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Takahashi: I wondered how Episode 5 would bridge Episodes 4 and 6. However, the script was completed having undergone various stages and careful consideration by people who love the world of the JoJo series, starting with director Kazutaka Watanabe and scriptwriter Yasuko Kobayashi. Therefore, it goes without saying that I had no misgivings. I once had a chat on set with Kazutaka postulating that there was only one person in Morioh who had a “golden spirit” in the alternate world of Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe. This is a world with no Koichi, no asshole Josuke, no idiot Okuyasu, nor that crazy bitch Yukako. In other words, we were considering Rohan Kishibe from an alternate universe, in a Morioh different from the one of Part 4, to be the sole one having the golden spirit. If so, then maybe Kyoka Izumi could become a person who comes to have the golden spirit as well, or perhaps Jugo Shishi could be the one to have it too after Kushagara. The decision to avoid the term Stand and alter the expression to the phrase Gift in this TV drama becomes satisfactory with this logic.
I see. A Rohan Kishibe from an alternate reality.
Takahashi: As luck would have it, the original author Hirohiko Araki had already developed the concept of “a world after a universe reset”, so we were able to overlay this possibility onto Rohan smoothly. But personally, I do think there are absolutes which occur in every alternate dimension, of “incidents which are waiting to happen, bound to happen”. Stories of Rohan’s own past and lineage, and of confronting his destiny would arise if further episodes were to be created, even if there was no approximate counterpart to Reimi Sugimoto in this TV drama. Matters which cannot be avoided due to fate will appear as something which Rohan must overcome in every alternate timeline. If this TV drama can cause viewers to wonder “what element of the ‘golden spirit’ of Rohan is being fortified by this episode which was allotted its role by destiny?” then they could enjoy watching even if they aren’t fans of the original work.
Was this line of thinking about parallel worlds, or how should I say this, a multiverse approach present from the beginning?
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