Ballad Kitaguni

Ballad Kitaguni (北國 ばらっど) is a Japanese light novel author who has written several stories in the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: Short Story Collection.

His works include Box of Happiness, Kushagara, Symmetry Room, Okami-sama, Golden Melody, Original Author Rohan Kishibe, and The Five-Bedroom House With A.... He also wrote the Rohan au Louvre movie novelization.

Biography
In March 2014, Kitaguni's Greedy Me and Grimoire won the 8th HJ Bunko Grand Prize Silver Award. In April of the same year, his "Apricot Red" story won the 13th for Excellence. Kitaguni made his writing debut in August 2016 with We're Riajuu Without Otaku Pasts (Lie) in Dash X Bunko. A sequel to that released in the digital version of Dash X Bunko in August 2017.

In recent years, Kitaguni's stories are published by JUMP j BOOKS. Aside from his Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan short stories which began in 2017, Kitaguni has written Jujutsu Kaisen light novels as well starting in May 2019.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Kitaguni is a long-time fan of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, which he admired since he was a child. The first JoJo part that he read was Part 5, Vento Aureo, so Giorno Giovanna was his first favorite JoJo. At the time, he didn't know about JoJo's long history, but he liked that Giorno was the son of the former main antagonist. He was very excited seeing Giorno moving in the PS2 game, GioGio's Bizarre Adventure, which released in 2002.

In 2017, Kitaguni was given the opportunity to write spin-off stories of Hirohiko Araki's Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan series, stating that he felt a lot of pressure since JoJo is one of his childhood favorites. Box of Happiness and Kushagara were published in the first booklet of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: Short Story Collection, included in the August 2017 issue of Ultra Jump which released on July 19.

In September 2017, Kitaguni went to JoJo Festival in Morioh, S-city where he saw Rohan's desk on display at the venue; it inspired him to change the desk which he's been using since elementary school. Kitaguni's third story, Symmetry Room, was published in the third booklet included in the January 2018 issue of Ultra Jump, which released on December 19, 2017.

In December 2020, his Kushagara story was adapted into a live-action format in the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan TV drama. Its script was written by Yasuko Kobayashi.

Kitaguni's favorite Stand in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series is Tubular Bells. His favorite character in the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan series is Yoma Hashimoto.