<metadesc>Rohan Kishibe (岸辺 露伴 Kishibe Rohan) is a major ally introduced in Diamond is Unbreakable. First featured as an antagonist, he cooperates in the search for Yoshikage Kira. </metadesc>
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Reality is the lifeblood that makes a work pulse with energy! Reality itself is entertainment! You might think comics draw on imagination and fantasy, but that's wrong! To write something interesting, you have to write what you've seen, what you've done, what you've experienced!
Rohan Kishibe (岸辺 露伴, Kishibe Rohan) is a major ally introduced in Diamond is Unbreakable. First featured as an antagonist, he cooperates in the search for Yoshikage Kira.
A successful professional mangaka, Rohan is often roped into paranormal events while conducting research for his latest manga. He is a Stand User who uses his Stand, Heaven's Door, to transform others into books and read them for inspiration.
Rohan is a handsome individual of average build and height. He has an undercut that is slicked sideways. While his outfit regularly changes, Rohan keeps his trademark headband and pen earrings in every appearance.
His first outfit sees him adorning a baggy suit and pants, over which he wears a semi-unbuttoned vest.
This section requires expansion.
One-Shot Spin-offs
Rohan has appeared in multiple one-shots, including:
Did you think the great Kishibe Rohan draws comics because he wants money?! I draw comics because I "WANT TO BE READ"! That's the one and only reason. I couldn't care less about anything else!
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—Rohan Kishibe
Rohan Kishibe is a passionate mangaka dedicated to his work, with a particularly abrasive personality but a good heart.
With proper inspiration, Rohan is entranced when he draws
Rohan Kishibe is above all defined by his dedication to his work. With great draftmanship talents, Rohan has constantly sought to make the best manga possible in order to keep being read. His wish to be read is so great it trumps any other motivation,[2] disdaining money or glory and feeling no need for kinship either.[5] When drawing, Rohan falls into an artistic trance, drawing with abandon and being distracted with great difficulty.[5] Because of his tremendous drawing skill, the one thing Rohan seeks the most is inspiration to fuel his work as everything else is an effortless formality.
To gain inspiration, Rohan is constantly seeking new experiences or facts, investigating anything he might find interesting with blatant disregard for common sense, politeness or the law, for instance buying a whole mountain range to preserve the living area of a supposed yokai and constantly prying into people's lives by turning them into books with his Heaven's Door.[6][7] Moreover, Rohan is overly curious, willingly throwing himself into strange adventures such as an unusual house sale or a poaching session. His inquisitiveness can turn obsessive and downright morbid as he had to be reigned in to stop harassing Koichi[8] and killed a spider just to taste its innards.[2] Nonetheless, Rohan considers "reality" to be the greatest inspiration, and looks for genuine material, disdaining fakes such as when Hazamada fakes throwing up.[2]
In addition to his own work, Rohan is an amateur of art in all its forms. He possesses movie goodies[9] artbooks and manga figures alike,[10] and considers that a visit to the museum to be a solemn occasion necessitating a proper outfit.[11]
Rohan looks down on everyone but himself and Koichi
Parallel to his artistic passion exists Rohan's general unpleasantness. First of all, Rohan is arrogant, being aware of his nearly superhuman skill as an artist. Thus he generally looks down on everyone else[5] and may only see people as possible material for his stories. However, he greatly respects Koichi for his courage and niceness.[8] He also respects Tonio as a chef.[12] Naturally, Rohan also hates being made a fool of, reacting with extreme dissatisfaction when Josuke cheated against him without him knowing how and cutting off his own finger as self-inflicted punishment.[13] Likewise, he didn't like that his editor Kyoka Izumi dismissed his idea for a one-shot.[14]
His arrogance is paired with his constant coarseness. While he may act with professional courtesy, Rohan is generally brash and impolite. Maintaining a thin veneer of civility, Rohan will usually make no secret of what he thinks of people which, combined with his arrogance, often earns him a mutual disdain with his interlocutors. Likewise, he also likes aggravating people he doesn't like, playing a game with Josuke with the declared intention to ruin him,[15] has also stated to liking put down people "in their place" by refusing their requests or orders[16] and is willing to tease or taunt an opponent. Rohan blatantly disregards courtesy for the sake of his goals, turning people into books on a whim and having at one point entered a confessional just to see the interior. But if he is disinterested, Rohan may also blatantly not remember an interlocutor's name such as Yukako Yamagichi at one point and distract himself while they talk.[17] He has also occasionally adopted a visible passive-aggressive behavior[9] and had no qualm punching an annoying Ken Oyanagi.[18]
