The JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series made a name for itself on regularly-changing casts of characters and expansions of its universe, so an actual spin-off in Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe seems like a natural choice. And if Hirohiko Araki is to be tasked with producing a series of irregular one-off stories, why wouldn't he center it on the suspiciously self-insert-styled manga artist Rohan Kishibe? Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe provides an opportunity to see Araki tackle some unique, self-contained plots apart from JoJo's and its ongoing Stand-battle narratives, with this first volume collecting four one-shot chapters released between 1997 and 2013.

It makes for a good fit, as Rohan's predilections towards research and firsthand experience mirror the same preferences that Araki himself is known to have. It puts him in position to frame stories like a trip to Italy or a haunted private estate; Rohan's relatively minimal involvement in them makes the proceedings work by coming off like something of a contained horror anthology with the fictionalized manga artist serving as a sort of high-fashion Cryptkeeper. The latter two stories see more direct integration of Rohan, possibly because by this point Araki was well-established enough as a superstar that there were less restrictions on his unrelated one-shots, but they still sit as comfortably self-contained and more focused on their own specific horrors, as opposed to being driven by appearances of Stand users and those particular kinds of battles.

Not that these entries completely escape that orbit. Rohan's Stand, 'Heaven's Door', figures into most of the chapters in some way, and even without Stands, several of the stories revolve around the kinds of odd contests and mind-games that Araki favors in his conflict writing. Hell, two out of four of the chapters in this volume feature dramatic instances of life-or-death corn-eating competitions of all things, which I don't think you could count on any other manga creator to pull of. But Araki makes coming up with these sorts of wild situations look effortless, buoyed by the details—even in short, singular form—that support them. So many of the plots have layers of framing around them, creating stories within stories that also feed general background information, such as the excursions Rohan takes for manga research, the secret history of the town of Morioh's poaching culture, or even an explanation for why Italian chef Tonio came to the Japanese town in the first place.

The stories themselves run the gamut of qualities based on the time of their creation, along with their setting and focus. The first is a mostly stand-alone parable framed by Rohan's narration, outlining the kind of mundane competition made outrageous by life-or-death stakes that has served Araki well. The second story is more of a straight horror show, with shades of The Tell-Tale Heart which eventually snowballs into something like a hyper-violent Mr. Bean sketch. The third chapter returns to more of a 'game' angle, while the fourth is notable for featuring effectively no supernatural elements, instead depicting Rohan and Tonio getting in over their heads in an over-complex abalone-fishing outing.

These are all strong in their own ways, though the amount of singular self-indulgence you probably expect from Araki at this point (at least enough that you're so deep in you'd check out a Rohan Kishibe spin-off volume) varies from chapter to chapter, to differing results. There's only so much time you can spend reading Rohan detailing real-estate dealings before you start to check out at least a little bit. Perhaps the most unintentionally engaging element of the collection comes from the amount of publication time covered, watching Araki's ongoing evolution as an artist and storyteller over the course of sixteen years. Compare the compulsory, Shonen-standard narration of the dramatic action in the first chapter to the last one in the set, wherein whole sequences of Rohan fighting off the perhaps rightly-angered abalone pass by with nary a word. That segment even includes moments of dramatic irony imparted to the reader counter to what Rohan is aware of on the page. It's also the sort of ultimate indulgence that brings elements together to, naturally, climax on a scene of octopus tentacles sexily snaking up Rohan's chest to pry abalone shells off of his shirtless body. If you know Araki, you know that situation makes perfect sense in context.

Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe, for what it is, thus feels less like a true side-story or companion piece to JoJo's, and more a collection of fun offshoots from its creator framed by familiar elements. Araki is still Araki, of course, so if you enjoy JoJo's you're almost certain to enjoy Rohan. But it can be a simpler, softer enjoyment than what fans might prefer from seeing the universe and its characters truly expanded on, as opposed to its author merely screwing around in more dedicated genre spaces. In that respect, the JoJo's connection could almost be seen as a handicap—there's still just enough of the parent series informing the telling of these tales that it's a difficult recommendation for folks who might be interested in Araki's storytelling, but haven't plunged into the proper JoJo-verse yet. You can't please everybody all of the time.