Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai

Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai adapts a handful of one-shots based on the manga series JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken, and follows the bizarre adventures that Rohan Kishibe goes through as he searches for inspiration for his manga.

Fugou Mura

Rohan accompanies manga editor Kyouka Izumi to a secretive village where she plans on buying a house. Izumi informs Rohan that inhabitants of the village suddenly become rich at the age of 25 after purchasing their homes. Being 25 years old herself, Izumi has high hopes for moving into the village and invites Rohan to gather ideas for his manga. As they enter one of the houses for an interview with the seller, they are greeted by a servant named Ikkyuu, who puts them through a test of etiquette with deadly consequences.

Mutsukabezaka

Rohan meets with his editor, Minoru Kagamari, to discuss both his manga and the six mountains that the manga author recently bought. He explains that he purchased the mountains in order to search for a legendary spirit known as the Mutsukabezaka. To give his search context, he tells the tale of Naoko Osato, a wealthy heiress who murdered her boyfriend and became cursed by the spirit.

Zangenshitsu

Rohan decides to vacation in Venice after putting his manga on hiatus. While there, he explores the interior of a church and examines the structure of its confessional. After stepping into the priest's compartment, Rohan hears a man enter the confessional and begin to confess his sins. The man recounts his confrontation with a starving beggar and the haunting events that followed.

The Run

Youma Hashimoto is a young male model who has quickly risen to success. As his popularity grows, so does his obsession with his appearance and body. One day, he meets Rohan at the gym, and the two quickly form a rivalry which pushes Youma to intensify his training. Soon. Youma's fixation on his physique takes a dark turn as his training takes precedence over his life, and he challenges Rohan to a fatal competition on the treadmills.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kishibe, Rohan Main

Sakurai, Takahiro Japanese

Higashikata, Jousuke Supporting

Nijimura, Okuyasu Supporting

Takagi, Wataru Japanese

Hirose, Kouichi Supporting

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Yamagishi, Yukako Supporting

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Hasekura, Mikitaka Supporting

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Otoishi, Akira Supporting

Morikubo, Shoutarou Japanese

Hashimoto, Youma Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Ikkyuu Supporting

Mizuhashi, Kaori Japanese

Kamafusa, Gunpei Supporting

Majima, Junji Japanese

Katou, Toshiyuki Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard

Iwasaki, Yasutoshi Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Sugawara, Hisashi Episode Director

Medel, Jennifer Script

Reviews

May 26, 2020

DrShitACrit

Recommended

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 the ... fan 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Oct 18, 2017

coomcel

Mixed Feelings

The plot seemed too simple but at the same time confusing (Much like your average JoJo episode), and had the mood and bizarreness to it that part 4 had and had me wanting to know more, making things feel like a mystery. 'Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan' has basically zero context to it and tries to distance itself from the original universe and normally each chapter in the manga is unchronological and isn't linked to the next one. So watching this OVA starting at 'Episode 5: Millionaire Village' felt really weird it had zero context felt as if they just threw things at you expecting for ... you to understand what's going on. I understand that 'Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan' is a series of one-shots but it still felt really confusing.

Personally, I'm not too much of a fan of the animation. It's a real pain to look at and looks horrible in motion, but I'll give it credit for looking very similar to its source material. On another note, I found the voice acting to be average/to what I expect from Takahiro Sakurai as Rohan; but I couldn't take the crying noises from Kyoka Izumi, seriously it sounded like the kind of crying you'd hear from a shitty school production. I really wanted to like this OVA, but in all honesty, it made me angry and upset that part 5 was delayed for this (My favorite part). I had a hard time understanding the plot. I mean this OVA is set many years after the evens of part 4 right? Why were Koichi and Okuyasu still wearing their school uniform?

The opening was nice and had some Harry Potter vibes to it. It sounded mysterious and creepy which really helped set the tone of this OVA until I saw the rest of the animation. Anyways, I really do appreciate the effort and time that David Productions put into making this. It felt new, yet it had a familiar part 4 style to it reminding us that it was still JoJo. This got me excited for part 5 and the future for JoJo OVA animated spin-offs, I hope David Productions doesn't just adapt JoJo one-shots but also adapt the light novels too, which in my opinion would help viewers transition a lot more easily from JoJo one part to another a lot without having the part that they were on feel incomplete. I hope in the future we get to see a 'Purple Haze Feedback' OVA animated adaption and a 'Dead Man's Questions' OVA to help make parts 4 and 5 feel more complete.

I give 'Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 5: Millionaire Village' a 5/10. I recommend only watching this if you want to satisfy that hunger for more JoJo content and if you're a fan of Rohan of course.

My first review.

- Loak

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Nov 16, 2017

poppy_marth

Not Recommended

Funny

It's not the worst thing ever, but the villain is pretty fucking stupid. Maybe if the violation of manners were relatable I could understand, but they sound like something a 4 year old would come up with, which is just petty and feels like a waste of time. The basic concept of Rohan finding something to write about is fine, and the ending scene is alright, but everything else is a waste.

Wouldn't have finished it if it wasn't Jojo related.

Don't read the next bit, it's just a rant so I could fit the minimum. I just wanted to comment on this because I've ... never been disappointed by something I really love, Jojo's that is.

Mal won't let me write a quick review for some reason. I honestly don't know if it's because the guy who heads this shit has his head up his ass or honestly believes long drawn out opinions are the only valid ones, but I don't really want to write about this forever. I was disappointed, so let me move on. Honestly if there's some kind of minimum on garbage mal reviews then there is a serious problem with this website, aside from the fact everything is rated higher than a 7. It feels like game scores, completely worthless but we need to jack ourselves off so we do it anyway. Gotta have that patrician taste right?

I took a quick peep at some other reviews, not to see what they actually said, but to see how long they were and it legitimately surprised me
how long a review needs to be. Well maybe if I write about something I like I could actually fill that much space.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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