DU Episode 14

Let's Go to the Manga Artist's House, Part 1 (漫画家のうちへ遊びに行こう その1) is the fourteenth episode of Diamond is Unbreakable and the eighty-eighth episode of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure anime. It covers Chapter 318 through most of Chapter 321 of the manga.

Koichi and Toshikazu Hazamada learns that the famous mangaka Rohan Kishibe is living in Morioh. Being fans of his work, they decide to visit his house and soon discover that Rohan is more than an eccentric mangaka.

Summary
Out of the hospital, Hazamada incidentally meets Koichi in the streets of Morioh. Despite an awkward start as former enemies, Hazamada and Koichi quickly bond over their love of manga. Hazamada then points out that the famed manga artist Rohan Kishibe has recently moved in the town, and the two head to his house in the hopes of meeting him. As Koichi tries to ring the bell, Rohan grabs his arm from behind the door, scaring the boy a little. However, the mangake is happy to learn they are fans and gives them a tour of his studio.

In his office, Koichi and Hazamada are impressed that Rohan is talented enough to draw his manga alone but are creeped out by how far Rohan goes to perfect his manga as he tastes a spider right in front of them. Rohan leaves and Koichi and Hazamada can't resist the chance to sneak a peek at his new manuscript. The moment they do, however, they fall under the power of Rohan's Stand, Heaven's Door, which allows him to open their bodies like a book and read all of their secrets. Koichi summons his Echoes but the attack misses as Rohan can also write commands on those he turns into books, thus he's prevented Koichi from attacking him as a precaution. Highly interested in Koichi's personality and colorful life, Rohan proceeds to take pages from Koichi. At the end, Rohan lets the two go home with no memory of what just happened. That night, Koichi senses something amiss when he discovers he's lost 20 kg, but suddenly forgets about it just as he prepares to inform Josuke. The next day, Koichi finds himself at Rohan's house again, with Josuke and Okuyasu following closely behind.

Commentary
"Rohan finally appears in this episode.

I'm personally in charge of several storyboards in this series and they aren’t given randomly. I'm systemically given the first episode of each new cour, so in this case: Episodes 1, 14 and 27.

I was also responsible for about a third of the directing, but if I had to remember one thing from it, it'd be the compositing around Heaven’s Door. Visually speaking, its power lacerates the face off like an open book, so we had to pay attention to each page separately. More specifically, the operation consists of creating content for each of the pages and then incorporating it and sticking it as naturally as possible inside the book. Suffice to say the process has been long and tedious, and no one was spared. You could say that Heaven’s Door is such a fearsome Stand, its effects can be felt by the production studio (laughs).

About the content in the episode, we wanted to highlight the comical elements of this arc. This is why a lot of the drawings have such a comical look. At the same time, we had to correctly dose the disquieting, even sinister atmosphere that Rohan exudes. The mangaka’s face is really rich in expressions, and it's generally a pleasure to animate this character. As a nod to his work, some of the shots were directed to look like panels, much like a comic book. The episode ends like this, leaving Rohan’s case hanging, with Koichi coming back to visit him as if nothing had happened… It is the ideal transition into episode 15."

- Naokatsu Tsuda, Blu-Ray limited edition commentaries

Trivia

 * This episode adds a few changes to the ending theme animation, such as adding Rohan drawing manga, Akira Otoishi playing guitar and Joseph Joestar holding Shizuka.