Found Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure Too Long? You Should First Watch Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.
Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, which was recently released on Netflix, might be the best way to get you hooked on Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure in just four episodes.
It’s difficult to recommend Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure to anyone who isn’t an anime fan. The fact that it is a long tale does complicate matters, in addition to being very eccentric from an external point of view. Netflix takes into account the tastes of its subscribers in order to make their upcoming shows according to the shows that are already available on the site. Therefore, seeing a flood of TV shows set in the 80’s right after Stranger Things’ first season is not a surprise given how famous the latter was at the time. Similarly, since viewers nowadays are more into shorter TV shows, the length of a season has been drastically shortened. As such, in a world that is not willing to start a show that already has more than 100 episodes, Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure appears to be an antithesis.
Thankfully, Netflix recently released Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, a spin-off of Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure, which allows anyone to learn what makes the latter so appealing in just four episodes.
Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures’ particularity resides in its very structure. Following the adventures of the members of the Joestar family across generations, it is divided into numerous parts — each one of them having its own name and corresponding to the specific adventures of a Jojo. Thus, while Phantom Blood focuses on Jonathan Joestar’s adventures, the fourth part titled Diamond is Unbreakable follows the steps of Josuke Higashikata (-suke can be pronounced « Jo » in Japanese).
The events told in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is set between the fourth and fifth parts of Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures and relates the supernatural adventures of Rohan Kishibe, an egocentric but savvy manga artist constantly seeking inspirations to improve his work.
Rohan’s Bizzare Adventure
Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is a quite peculiar spin-off in the sense that it does not let the main character of the original timeline having a proper line of dialogue. Through these four episodes, Josuke is shown twice without us being able to see his face. We might obviously put this absence on Araki sensei’s willingness not to shadow the character of Rohan Kishibe. Despite the fact that the latter explanation makes sense, I found it to be too dull and not bizarre enough for Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure. With this in mind, I made up my own theory which could be considered crazy for some but totally sticks with Jojo’s, which can be summarized as follows: Araki is not the one who has decided not to include Josuke, but Rohan himself.
What makes me think that is first that Josuke is Araki’s favourite Jojo’s and character of the whole series. So, it might be worth asking ourselves why he did not apply himself to draw such a central character in his spin-off. The second reason concerns the relationships that Josuke and Rohan have in Diamond is Unbreakable. Rohan hates Josuke, as does the latter with the former, and this hatred does not seem to have disappeared in Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan as Rohan does not even want to pronounce Josuke’s name at the beginning of At the Confessional preferring to refer to him as « this guy ».
Thus, it gives the impressions that Rohan was the one holding the pen for Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, jumping out of the original manga and for a brief moment taking the place of Araki sensei. Not only that, but Rohan also took care to tease Josuke’s fans by drawing the latter from the back, destroying fans expectations to see what he looks like and giving an effect similar to Magritte's The Man with the Bowler Hat (L’Homme aux Chapeau Melon).
Due to the non-presence of Josuke, Rohan, therefore, appears to state that these episodes do not relate to Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure, but Rohan’s Bizzare Adventure. And this statement does not only concern the style.
Justice and Rationality
I can tell since I watched those three men who carried the blood of the Joestar Family in their veins back in Morioh. The three of them emanate righteousness from their hearts as if it gave them energy… […].
Koichi Hirose in Part 5
In Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure, a recurring theme is that every Jojo is pushed to accomplish what they consider as just. Though the way this justice is done differs from one Jojo to another, the latter remains significant in the universe. However, this idea of justice is not necessarily followed by Jojo’s allies and this is the case of Rohan Kishibe. Presented as a major ally in Diamond is Unbreakable, Rohan is a self-centred and egocentric character who only seems to be animated by the writings of his mangas. However, if there is one feature that has stood up the most through these four episodes is his cautiousness.
Keen on curiosities, he is nonetheless not the type of character to risk his life. Thus, in the episode The Run, while some ideas for his manga could have sparked from the fall of Yoma Hashimoto off the building, he decided not to check whether the latter was dead or not, preferring “to run away the furthest possible”. Similarly, though Rohan sometimes had the capacity to help, he did not, as was the case in Mutsu-Kabe Hill. As he said himself, he is « neither a journalist nor a policeman but just a mangaka in quest of curiosities ».
In the end, this cautiousness gives episodes whose ends are left open and mainly unsolved, which corresponds very well to Rohan but leave us quite surprised and eager for more.
Originally released in 2018, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan keeps this bizarrerie specific to Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure very much alive. Above all, it is impressive to witness how Araki sensei can turn a seemingly dull daily life situation into a dramatical one which could get anyone hooked as in At the Confessional’s popcorn scene.
As Araki has drawn quite a lot of side stories about Rohan, it is not excluded to see another spin-off episodes of Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe in the future. But as for people who have taken a like of it already, it is not too late to go beyond Heaven's Door to start (re)watching Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure.
