Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai

Did you enjoy S4 of JoJo? You might enjoy this title as well. Story: It's basically 4 standalone stories being told by Rohan about his past. They are all decent and fit JoJo setting. Art: Art style of the anime is a darker version of S4. It's not as colourful while still on the same great level. Sound: OP is very atmospheric and unique. ED is fine. The music in anime is good as always. Character: As it's basically Kishibe Rohan and 1-2 supporting characters in each episode there is not so much to describe here. All the characters are just right for their story arcs. Enjoyment: I guess enjoymenthere depends on if you like Rohan as a character or not. I personally do find him interesting. Plus all the stories were decent and had their twists. Overall: light 9.

Pretty cool direction for something in the universe of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to take that manages to feel wholeheartedly like something that fits right in with the series, while being its own thing. The supernatural, urban horror route here is executed pretty well and made to feel very unique thanks to Araki's sense of humour, worldbuilding, and story writing all playing into giving this a very different vibe to your average anime ghost stories. Sure, you've got things like vengeful spirits and mysterious haunted villages out in the middle of nowhere, but you've also got elements such as treadmill-based competitions and a guy's life beingdecided by whether or not he can catch a piece of popcorn he threw in the air. The juxtaposition in these more grisly themes and creature being juxtaposed by your standard Jojo brand of absurdity, both sides taking themselves insanely seriously in the context of the story, ends up being a huge reason why this works so well. This is further heightened by the fact that Rohan Kishibe himself is such a fun character to follow along, with his ridiculous commitment to his art both acting as justification for these escapades and adding a lot to his personality to see the heights he reaches. Cameos of other characters from part 4 were also a nice touch in further fleshing out these 4 shorts and giving them a sense of cohesion with the framing device of them all being stories told by Rohan himself about these spooky stories. I feel this also helps in making these stories slightly more able to go off the rails in unique ways due to the fact that so much is based on second hand information within the world, which adds those potentially exaggerated plot points that contribute to the way everything is told in the style of passing on an urban legend from one person to the next. I also just, really, really love how utterly insane it gets throughout, with so much intensity and emphasis being put on the mundane, which is nicely combined with some very expressive animation that further heightens the emotion at the right moments. The use of colour throughout is particularly cool to me, with a lot of contrast and emphasis being put on various elements through the neon palette that phases in and out. All 4 of these episodes are a ton of fun all nicely wrapped up in a great sense of atmosphere and the ability to throw the viewer for a loop without going particularly overboard in the wrong ways. Definitely worth a watch for those who enjoyed Jojo part 4, even if it obviously doesn't quite match up with part 4 itself. Always nice to have these smaller, self-contained stories and I'm hoping for more of those JJBA side stories to get a similar treatment to this in the future.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS FOR THIS SERIES Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan is a spin of series of the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure series, and includes characters from part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable. It has 4 different interesting stories from the perspective of Kishibe Rohan, each episode being independent from the others. Personally, I enjoyed the non-stand-based stories, and I enjoyed learning a bit more about Rohan. However, it did include some confusing details. For example, episode 3. This episode was about Rohan explaining one of his experiences. In this episode, he competes on a treadmill with another side character not mentioned in part 4. After, he realizes thatthe person was an avatar for the Greek god Hermes. This was very strange, considering “avatars” had never been mentioned before in the series. Despite that, I enjoyed this spin-off series, and if I were to give it a score I would say 6/10.

