
Yugo Kanno: He used it this year as well.
I was very surprised, and very honored. I made an Twitter post thanking Ohtani-san and his wife Mamiko. That post became news in Japan. That says to me there is so much Jojo popularity. They had a picture of the post on the screen.
(Editor’s note: Ohtani did indeed use Kanno’s music for his warm upon April 28.)
USC Annenberg Media: What was going through your mind when you composed the tracks for the side characters in Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?
Yugo Kanno: I made really awesome music for them, so look forward to it.
The Fandom Post:Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventureis a fresh restart for Jojo. What makes this project unique for you?
Yugo Kanno: The music for Jojo is something that forces me to go past my limits every time I compose for it. I worked on parts three through six. For part seven, to create even better music was both a mission and pressure I felt from fans. I would say I was able to create my best work yet.
Noriko Dohi: I think so too.
The Fandom Post: I agree.
Anime Herald: What is your process for creating tracks forJojo’s Bizarre Adventure?
Yugo Kanno: My process for each part is to first find the core of the story or the character, and to find the message Araki-sensei included in that part. Until I find that, I don’t move my brush. When I do find it, I can hear the music from thecript. The most important part of the process is finding this core
USC Annenberg Media: What specific process did you use to approach those expectations forSteel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?
Yugo Kanno: Specifically, fans have heard my past music. They will naturally want more from the next part. That’s something I would want from a viewer. To meet those expectations, I have to surpass my past self. It’s a battle every time.
The Fandom Post: What went into the creation of “Dance with Steel Ball Run”?
Yugo Kanno: The main theme for Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has two very important melodies, which represent Johnny and Gyro. The difference for this main theme is that it was not written to express a moment where he defeats an enemy. Now, it is music for a race. Previously, the music would come back when he defeated an enemy. Now they are in a race, so the structure is totally different musically. I realized early on that the traditional music for him defeating his opponents was not the approach I should take.
Anime Herald: What do you feel the core ofSteel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventureis?
Yugo Kanno: It is a growth story. That’s the core of the story, along with the location: this great American continent. While some characters run, most of the characters ride horses. This doesn’t only apply to Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The Stands they have are a deep human truth that is exposed on the outside. It’s kind of scary. There is the surface level of each character, and then the stand. Araki-sensei expressed something a bit deeper there. I think about what role that plays in the music. I repeat that process over and over throughout when I created music for this.
Jojo expresses human nature. It’s ugliness, foolishness, kindness, and courage like a mirror. This world we live in is more terrifying than Jojo’s I think. Through Jojo, we get to see both sides of humanity. I think the most important thing for me, as a composer, is to grab the core of this element.
USC Annenberg Media: What was it like, shifting from the Stand-based stories in parts three through six, to the horseback riding in the first stage ofSteel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure?
Noriko Dohi: Like you said, the first stage is purely a horse race. I think for most fans, the typical view is that Jojoequals Stand. The staff, the director, and I decided to express that that is not the case. With this race we wanted to focus on the race itself, the scale of the backgrounds, the shots with the masses of horses. There are a lot of wide shots in this. A horse race is pretty simple if they are just riding the horses. Please watch this episode again. You’ll see we paid a lot of attention to the layout. In a regular film, that would be a number of different camera angles. That, and Kanno-san’s music really made this forty-six-minute episode something you run straight through. As you mentioned, that’s different from the previous parts.
The Fandom Post: Why is there a six-month gap from the release of the first stage to the release of the second stage?
Noriko Dohi: I’ll explain this. As I mentioned before, we put a huge effort into the horse race for the first stage. It was a lot of work for our staff and it took a long time. That episode took six months. I think it is normal to have one cour of twelve episodes. In the first stage, we felt episode one was special. It doesn’t have any stands and it is a race story. Johnny says, “This is the story of me starting to walk.” He meets Gyro. That is what the first episode consists of. After this, there will be the Stands and the enemies, and the story accelerates at quite a pace. I wanted the fans to enjoy this first step and then go into the rest of the story.
The Fandom Post: Tell the staff that the hard work paid off.
Noriko Dohi: Just know they worked on something really hard and then they took a look at it. They then worked on it really hard and took a look at it. That’s the process.
Anime Herald: Do you have any questions for us?
Yugo Kanno: I felt the excitement for Jojohere in LA. Please help us get the word out.
Noriko Dohi:Jojo Fridays are back. We’ll do a new release each week. This is different than JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean. We wanted to do a release every week. The staff wanted to enjoy each episode as they came out with the audience. How is that viewed by fans? Do they prefer to binge it, or do they prefer it to come out weekly?
USC Annenberg Media: A lot of people had good reactions to it coming out weekly. They want that anticipation. They want to have that excitement for the week. It gives the fans time to process what is happening. The experience of enjoyingSteel Ball Runis lengthened.
Noriko Dohi: I am so glad. We continued negotiations for quite a while to decide on a weekly release schedule. If fans are happy, I am very glad to hear.
Anime Herald: I also like the weekly release. We watch, and then go on Discord and discuss the episode.
Noriko Dohi: I want to join the Discord. Thank you.
USC Annenberg Media: What was going through your mind when performing at Anime Expo today?
Yugo Kanno: In Japan, I had been told that Jojo was popular overseas. Seeing it through my own eyes and feeling it on my own skin while I was on stage, seeing how beloved it was by people in LA, made me very happy to have experienced that.
The Fandom Post: In what ways do you try to maintain a consistent identity across each part ofJojo, and in what ways do you try to give each part its own individual identity?
Yugo Kanno:Jojo’s image for me is his rippling muscles. At the same time, his feet are on the ground, and yet it is also high brand. I love Maison Valentino’s creative director Alessandro Michele. I think Jojo’s is similar to his designs. I think he maybe has similar roots to Araki-sensei. There is muscle, and this traditional, yet cutting-edge fashion combined. The music needs to take that into account. For that, I needed to express things through elements of funk. Also, the world and location where things take place is a big part of it. Each character, their mission and their stand brings their uniqueness. That affects the music as well.
