Back to DrShitACrit's Profile DrShitACrit's Profile

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.