JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable

Episode 14

Whenever an anime/manga series starts to include manga artist characters, you gotta keep your eyes and ears open for all the things the original artist wants to say about their own craft. Episode 14 introduces us to Rohan Kishibe, the local mangaka responsible for the horror series "Pink Dark Boy". He made his debut at age 16 (he's twenty now) and lives alone in the humble town of Morioh where he works on his masterpiece without any assistants. Bakuman. probably would have called him the "genius" type of manga artist.

The episode stars Koichi and Hazamada (from the Josuke mannequin episode). It feels like Koichi is the one who gets his own episodes the most frequently, though I could be wrong about that. The two encounter each other on the street and begin to catch up as if Hazamada wasn't an antagonist just a few episodes ago. "Apparently, he found an invisible baby the other day," Koichi says to handwave Josuke's absence from the episode. At this point, everyone just accepts weird things like that in this town.

The conversation quickly shifts to Rohan and his manga, Pink Dark Boys. The teenagers gush over the violent series, and Koichi is blown away to learn that the man behind the ink lives right there in town. Before they know it, they're checking on his house and daring each other to ring the doorbell. JoJo's horror interests are in full gear throughout this episode as Rohan's home takes on the vibe of the spooky ghost house in the neighborhood. Of course, it's a perfectly normal house, but with a perfectly abnormal owner. Just before Koichi is about to ring the bell, Rohan emerges from the door and grabs his arm. The man seems very intense and creepy, but relaxes when he realizes they're fans and even invites them in.

Of course, Rohan Kishibe has a Stand. His ability is named "Heaven's Door," and it allows him to turn people into literal books so that he can read their life's story. Rohan's number one belief when it comes to telling a good story is reality, after all. How else can you amaze the readers if you don't pull from the most interesting facets of life? It's arrogant for an artist to think that they can conjure everything from thin air. Now that I think of it, didn't Hirohiko Araki, recently write a how-to book with a similar philosophy?

Koichi and Hazamada become the targets of his Stand when Rohan enacts the body horror of Heaven's Door. We see Koichi's skin peeling off, with his fingers, hand, and eventually his face folding outward to reveal the pages of his story. Between Koichi and Hazamada, Rohan is easily more interested in the former. Koichi's a good honest kid, and his story illuminates the history of Stands within Morioh. Rohan can't believe his eyes now that he's found the most amazing reality to pull stories from. There's definitely some crazy metafiction to examine here, since the "reality" that Rohan is falling head over heels for is the most fantastical side of Araki's story.

I don't get a sense of anything especially malicious from Rohan. He's just a guy who wants to make his manga, though he does end up messing with Koichi's free will and memories in the process. Another aspect of Heaven's Door is that Rohan can write stuff like "I can not attack the artist, Rohan Kishibe" onto his pages and prevent Koichi from using Echoes to land any blows. He also tears pages out of Koichi's body to use as his own references whenever he likes. His manipulation leaves Koichi clueless and powerless to fight back, so he and Hazamada end up leaving the house believing they had a pleasant experience, all as a part of Rohan's grand design.

As far as I can tell, Koichi is completely powerless to Rohan's whims. Rohan's going to continue taking memories as he sees fit, and Koichi's going to go about his life happy as a clam. It would seem as though Koichi is trapped, unable to fight back even if he wanted to, but I'm sure that's what his friends are for. Diamond is Unbreakable is shifting back into its monster-of-the-week pace after a few really great story episodes. I think I like the bigger picture stories between the JoJos more than the wacky misadventures when it comes to this season, but at the same time, between the Italian restaurant episode and and this manga artist episode, these one-off scenarios have been finding more interesting hooks.

Rating: B+

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach writes and records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw