Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan - Episode 9 (TV Drama)
Poaching Seashore (密漁海岸, Mitsuryō Kaigan) is the ninth episode of NHK's Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan TV drama series, released on May 5, 2024. It adapts the one-shot Poaching Seashore and the "Let's Go Eat Some Italian Food" story arc from Diamond is Unbreakable.
An Italian restaurant quietly opened near Rohan's house. Rohan and Kyoka visit the restaurant and meet Tonio Trussardi, a chef with the mysterious ability to heal his patrons' physical ailments through his cooking. Tonio proposes a plan to Rohan for poaching the legendary Hyogara black abalones, which is said to be able to cure any disease. In fact, Tonio has a fiancée, Hatsune Morishima, who is suffering from a serious illness.
Summary
Introduction
Two men lie down at the Hyogara Rocks, exhausted from their attempt to poach an abalone. They had tried to get to the other side of the Hyogara Rocks where the abalones are, but they failed since security was tight with several cameras. The older man gloats about a foreigner they found being an easy target; they tricked him by saying they had connections to a fishery cooperative and could get an abalone from the Hyogara Rocks for him. The man realizes they could just buy one from the fishing port nearby and then sell it to the foreigner, thinking he'd even buy it for a million yen. His younger partner praises him for being a genius and they both start laughing until they are told to shut up by another man nearby. The younger man recognizes him as Rohan Kishibe.
Rohan was researching the rare Japanese mitten crab species that lives in the area to sketch it, but they're very nervous and only briefly show themselves early in the morning. Rohan was hiding there overnight waiting for one to appear, and just when he thought it did, the men's loud voices scared it away. Learning that Rohan is a manga artist, the older man suggests that he should just look up images of the crab on the internet, which angers Rohan. Rohan explains how he needs realism for his manga, even if it's just a small animal that appears in one panel, and chews on a lugworm to prove it. Disgusted, the men attempt to take their leave, but Rohan stops them, using Heaven's Door to read their biographies. He writes a command in them saying to "watch the sea for Rohan", so that he won't be disturbed by them in the future.
Elsewhere, a chef pours sauce on lamb chops and feeds it to a dog. Shortly after, the dog is heard whining.
Let's Go Eat Some Italian Food
At a cafe, Rohan is reading a book about abalones swimming on the night of a full moon around the time of the Bon festival in August. He then flips through a diary containing cutouts of newspaper articles. The first article was written on August 14, 2022, stating that a 39 year old man went missing and possibly drowned at the beach. The next one from August 19, 2019, reports on a search being discontinued for a man who had been diving at the coast every day but went missing on the 15th. He looks through two more similar articles, dated August 10, 2006 and August 14, 1954.
Kyoka runs up to his table, apologizing for being late. She had been spacing out lately due to the Obon rush that week and ended up going to Rohan's house first. She also hasn't been sleeping much because of a toothache and couldn't go to the dentist. Rohan points out how she always orders delivery or takeout and lectures her to eat a balanced diet so she can stay healthy and prevent illness, since "food is medicine." However, Kyoka insists that she doesn't have time to cook because she's too tired when she gets home after work. Rohan mockingly confirms the purpose of their meeting, quoting Kyoka's request for a new one-shot manga themed around a horror mystery involving food, and expressing skepticism about her ability to manage such a story given her eating habits. Thus, Kyoka invites him to go eat at a new Italian restaurant. She just saw the sign for it on the way to Rohan's house earlier, which wasn't there last week. Rohan thinks it's unusual for an Italian restaurant to be there. Nonetheless, Kyoka convinces him to have their meeting there by saying Italian food is considered healthy.
Rohan and Kyoka arrive at the restaurant, "Trattoria Trussardi", which is inside an old Western-style house. Rohan recalls what he read from the men's biographies earlier at the beach, detailing a strange Italian who offered to pay any amount for the legendary abalone, and that they wondered if he was doing suspicious experiments because they heard sounds of a puppy suffering in the kitchen. Although the sign shows that it's open, nobody greets them when they enter. They still head inside, only to see that there is only one table despite it being a spacious place. The chef arrives and welcomes them, stating he only has one table because he runs the place alone. He introduces himself as Tonio Trussardi from Naples. Kyoka asks for a menu, but Tonio reveals that he doesn't have one, as the food he offers depends on what he decides to cook after observing each customer. He starts reading Kyoka's palm, correctly assessing that she only slept for three hours on the previous day and that she has a cavity. He reads Rohan's palm next, revealing that the lining of Rohan's stomach is irritated and that he has a stiff right shoulder. Tonio realizes that the man is Rohan and shares that he's a longtime fan of Pink Dark Boy since it's very popular in Italy.
Tonio excuses himself to go cook their food, wanting to offer them special service since they're his first customers. Meanwhile, Kyoka takes a sip of the water, proclaiming with amazement about it being the tastiest water she's ever drank. Rohan takes a sip as well, confirming that it tastes good. Kyoka drinks all of it and suddenly starts excessively crying, filling up an entire bowl with her tears. Tonio discloses that the water comes from 50,000 year old melted snow from Mount Kilimanjaro and relieves sleep deprivation by washing away dirt from one's eyes. Kyoka ends up feeling very refreshed, though Rohan feels suspicious. Kyoka asks about Rohan's shoulder, though he explains he just overdid it while throwing a frisbee for Bakin. As for his stomach, he's feeling a bit of indigestion because one of the higher-ups at Kyoka's workplace brought him to a Chinese restaurant the previous night and the oil they used was bad.
