For fans of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, 2022 is shaping up to be a banner year. In addition to the start of the manga’s Golden Wind saga in the United States, there’s also the conclusion of the Jojolion story arc in Japan, and Stone Ocean’s Netflix adaptation. Now comes news that American fans can look forward to with the Fall release of the spin-off manga Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe.
Created by Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure mangaka Hirohiko Araka, Rohan Kishibe is of particular interest to manga fans, even those not well versed in Jojo. As an acclaimed mangaka faced with unrelenting pressure to continuously be inspired and generate creative ideas, Rohan often uses Heaven’s Door, his Stand to literally read people “like a book.” This allows him to find interesting stories in the joys and sorrows of people’s lives, and turn that into interesting stories. It also allows him to edit the stories of the people he is reading by adding and deleting things. In Diamonds are Unbreakable, Rohan becomes a member of the Joestar Group and, through his connection with Reimi Sugimoto, plays a vital role in the group’s search for serial killer Yoshikage Kira.
According to Viz Media, the American distributor of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, the first volume of Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is expected to drop sometime this Fall. It will be the English translation of the original collected volume which was first published in Japan in 2013. There is no word yet on a potential translation of the spinoff’s second volume, though given the popularity of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, it seems incredibly likely that it will be translated eventually as well.
Fans of Jojo who have read every chapter of the main series might not know of these one-shot episodes which were published separately. This makes the Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe volume a key addition to a collector’s libraries, as it provides further the understanding of the background and motives of Kishibe, one of the more popular characters from the Diamonds are Unbreakable story arc. Despite his close involvement in the Joestar Group during Diamonds are Unbreakable, much of Kishibe’s background is not provided in the main manga series. Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe remedies this by providing Jojo fans with a limited series specifically focused on his adventures. This first volume includes five stories of the adventures, or misadventures, of Rohan in Japan and Italy while he is searching for inspiration and content to power his manga-writing demands.
While the series might have been released in Japan for some time, it is exciting to see this spinoff get an official translation. Given the ties that Kishibe has with Diamonds are Unbreakable, the stories are apt to be intensely dark in that classic horror manner, perfect for any fan of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.
