Jonesing for another helping of stylish JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure action? Netflix has you covered. The streaming giant announced that Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, an animated adaptation of a JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure spin-off manga, will be brought to the service on February 18th, 2021. The four-episode miniseries will debut globally and be accessible in almost every country Netflix serves, for 190 nations total. The announcement was accompanied by an English-subtitled trailer for the series:
Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe is the title of a series of manga one-shot chapters starring the titular Rohan Kishibe. First introduced in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable, he is a famous manga creator with a supernatural “Stand” power. Called “Heaven’s Door,” Rohan’s Stand can turn a person into a book, allowing its master to read that person’s information by peeling back the “pages” of their skin and bones. Rohan can also write directly into a person’s pages, embedding instructions and plot twists.
Rohan is first introduced as an antagonist and fights Josuke Higashikata and his friends. After his defeat, he becomes an ally to the gang and goes on to have his own bizarre adventures (conveniently detailed in the manga). Incidentally, Rohan is widely considered to be JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki’s own alter ego.
The anime adaptation was produced by David Production, which also handled the TV anime adaptations of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Parts 1 through 5. Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe was originally released as a series of Original Video Animations (OVAs, an anime industry term for a one-shot production usually released direct to home video) between 2017 and 2020. The first episode was made available to people who purchased the full JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable series on DVD or Blu-ray. The second was given away with a newly published volume of the manga. The third and fourth episodes were shown theatrically.
Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe will premiere on Netflix on February 18, 2021. Other Netflix animated productions are in the works, including an adaptation of Way of the Househusband.
