Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Volume 1

Template:Volume box The first volume of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan one-shots released on November 19, 2013.^[1]

Summary

Episode 16: At a Confessional

After an incident forces Rohan to put his series on hiatus, he takes a vacation to Italy. While in Venice, Rohan accidentally enters a confessional where a man begins to confess his sins. The man tells of his youth when a starving vagrant came to him for food. Disdainful, he forced the vagrant to carry large bags of corn, ultimately leading to his death. However, the vagrant's ghost appeared, swearing to return and take revenge on the happiest day of his life.

After becoming rich and successful, the man walked cheerfully with his daughter and servant in what he thought was the happiest moment of his life. Suddenly, the vagrant's spirit possesses his daughter and reveals that he was behind the man's prosperity from the start. The ghost explains that he wanted fate to judge him, demanding that he throw three pieces of popcorn into the air higher than the lamppost and catch it in his mouth. If he fails, the ghost would cut off his head.

Episode 2: Mutsu-kabe Hill

Bankrupt from buying a large piece of land for research purposes, Rohan tells his editor the story of a genuine Yokai he witnessed during his exploits. The story starts with Naoko Osato, the heir of a wealthy family, cutting ties with her secret lover, Gunpei Kamafusa, after being forced into an arranged marriage. The break-up turns into a fight ending with Gunpei's accidental death. At the same time, Naoko's father and fiancé arrive at the house. Panicked, Naoko delays them while trying to stop Gunpei's wound from bleeding, however, the blood mysteriously keeps gushing out. In desperation, Naoko puts Gunpei on top of the armoire while drinking his blood.

Naoko married and had children, as she continued to hide Gunpei's corpse, meticulously collecting the blood as it endlessly poured—eventually developing a strange attachment to it.

Episode 5: Millionaire Village

Rohan's editor Kyoka Izumi

Rohan and his editor Kyoka Izumi meet at a cafe in Morioh. While discussing Rohan's new one-shot, Kyoka talks to him about buying a villa in the mountains, claiming that anyone who buys a property there becomes incredibly rich. Hiking up the mountains, Kyoka also mentions that the people in the village won't sell their property to anyone with bad manners. At the front door, a child butler greets the two and asks them to wait for the current owners, giving them tea as refreshment. However, the butler soon asks them to leave as they've already breached etiquette twice.

Kyoka begs for a second chance, which is granted, but is soon devastated to learn that her mother and fiancee have both died in a car crash. Rohan immediately uses Heaven's Door on the butler and learns that the Gods of the Mountains are testing them, and that whoever breaches etiquette is punished with the loss of which they hold dear.

Episode 6: Poaching Seashore

At Tonio Trussardi's trattoria, Tonio asks Rohan for a favor: to help him harvest disk abalone, a unique type of abalone only found near Morioh. After learning of their value, Rohan guesses that Tonio is asking him to go poaching. Tonio has done his own research, and explains that there is a precise path and night during which the duo will be able to harvest the freely swimming abalone.

On this night, Rohan and Tonio sneak toward the reef, and Tonio reveals that he seeks the abalone to cure his girlfriend's disease. Waist-deep into the water, the duo see the spectacle of the swarm of swimming abalones. Distracted by the sight, Rohan soon notices that Tonio has sunken at the bottom of the sea: the abalones have stuck onto his body, weighing him down.

Chapters

*Kishibe Rohan Meets Gucci is not included in the English and Spanish (both Spain and Argentina) releases.

Author's Note

Author's Note

TranslationTranscript

“

As you might already know, Kishibe Rohan is a spin-off character from Part 4 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (see Volume 34) who works as a manga artist. He has a Stand ability that allows him to turn people into books; this allows him to read their raw memories and thoughts as text, as well as write into and manipulate them. This book is a short story collection of Rohan's observations. I drew the first of these works in 1997, so I am very happy and grateful that they have finally been gathered into one book. This collection of five spooky stories features a wide variety of settings, from Italy to the mountains to the coast. If you were to enjoy them, it would make me even happier.

”

—Hirohiko Araki

“

ご存知かもしれませんが、「岸辺露伴」は「ジョジョの奇妙な冒険　第４部」（JC34巻）に登場する、職業が漫画家のスピンオフキャラクターです。人を本にして、その人物の生の記憶や想いを文字で読むことができ、また書き込んで操ることが可能というスタンド能力を持っています。本書は、その露伴先生の見聞録短編集です。
一番最初に描いたのが１９９７年の作品なので、この度、一冊に集まってくれたのが本当に嬉しくて感謝したい。
内容も舞台がイタリアから山奥から海岸まで、バラエティに富んでいる５つの不気味話がそろってくれたので、楽しんで頂けると更に嬉しく思います。

”

—Hirohiko Araki