Tonio brings out their appetizer, a caprese salad made with cheese and tomatoes. Tonio explains the history behind the use of tomatoes in Italian cooking, as well as his pride in his Italian heritage. However, Rohan requests that Tonio tastes it first in front of them. Seeing that nothing happened to Tonio after eating it, Rohan starts eating it as well. After being impressed about the dish's depth and perfect harmony between the ingredients, Rohan starts feeling very itchy and scratches off layers of dirt from his shoulder. Tonio explains that the dirt coming off is because his metabolism and blood circulation have improved. Once all the dirt is removed, Rohan's shoulder pain is gone.
After Tonio cleans up the dirt off the ground, he brings them the first course of the meal, Spaghetti alla Puttanesca with whelk. However, Kyoka and Rohan are reluctant to eat it. Kyoka tries to politely decline by saying she isn't good with chili peppers, but Tonio assures her that his pasta is fine for people who can't tolerate spicy food. However, understanding her apprehension, he apologizes if they didn't like his meals and says that they don't have to pay. When Tonio leaves, Kyoka suddenly starts gorging on the spaghetti, despite her earlier refusal. Suddenly, her cavity bursts out of her mouth and a new tooth grows in its place. Rohan picks up the whelk from her plate, which he realizes is from the Sea of Okhotsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It's a forbidden shellfish which nobody eats because it contains a deadly poison. Tonio returns, satisfied to see that she ate the dish. However, Kyoka worries that Tonio is doing human experimentation or trying to murder them.
Regardless, Tonio places the main dish on their table, lamb and mushroom stew. Rohan asks what kind of mushroom it is and whether it contains poison. Tonio responds that it's a Devil Porcini from the border of Poland and Czech Republic, and that it is in fact poisonous. Rohan remarks that it can cause stomach pain, cramps, vomiting, or even death in some cases.
To Kyoka's shock, Rohan begins to eat it, though she insists for him to stop. After a few bites, Rohan collapses on the ground as if he had a heart attack, making Kyoka panic. A few seconds later, Rohan takes a deep breath, revealing that he feels completely refreshed. Kyoka is shocked, but Rohan explains how deadly poison can be used as life-saving medicine in certain cases. For example, nitroglycerin is used in explosives yet can relieve angina, and morphine is a narcotic but is used as an anesthetic and painkiller. Rohan believes that Tonio is likely a chef who trained around the world studying rare animals and plants, learning traditional Chinese medicine, African herbs, and medicine from the Amazon. Impressed, Tonio discloses that the herb added to the caprese was Sicilian basil. It normally contains a strong poison but when mixed with olive oil from Rhodes, the toxicity disappears and it drastically boosts metabolism instead. The whelk in the spaghetti contains tetramine, but when it reacts with the capsaicin in Nicaraguan chili peppers, it becomes a compound with dramatic antibacterial effects. When the Devil Porcini mushrooms are eaten with lamb from Normandy, it generates digestive enzymes and becomes the strongest gastrointestinal medicine by breaking down harmful bacteria.
Rohan asks whether Tonio's puppy had an upset stomach. Tonio is surprised that he could know that, but confirms that his puppy Angelo was unwell from overeating, so Tonio served the same meat dish to him for two days and now he's healed. Kyoka wonders how Tonio could know their ailments, so Tonio explains that it was a miraculous power he gained. He accidentally ingested a large amount of scorpion venom in Mexico five years prior and lost consciousness with a high fever. He woke up a week later, gaining the power to look at someone's hands and understand their body's ailments. Since then, he has been using his ability to research and create many recipes to make people both healthy and happy.
Poaching Seashore
As Rohan and Kyoka are about to take their leave, Rohan asks why such a talented chef chose to open a small restaurant in a remote place in Japan rather than staying in Italy, suggesting that the cause might be related to abalones. They hear a door open and Tonio rushes to go check on the situation. He brings his fiancée, Hatsune Morishima, out on a wheelchair to greet them after she confirms that she's feeling okay. Hatsune introduces herself as a pastry chef and that Tonio opened the restaurant in Japan because of her illness. They met two years ago when Tonio came to Japan to study medicinal cuisine, but soon after, it was discovered that she has a tumor in her head about the size of a grapefruit. Tonio tried cooking various dishes for her but nothing was able to heal her. However, he remembered a rumor he heard while he was in Taiwan about a mysterious Japanese abalone that can cure any disease. In the previous month, he found out from a nearby fishing village that it's called the "Hyogara Abalone".
This section requires expansion.
Cast
Credits
Manga/Drama Differences
More TBA
Gallery
Clean Key Visual
Trailers
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vish (April 1, 2024), "Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan’s TV Drama Adapts Poaching Seashore in May", JoJo's Bizarre Encyclopedia.
- ↑ Prime Video
