Oh I need to geek a bit about sbr. Bc as a past horse girl, I can't tell you how much I love Araki's way of portraying horses, horse riding and riders.
First, the fact that horses do play a non-negligeable role in the story, such as basically having names (yes it's quite rare to put a name, which implies an individuality, to a horse) or being consistent throughout the part (with the race's rules forbidding the change of horses). It's important because I may remind you that animals are not soulless being, they breath and are alive like us, some of them can play between each other, have complex societies, laugh, etc (studies on the comportment of animals are so interesting but that's another topic), and for example, horses are very empathetic animals, which make them very good therapy partners (linking to Johnny's disability storyline in a way), they feel very well our emotions. Basically, if you're scared of a horse, they will feel it (plus they have a very expressive language !). It's also magical in the way I'm so excited when I see Slow Dancer or Walkyrie mentioned in fics, and I love the effort from Araki to name all the horses, even npcs, and with references as he would do with stands AND giving them specific races, it's really refreshing bc you won't race the same way with an Arabian and with a Percheron.
ALSO. The way he draws his characters riding !!! Most people wouldn't really bother, but you can see in Diego's stance, outfits and riding style that he's a professional jockey, unlike Gyro who is more in freestyle, or Mountain Tim riding in a very cowboy way. Same for Johnny. Even adapting the way he rides, he still keeps a jockey position. And he's very accurate : his saddle is adapted (as much as possible) to maintain his legs and stop him from falling (it's completely accurate and not that hard to ride a horse without using your legs), almost squatting on Slow Dancer's back, reins kept short and straight... (I should check again Dot Han's riding bc Mongolian horse riding and saddles are quite different from European/north-american)
Even the way riders are drawn : Mountain Tim is tall and massive → not made for speed and race but forged by long distances and harsh conditions. Oppositely, Diego is smaller and has less visible muscle (even though I think he's a bit too tall for a jockey but that's ok). And the fact that Johnny, even when not considering his wheelchair, is still smaller than the norm, unlike the other Joestars, is a chara design I thank Araki for bc that's a jockey right there : small yet still has muscles (+ the very developed back and arms bc of his disability (the details !))
And another interesting thing is that Araki makes sure we don't forget Johnny is a past jockey and knows a hell lot about horses and riders. Usually, Gyro's the character in the position of teacher (with the Spin), but we're often reminded that he has no real experience with horses, unlike Johnny. Think again of the end of the 3rd (?) part of the race, when Johnny explained to Gyro why he couldn't win : Johnny knows what a race looks like, how this or that person rides, he's good at reading the situations, establishing strategies and keeping an eye on his horse.
romaincrisis
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