The wait until the new chapters of ‘Stone Ocean’ premiere next fall is taking longer than a day without bread. If you have already seen all the available seasons of ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’ that have been released by now and still need more material we are in good luck, since it can still be seen ‘Thus spoke Kishibe Rohan’ on Netflix.
This OVA miniseries for now has 4 chapters of about 25 minuteswith what can be seen in one go in less than two hours… and the best thing is that if you haven’t finished catching up with ‘JoJo’ yet, nothing happens either since this small spin-off can be seen independently.
The not so normal life of Kishibe Rohan
‘Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan’ focuses on (obviously) Kishibe Rohana manga artist whom we met in part 4, ‘Diamond is Unbreakable’, although this time beyond throwing the messes and misadventures of the Joestar family we have a better look at what the mangaka’s day to day is like.
The anime miniseries adapts the manga of the same by Hirohiko Araki, with each chapter proposing a self-contained story with a tone between thriller and terror and a little point of light gore that manages to keep you on your toes with each episode.
Each chapter starts with Rohan telling a different story that he himself has lived or has heard secondhand and that surrounds us in an atmosphere very similar to that of a creepypastastarting from a very everyday situation that soon turns out to be very twisted and fuel for nightmares.
The time of each chapter is also perfect, because although it seems that 25 minutes is not enough, the rhythm is very well measured to pose and solve each of the mysteries that are presented to us.
‘Thus spoke Kishibe Rohan’ is a series that hooks you to see what else can happen to the mangaka in life, but that it is also easy to digest and that it does not become repetitive with the different stories that it presents. The plot of each chapter is also completely disconnected from the others and can be seen in no particular order, since they are designed as independent episodes that explore.
Yes, even if a spin-off of ‘JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’, neither does it completely lose the flavor of the anime with some of the crazy twists it hits or how some situations are resolved with a very Araki taste. So between the very particular aesthetics of the anime and some tone decisions, it can collide if we are not made in the style of the anime and it costs a bit to get completely into the mess if it comes completely new.
It must also be said that ‘Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan’ is conceived as special chapters, all the visual part is very well taken care of. Although the animation is not spectacular all the time, it does have a very practical use and the designs are full of details, something in which David Production has been shown to improve with each new season of ‘JoJo’.
From Netflix it can be seen both in Japanese subtitles and with dubbing in Spanish, and although not all the dubbing actors of ‘Diamond is Unbreakable’ have been preserved, it still has a very good dubbing and localization job.