Rohan Kishibe Moves Too Much - Yokai and Humans Peering Through Heaven's Door - [Updated May 18, 2023]

*This is a review of the Blu-ray purchase of the drama 'Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan II'. I posted this review on Amazon.
★★★★★

The drama that got me hooked on 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'

Regarding the previous Part 1.
I didn't know about it when it was airing on NHK at the end of the year,
but since it became a hot topic online later,
when I looked it up on Amazon,

I got hooked, oh my.
On JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, oh my.
What are you going to do about this, oh my,
Rohan-sensei and all the staff, oh my.
Please take responsibility, oh my.

I've been working my way backward from the drama to the anime and the original manga, and I'm thoroughly hooked.

Of course, I knew about the original manga.
However, the adult battles where dogs were burned in incinerators and things got bloody were quite a high hurdle for an elementary school girl who mainly watched Dragon Ball in Jump, so I didn't read JoJo very thoroughly.
What I vaguely remember is Part 4, from middle school to high school. I remember hair growing and faces peeling off to become notebooks.
After that, I went to college and drifted away from reading Jump every week, so my knowledge of JoJo was just enough to recognize it if I saw the art style.

The thing that got me hooked on JoJo
was the drama 'Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan'

What left an impression on me first was
the art direction and costumes.
Rohan-sensei's beautiful home and outfits.

JoJo is an original work with a very unique worldview and strong aesthetic sense.
Also, the cityscapes and clothing drawn by Araki-sensei are unique, fashionable, and have such vivid colors and strong impact that they can even collaborate with Gucci. As mentioned in the interview, it's strange how it feels natural in the original manga and anime, but suddenly feels weird when turned into a live-action drama.
It's like Rohan-sensei is about to become a street performer. (No offense)

In that regard, this drama uses actual buildings to create a sense of continuity with reality, while focusing on the interior design to bring out the atmosphere of the original work.
Rohan-sensei's outfits, even though the designs are asymmetrical and eccentric like in the original, are toned down to black and white, allowing them to blend into the Japanese background without feeling too out of place.
Amazing!
It's a great lesson in fashion. (Though I probably won't adopt it myself)
Izumi-chan's clothes are also classical, but the colors are muted so they aren't flashy, meaning she doesn't look unnatural standing next to Rohan-sensei, and she doesn't feel noisy or out of place against the background.

Next, the actors' performances.

Issey Takahashi played Rohan-sensei—who is selfish, bossy, self-centered, and arrogant, but also has some good points and lives as a manga artist with conviction and pride—by grounding the original dialogue in reality.
Amazing.
The banter between Rohan-chan and Izumi-chan (I'll dare to write it this way) was also fast-paced and fun.
(I hope these two aren't dating. Because once you have that kind of information, you can't help but look at them that way.)

The highlight is the piggyback yokai in episode 5!
Ainosuke Ichikawa.
The suspicious movements of Masazo Kinoto.
The sense of pressure and the bizarre atmosphere after he becomes a yokai.
The desperate look on his face at the end.
Wow, it was simply magnificent.
I felt that just being able to see this 5th episode made buying the Blu-ray worth it.

And then, the setting and structure.

They didn't show Stands at all, and pushed through with a special ability called a 'Gift'!
By showing and explaining at the beginning that 'Ah, he has this kind of mysterious power,' you can then focus on the even more mysterious main story.
The decisiveness to cut out the long, tedious explanations of Stand settings from the original because people who don't know the source material wouldn't be able to keep up.
That's the true potential of the scriptwriting.
Fans of the original might have some resistance, but it's a success.
If you clumsily throw in too much CG, you lose that sense of continuity with reality.
I thought that keeping it to a minimum and having the mysteries created by human hands as much as possible was the reason why the mysterious abilities and phenomena felt real. (That sounds a bit contradictory, though.)

It's also amazing how they compiled it into a 3-episode structure from scattered original stories.
Episodes 1 and 4 explain Rohan's mysterious ability and feature a confrontation with another mysterious existence.
Episodes 2 and 5 feature a serious acting showdown between the actors.
Episodes 3 and 6 wrap up the flow so far with family stories.

In Part 1, they created a narrative flow by involving Taro-chan from episode 3 in episodes 1 and 2 via Izumi-chan,
but in Part 2, it was also wonderful to see a development reminiscent of the original manga, where they set up Rokube-zaka as a sort of final boss, confronted assassins from there, and finally stormed the place in the end.
Rokube in episode 6.

In particular, compared to the original work which has a strong Western Christian worldview with vampires, Crusaders, and Heaven's Door, this time I felt a strong Japanese atmosphere overall, with slopes, a prestigious miso-making family, and yokai. Because of that, it felt like a ghost story, and a chilling fear seeped through.
In the end, it's like humans are more like yokai than the yokai themselves.

Yasuko Kobayashi's interview was also very interesting.

What was disappointing was,
in episode 6, the screen suddenly turned black and white in the middle of a flashback.
The bleeding might have violated broadcasting codes, but it felt a bit unnatural.
If they were going to do it, it might have been better to make all the Heaven's Door flashbacks in episodes 4 and 5 black and white while keeping only Rohan-sensei in color, or to include a depiction where the previously black-and-white Mutsu-kabe Slope gains color once Rohan arrives at the location in episode 6.
Well, I suppose that's a matter of direction.

Finally, I would like to praise the drama for fully capturing Rohan Kishibe.

They expressed the Rohan Kishibe who remains unchanged whether in anime or manga, even in a drama where the settings were significantly altered.

Even though he should be considerably older than in the original work,
Rohan-sensei remains completely unwavering, unchanged, and lives solely to draw manga.
He doesn't care about bankruptcy, steps into boundaries himself, moves around out of curiosity, and even though he encounters situations where he could lose his life, he never learns and repeats it all over again.

The madness remains just as it was in the original.
This is truly Rohan Kishibe.

And,
Hirohiko Araki-sensei.

It was so much fun.
Thank you so much.
I'm looking forward to the end of this year as well.

Update: August 20, 2022

December Part 3 confirmed!!!
That's great.
I'm so happy.

Update 2: May 18, 2023

Why...

Why is this happening?
Why?
Do something about it, Rohan-sensei...
With your ultimate Heaven's Door.

Even though they are such a great actor, it is sad.
Very.