The Fall 2022 Manga Guide

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe

What's It About? 

Rohan Kishibe is a manga artist who prioritizes the authenticity in his stories brought by firsthand experience. And here, he will share some of those bizarre experiences with you. A research trip to Italy brings a harrowing tale from a confessional in Venice. The story of a mysterious phenomenon at a private estate sees Rohan seeking to buy the land for himself. His editor's pursuit of residency at a high-class village causes the artist to learn the true value of etiquette. And a fishing trip for some rare abalone with Morioh's resident Italian chef results in the pair biting off more than they can chew. Each one of these stories brings something new to Rohan's experiences, and something new to speak to his readers about.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe has story and art by Hirohiko Araki, with English translation by Nathan A. Collins and lettering by Mark McMurray, and Viz will release its first volume both digitally and physically on September 27.

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Is It Worth Reading?

Christopher Farris

Rating:

Collecting four one-shot chapters released between 1997 and 2013, Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe aptly centers its spin-off diversions on JoJo's resident seemingly self-insert-styled manga artist. After all, Rohan's predilections towards research and firsthand experience mirror the same preferences that Araki himself is known to have. It puts him in position to frame stories like a trip to Italy or a haunted private estate; Rohan's relatively minimal involvement in them makes the proceedings work by coming off like something of a contained horror anthology with the fictionalized manga artist serving as a sort of high-fashion Cryptkeeper. The latter two stories see more direct integration of Rohan, possibly because by this point Araki was well-established enough as a superstar that there were less restrictions on his unrelated one-shots, but they still sit as comfortably self-contained and more focused on their own specific horrors, as opposed to being driven by appearances of Stand users and those particular kinds of battles.

All the stories feel strong in their own ways, though the amount of singular self-indulgence you probably expect from Araki at this point (at least enough that you're so deep in you'd check out a Rohan Kishibe spin-off volume) varies from chapter to chapter, to differing results. There's only so much time you can spend reading Rohan detailing real-estate dealings before you start to check out at least a little bit. Perhaps the most unintentionally-engaging element of the collection comes from the amount of publication time covered, watching Araki's ongoing evolution as an artist and storyteller over the course of sixteen years. Compare the compulsory, Shonen-standard narration of the dramatic action in the first chapter to the last one in the set, wherein whole sequences of Rohan fighting off some perhaps rightly-angered abalone pass by with nary a word. That segment even includes moments of dramatic irony imparted to the reader counter to what Rohan is aware of on the page. It's also the sort of ultimate indulgence that brings elements together to, naturally, climax on a scene of octopus tentacles sexily snaking up Rohan's chest to pry abalone shells off of his shirtless body. If you know Araki, you know that situation makes perfect sense in context.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, for what it is, thus feels less like a true side-story or companion piece to JoJo's, and more a collection of fun offshoots from its creator framed by familiar elements. Araki is still Araki, of course, so if you enjoy JoJo's you're almost certain to enjoy Rohan.

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Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Could you read Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe without any familiarity with JoJo's Bizarre Adventure? I'm hesitant to say yes, because things like Stands are intrinsic to the story and the fourth chapter features a character from Part Four, Tonio Trendy. But if you don't mind piecing things like that together, this still makes for a really interesting set of four short supernatural mysteries that feel like old American comics of the 1970s – the schlocky post-Code horror titles that went as far as they were allowed to without ever really getting too deep.

Rohan Kishibe, a mangaka from Jojo's, is the only uniting feature of the book. He's always jetting off here or there to get ideas for his work, whether that's Italy or the depths of any number of Japanese mountains. We never find out if he uses the ideas, because that's really just the excuse for him to run up against weird beings, like killer abalone, undying yokai who bleed unceasingly and can apparently impregnate women, and restless vengeful spirits. The first three stories really lean into a more folkloric narrative, with characters who generally fail to learn their lessons. The first is the most unforgiving, as a man who keeps using people and causing their deaths is continually haunted by his wrongdoing but can't seem to muster up the wherewithal to be a better person; he's like the first or second prince in a story where the third is kind to the elderly and small animals his elder brothers failed to care for. The third story also nicely uses folkloric themes in the way that Rohan is able to use the incredibly picky gods' love of etiquette against them; he feels like a Jack outsmarting a giant and still getting away with the riches, although in this case it's not gold and singing harps.

Those two are the strongest of the four pieces in the book; the fourth is a bit lacking in plot and the third feels a bit meandering as it heads into its finale. But all four are unique and fascinating, and the distinctive art absolutely adds to that. Is it often physically impossible and sometimes gross? Absolutely, but Araki's such a master of it that it really doesn't matter how weird it gets. This book is unabashedly itself, and there's definite joy in reading a story that makes no excuses.