WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, streaming now on Netflix.
Any fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was more than ready to receive the spin-off from Season 4, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, when it came to Netflix in early 2021. It took an interesting side character named Kishibe Rohan and played out several one-off mischievous adventures that he and his Stand, Heaven's Door, get into.
However, besides Heaven's Door, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan features no other Stands, which sets it apart from typical JoJo's stories. The Stands are powerful apparitions that are tied to people and participate in battles on their behalf. So, it begs the question -- without the Stands, is Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan just as good as the original story it came from?
What makes this spin-off so compelling is that Rohan gets himself into weird situations, making for the perfect material for his manga, Pink Dark Boy. Every episode in the Netflix series features no Stands, relying on the supernatural and other unworldly phenomena to raise the stakes -- but it makes for great anime. It's also very refreshing for fans of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, which leans on Stands for most of the story progression. We get the same level of excitement and danger in this spin-off, but it comes from different sources.
Each episode has a strange story, even weirder than the last. In "At a Confessional," Rohan listens to a tortured man's confession during a tour of Italy. The story the man tells features what, at first glance, seems to be a Stand, but it's not. It's just an overactive ghost that can't let things go as it passes from one unfortunate soul to the next. Still, with the classic JoJo's-style artwork, the ghost contains enough energy to make a fulfilling enemy for anyone.
One of the best examples that prove that Stands aren't necessary for an excellent JoJo's spin-off is in the episode titled "The Run." Rohan faces an ultra-motivated person at the gym and challenges him to a race on the treadmill. However, little does he know that the man is obsessed with working out to the point that he became the avatar for Hermes, the Greek messenger god. Throughout the episode, we see the man being completely taken over by some force that remains unseen as it consumes him, changing him both internally and externally.
At the core of it, this episode pitted Rohan against another human, despite the external influence. It didn't feature any Stands, yet Yoma Hashimoto's character was enough to bring Rohan almost to his knees. It's a simple story that features very little supernatural influence on the surface, at least compared to other episodes. Yet it was compelling and just as dark as any JoJo's episode.
While all episodes of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan feature supernatural or weird aspects, like the mystical forest Gods that protect Millionaire Village, there are no Stands. This defers from JoJo's typical story pattern, but it's not to the series' detriment. In fact, letting more creative stories thrive without relying on a tried and true crutch makes the Netflix series compelling. While JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is good for what it is, it's nice to see the other directions characters can take without automatically just battling their Stands.
Thus, Spoke Kishibe Rohan captures JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's best parts, even featuring some of Season 4's most-loved characters in small cameos. It has all the drama, vividness, goriness and tact of any Jojo's episode, but it tells unique stories that wouldn't otherwise fit into JoJo's canon. While these episodes have been out in Japan, Netflix has finally brought this gem to wider audiences. Now JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans can dip into the mysterious -- and mostly Stand-less -- world of Kishibe Rohan.
