Anime Review: Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan
Kishibe Rohan is one of the truly great manga creators. He’s known for his superhuman drawing and inking speed (when he’s motivated), weird plotlines, and being eccentric and egotistical. What is not known to the general public is that he’s actually superhuman, possessing a Stand Power named “Heaven’s Door” which allows him to literally read a person like a book. And those weird plotlines? Inspired by events in real life.
This series is a spinoff of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, especially the fourth part, “Diamond Is Unbreakable” by Hirohiko Araki. Araki wanted to tell one-shot weird stories set in that world, and Rohan seemed a suitable narrator/protagonist. Four of the stories were animated and the results are up on U.S. Netflix as of this writing.
“At a Confessional” has Rohan as a tourist in Italy make the mistake of going into the priest’s section of a confessional booth, then hearing a confession. He learns the secret of a man whose lack of charity caused that man to be cursed by a vengeful ghost–but that isn’t the man’s only sin.
“Mutsu-Kabe Hill” starts with Rohan being broke because he bought up a lot of now-worthless land so he could study rumors of a mysterious youkai in the area. He nearly falls prey to the creature himself, but the experience was worth it.
“Millionaire Village” is set in a remote gated community which Rohan’s editor has been invited to join. They take etiquette seriously there, making it a matter of life and death.
“The Run” has Rohan engage in what he thinks is a friendly competition with a fellow gym member. It’s not friendly, and the other competitor may be more dangerous than even Rohan is willing to deal with.
While it’s possible to go in cold and mostly get the stories, having seen Diamond Is Unbreakable will help make sense of the cameos by characters from that series and references to things that happened in the main story.
Though Rohan as a character is best taken in small doses, these stories deliver on the weird.
Recommended to fans of The Outer Limits, as the stories have a similar sensibility.