Pleading for Izumi's life
Nonetheless, behind his eccentric and discourteous demeanour, Rohan is also a decent person. When he learned about how Reimi Sugimoto saved him, he took an active part in seeking her murderer in part to give Reimi closure.[19] He would also admit, with some persuasion, that he did like her and would miss her.[20] Although he looks down on people and clashes with them, he always defends their lives, ultimately saving Ken Oyanagi when the boy tried to commit suicide[21] and also saving the abrasive Kyoka Izumi from the gods of the mountains.[14] Moreover, Rohan's stubborn personality means that he also has an iron-clad moral standard, for instance refusing to let Josuke be attacked by Highway Star despite the Stand promising to free him and Josuke being the person Rohan hates the most.[16] Finally, Rohan steadfastly grants his fans autographs whenever they ask him, no matter the circumstances.[22]
Despite his arrogance, Rohan is mature enough to know that surpassing others is easier than surpassing oneself.[23]
Recent stories feature Rohan doing regular physical exercise to keep in shape.[22]
Heaven's Door enables Rohan to transmute people into "human books", with written pages unfurling from their bodies. These pages relate detailed information about that person, including biological characteristics, history, personality, or even details of their Stand and its abilities.
Rohan's Stand Heaven's Door was acquired when he was shot with the Arrow[2] and its nature likely originated from his zeal for drawing manga. Rohan states that compelling manga requires a quality that may only be drawn from reality, both for its sensory variety and the depth of experience that humans accumulate.[24]
Mastery
Heaven's Door simple yet exceptionally versatile power to transform people into books makes Rohan a formidable Stand User. There has been a noticeable shift in Rohan's mastery of his Stand as he initially required someone to look at a manga page to be transformed into a book, but then could draw his art in the air to trigger the effect and has recently been shown to only need a touch to turn targets into books. This shift has been stated as his own progress as a Stand User.[7]
Rohan liberally uses his power to write commands in people, but usually shows restraint and subtlety in writing said commands. He prefers using very specific orders to compel people into not doing one thing or performing a single task for him, but never more. As a manga artist, he frequently uses his power to pry into people's lives for inspiration, regardless of courtesy.
He can also use his power in unexpected ways as people are literally transformed into paper and take on paper's property. Thus, he can easily immobilize someone by turning articulations into paper and has transformed an obese man into paper that could unfold and fit between two speeding trains.
Dexterity, Draftsmanship
Rohan is a genius mangaka
Rohan is an exceptionally talented draftsman, capable if he chooses of finishing manga pages of quality at superhuman speed. He can draw competently without construction lines and shade precisely simply by throwing ink drops with his pen. Such is his speed that he is able to do 19 pages in four days,[25] a feat he can easily surpass, as is noted when he still can meet the deadline for his manga during Made In Heaven's accelerated time, where time has hastened to the point that ink can dry before it gets to the paper.[26] Incidentally, his skill also gives him the necessary arm speed to draw a paper sheet off his desk even before Crazy Diamond can complete a punch. He was also able to throw pen nibs with such speed that they pierced Josuke's skin during their initial encounter.
Other
InRohan Kishibe Goes to Gucci, Rohan inherits his deceased grandmother's Gucci bag, which possesses a Stand that allows its owner to hide items to be reobtained when in particular need.
By the way, you wouldn't happen to know the secret to writing interesting comics, would you? It's reality! Reality is the lifeblood that makes a work pulse with energy! Reality itself is entertainment! You might think comics draw on imagination and fantasy, but that's wrong! To write something interesting, you have to write what you've seen, what you've done, what you've experienced!
Did you think the great Rohan Kishibe draws comics because he wants money?! I draw comics because I want to be read! "Want to be read" that's the one and only reason. I couldn't care less about anything else!
I'll say this only once. You said you wanted to surpass me... this is something you'll learn with age. It's not actually that hard to surpass someone. If you want to surpass someone, it's much harder to surpass yourself! Allow me to demonstrate by overcoming my own fate!
I REFUSE. The one thing I, Rohan Kishibe, like more than anything else... is finding people who think they're hot shit and saying no straight to their faces.
Manga Appearances
Anime Appearances
Quotes
