The Sense of Distance: Japan versus the American Midwest

JoJo’s seventh story arc, Steel Ball Run, involves a race across America, but I knew that undertaking that journey by myself in one single trip would have been impossible. Instead, I split up the research into three sections: from the West Coast to the deserts, from the Great Plains to the Mississippi River and Chicago, and to the finish line in New York. Each region possesses its own culture and is home to different types of people.

Without going there for yourself, it’s impossible to comprehend the feeling of scale of the midwestern United States, where the scenery stretches on forever and unchanging. The feeling of distance there is nothing like Japan. Say, for example, an enemy is approaching from afar – at such a distance that escape would be trivial in Japan. In the Midwest, the open landscape remains identical from one hour to the next, and I was struck by the real sense that I could never make an escape from such an adversary; there was simply nowhere to hide. I was able to put that experience to good use when it came time to draw the manga.

Travel there is mostly done by car. When you drive across those vast plains, the scenery is mostly devoid of any ups and downs, and is dotted only by the occasional town with nothing to claim but chain stores, seemingly little to provide amusement aside from watching movies, and you hardly ever see anyone else about. Rather than inspire thoughts of enjoying nature, it felt empty and lifeless and made me wonder if there was any fun to living there at all. A kind of atmosphere hung over these places that felt rich for suspense.