A unique aspect of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable compared to other parts of the series was that it didn't really have to end where it did. While other parts have very specific goals that left no room for further expansion, the story of the strange little town of Morioh and it's inhabitants could have continued after the defeat of Kira Yoshikage, but was ended so that the series could move on to new storylines. Seeing an opportunity to expand on DiU's open ending, Hirohiko Araki came up with the series of spinoff one-shots known as "Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan", which follows thefan favorite character through various weird anecdotes from his life. These one-shots have been written intermittently throughout the years, starting in the middle of Part 5: Golden Wind, and continuing to this very day. Of course, that's only about the original manga shorts. The OVA adaptations of these one-shots were created by David Production, who made the first of them in 2017 as a bonus for ordering every DiU BD, and they have currently made 4 episodes. Story: 8/10 For those who are discontent with the lack of the paranormal in JoJo ever since the switch to Stands, you will be in for a pleasant surprise. Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan does not feature battles with enemy Stand users, and instead focuses entirely on the titular character's encounters with various paranormal beings. The only Stand featured is his own Stand, Heaven's Door. Since it was adapted from a series of one-shots, everything is episodic and unconnected. Each episode focuses on a new story about a different strange occurrence. Art: 7/10 This is a bit complicated. You see, they started animating these alongside the anime adaptation of DiU, and both of them have massively different character designs. As a result, the character designs in the first two episodes do not look very good, as they were not used to doing Araki's modern artstyle at the time. However, the other two episodes (The Run and At a Confessional) look much better in the design department. The former is most likely because they got better at animating Araki's modern designs, and the latter is because it uses Golden Wind's artstyle (as it was written during GW's run), which they had just finished adapting into it's anime. Character designs are just one aspect, though. The animation also matters, and it looks absolutely phenomenal. David Productions is great at doing storyboarding for JoJo, and it still applies here. Furthermore, the OVA format really shows it's benefits here, as it consistently looks higher quality than every episode of the TV anime. One episode in particular, "The Run", had my jaw agape with just how good it looked. Sound: 10/10 The sound design in the JoJo Anime is absolutely fantastic to the point where you could write an entire thesis praising it and then some. There is an entire Youtube channel dedicated just to showing off the sound profiles of each individual Stand, just to give an idea. That master-class sound design has carried over to this series. The sound effects are great, the background music is great (as far as I know, it's all reused from the anime, and the anime's soundtrack has millions upon millions of views due to it's quality), and the ED they created just for this series, "FINDING THE TRUTH", is beautiful. Character: 9/10 This is going to be the shortest segment, as this is basically just a rating of Rohan only. There are no other reoccurring characters. Basically, if you like Rohan, you'll like it, and if you don't, you won't. I like Rohan a lot, as he's one of my favorite characters in the series, and I rated this segment as such. Enjoyment and Overall: 9/10 Ultimately, the only reason you would or should consider checking this out is if you already liked the main series. I highly doubt it would win over someone who didn't already enjoy it, and even if it did, it's not very long. However, for those who did like it, I highly recommend checking it out. It's a nice, short little accessory to the main series, perfect for fans who enjoyed Diamond is Unbreakable and Kishibe Rohan.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is a collection of one-shot stories adapted from the Diamond is Unbreakable spin-off manga, and is produced by David Productions. The OVA is released over a span of two and a half years, and the time spent thoroughly producing all four episodes really shows. The final two episodes are finally out, so I’ll take the chance in writing a review. We follow the daily life and mishaps of Rohan Kishibe, one of the main characters from Part 4 of JoJo who works as a manga artist and is a fellow stand user who can peer into people and edit information about themas if they were a book. DP decided to adapt four out of the nine currently-released chapters, or “episodes” as they are called, from the manga, but not in release order. The episodes adapted are ‘Millionaire Village’, ‘Mutsu-Kabe Hill’, ‘The Run’, and ‘At a Confessional’. Each episode is based on a story that Rohan has either heard from other people, or has experienced himself. They all involve some sort of mystery involving youkai, ghosts or other stands and users, which Rohan has to try and solve the puzzle as to what is happening and what he can do to come out on top. Being able to spend a long time with the production of each episode, added with the bonus of improvement of technology, the artwork and animation is at a very high standard. Comparing this to the main series, I would say that it’s either on par or even better. The art is clean and very polished, whilst retaining that JoJo-esk art style, and the animation is also smooth. Though there have been a couple of instances where the artwork was a bit funky, mainly Kouichi’s face in the confessional episode, DP did a great job. Knowing David Productions, they obviously would pick out some great songs for the show. The opening is very fitting for the OVA, as the theme of this show is based on mystery; it makes me feel as if I’m watching X-files (which funnily enough, after doing a little research, it appears they focused the soundtrack based on X-files and Twin Peaks (the original series)). The ED from Coda is also very nice and mellow. Each episode is very enjoyable, and if you’re a fan of Rohan or just the JoJo franchise in general, then you’ll get a kick out of these four episodes. My pick as my favorite episode would have to be ‘The Run’. Depending on the DVD sales, this might be the last time we’ll see these characters and Part 4 as a whole. Overall, this Rohan-oriented OVA is very good.