Rohan Kishibe

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Rohan Kishibe

(岸辺 露伴) File:Rohan Kishibe.jpg

Namesake Anagram of Hirohiko Araki
Rohan Marley
Debut Vol.34 Chapter 318. Visit the Famous Comic Writer! (1)
Final Appearance Rohan at the Louvre
Seiyuu None
Voice Actor None
Profile
Age 20 (Part IV), 27 (Mutsukabezaka), 32-33 (Part VI)
Date of Birth 1979
Blood type
Eye color
Hair color
Height ??? cm
Weight ?? kg
Stand Heaven's Door


Rohan Kishibe is a fictional character introduced in Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable. He is featured as one of the main characters and is the only character of the series to star in other standalone stories. Being a successful cartoonist by profession, it is likely that he's a self-insert of Hirohiko Araki. The name Rohan Kishibe appears to be an anagram of the author Araki Hirohiko. Rohan's name shares enough letters to spell "ARKI HIHO", and duplicating the missing letters in "O,R,A,I,K" would complete "Araki Hirohiko."

Personality

Rohan is very much aware of his nearly superhuman skill and his success in his profession as a mangaka, thus his attitude towards others is seen as arrogant. He doesn't socialize much as he finds most people to be "incompatible with his wavelength" (especially Josuke, whom he greatly dislikes). Even Koichi Hirose, the one person Rohan does consider his friend, frequently calls him overbearing and pushy, especially when Rohan successfully manipulates Koichi into assisting him in his work research several times. Rohan is also an expert at psychological mind tricks.

Being very successful at his job results in massive wealth - evident by his house worth several million yen or the Gucci watch he wears. He does, however, make it a point that he never was interested in gaining fame and wealth. His only passion is to create manga, and he goes to great lengths for his research to make his work feel as "realistic" as possible. He is eccentric in procedure and manner, and could even be said to be slightly childish. Even though he acts indifferent to the affairs of others, he does believe in the forces of good, making him a valuable ally in the chase against Yoshikage Kira – especially after hearing the tragic story of Reimi Sugimoto, of which he is directly involved.

Synopsis

Early Life

When he was young, he was the only survivor of Reimi Sugimoto's murder and possibly the first witness to Yoshikage Kira's murders. However, he does not remember much of this life in his adult years.

Diamond is Unbreakable

Rohan first appears as an antagonist to Koichi and Toshikazu Hazamada when they go to his house for an autograph. After they try to sneak a peek of the new issue of his manga, he activates his stand to prevent either of them from attacking him. Then he reads their memories and in doing so finds out about Josuke Higashikata, Okuyasu Nijimura and others affiliated with the two. He then decides to use them as materials for his manga. After using Koichi as his personal "inspiration", Okuyasu and Josuke find out about where Koichi has been going by following him. Rohan attempts to take advantage of Josuke's sensitivity about his hair and hence force him to open his eyes and be subject to Heaven's Door, but this backfires when Josuke's anger even prevents him from recognizing Heaven's Door in the manga and enables him to pummel Rohan without restraint. Rohan's manga, Pink Dark Boy, is suspended for a month as a result of his defeat (though interestingly, Rohan was never shown to have been deformed from being punched by Crazy Diamond).

Upon leaving the hospital, Kishibe finds a lot of respect for Koichi, who he confides in, and at the same time holds a deep hatred towards Josuke. When Josuke finds a Mikitaka Hazekura, he decided to play a dice game with Rohan, who soon finds out that Josuke is cheating before threatening to take off his little finger if he doesn't stop. However, Rohan is ultimately unable to prove Josuke's dishonesty when his house breaks down midway into the game.

Rohan later encounters stand user Ken Oyanagi, who encounters him five times to play Rock, Paper, Scissors, and almost loses his stand in the process. After defeating him, he's attacked by Highway Star, who lures him into a room with a vision of Kira in a room cutting off a woman's hand. Later, he also encounters Masazo Kinoto, who harbors Cheap Trick on his back before transmitting it to himself after seeing Masazo's back. He deals with this by forcing the stand to detach from his back in Reimi's alley.

During the effects of Kira's Another One Bites the Dust, Rohan investigates to find out that Yoshikage Kira in fact hiding as Kosaku Kawajiri after reading about his secret identity via using Heaven's Door on Hayato. Another One Bites the Dust activates and Rohan disintegrates via the explosion. The time loop activates, upon which the time rewinds repeatedly and Rohan dies in the same manner at the exact same point in time. He survives when Kira deactivates Another One Bites the Dust.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe - Mutsukabeza

This one shot is a Jojo`s Bizarre adventure spin-off starring Rohan Kishibe as the main protagonist.

Under Execution Under Jailbreak

This book contains a new chapter of "Thus spoke Kishibe Rohan". In this story(Chapter 16: At a confessional), the mangaka heard an horror story from a mysterious sinner confession. This chapter was originally published in Shonen Jump magazine in 1997.

Rohan at the Louvre

As part of the "Le Louvre invite la bande dessinée" ("Cartoons - The Louvre Invites Comic-Strip Art") exhibition at France's famed Louvre [1] art museum, Araki created several art pieces featuring his character Rohan Kishibe. The exhibition was January-April 2009. Along with the showcase artwork, Araki also created a short story titled "Rohan Au Louvre" ("Rohan at the Louvre"), which is set in the museum. The book is to be released early 2010 in French and Japanese.

Rohan Kishibe Goes to Gucci

On the October 2011 issue of Shueisha‘s women’s fashion magazine Spur a short spin-off manga was written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki. The one-shot featured a bag with the stand-like ability to vanish things and Rohan's quest to the Gucci Factory to know the true nature of that bag.

Stone Ocean

When Stairway to Heaven sped up time to a one-hour week, he was the only mangaka to continue to meet his deadlines.

Trivia

  • There are several parallels between Rohan and Hirohiko Araki – one of the most interesting is that Hirohiko Araki himself claimed that his favorite character is Josuke, while Rohan holds an unparalleled hatred towards him.
  • As if to signalize his occupation as a mangaka, he has a pen nib theme as a part of his fashionable identity. He wears pen nib earrings, buttons shaped like pen nibs and other pen nib shapes incorporated into his extensive wardrobe.
  • In the Japanese dialog he uses the polite type of speech usually used by young boys.
  • The magazine in which his manga "Pink Dark Boy" (Pinkdark no Shonen) is serialized in is Weekly Shounen JUMP, the same magazine in which the JJBA series ran in (before moving to Ultra JUMP).
  • It is worth noting that Rohan has by far appeared in the most spin-offs and side stories.
  • He appears in the video game JUMP Ultimate Stars, available as one of the characters who the player can choose to guide them through the menus. He, Dio Brando, and Gyro Zeppeli are the only non-Jojo characters to represent the series in the game.
  • Like all authors, he gets fan mail. A few showcased are:

- Sensei's works are the best. Give your best more and more! (male, jr. high 2nd grade)
- Once I read I couldn't stop anymore. Please give me your autograph! (male, elementary 5th grade)

- Your pictures are gross! (21 year old student)

- I read it every week at least ten times over and over. (female, high school 1st grade)

- Just from looking at this manga I get pissed, I especially hate the colour spreads! (male, high school 3rd grade)

- This is a letter for bad luck. You have to send 99 by tomorrow. (anon)

- Aren't you showing off, asshole!? (anon)

- I love you. Please marry me. (28 year old OL)

References