"Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe" drama: Episode two of three, 'Kushagara'

 

 Air Dates: December 28th until December 30, 2020 on NHK at 10:00 pm

Based on the Hirohiko Araki manga, subs were done by Leviathan

Main Cast: Really just only two main characters, the third person we haven't seen much of and the bottom is the key guest star for the episode.

Issei Takahashi as Rohan Kishibe.... Extremely popular manga artist in his mid thirties and a very eccentric man. He's gone through many editors via his Shumeisha publishing company and has just been assigned a new one who is Kyoka. Besides being so odd Rohan has a special gift which he keeps hidden from others. When he says the words 'Heaven's Door' the person he's talking to will pass out. And somehow a book of their life appears on that person's face and Rohan reads their bio to learn more about them. He can also add in a different event that will change their live which you'll read about.

 Marie Iitoyo as Kyoka Izumi.... Rohan's new 25 year old editor who is not a manga fan but is reading his works. She is a gung-ho woman and though she irritates Rohan to no end we viewers can tell he really likes Kyoka. She's going out with a man named Taro who is unemployed, Rohan wonders if he isn't sponging off Kyoka.

 Tomoya Nakamura as Taro Hirai.... Kyoka's boyfriend but not sure how close they really are as he hasn't had much screen time. Taro is unemployed and that was because of a car accident, before that he was an up and coming photographer.

Mirai Moriyama as Juugo Shishi.... He too is a manga artist with Shumeisha and knew Rohan slightly. He happened to run into Rohan at an outdoor cafe where he revealed to him the plot of this story which is the word.... Kushagara.

 Two minute promo video of the series which you can view here: Trailer for all three shows

 Obviously the main reason for viewing this is Marie but I've also watched a few of Issei's dramas and he is a superb actor, he's in almost every scene. This episode wasn't based on a manga that appeared in he JoJo series but was a separate story. This was truly one of the most bizarre shows I've ever viewed and that may make the recap hopefully a bit briefer(didn't). That's because it was mainly the guest star Moriyama who was constantly in a state of eeriness and will say he did a good job, he's an actor you've seen in many things. This story revolves around the word KUSHAGARA which isn't a real one but on occasion has been used as a male's name. But after Juugo discovered the unknown word his life had only one purpose and that was to find out it's meaning.

 The top screenshot is of Rohan reading the morning newspaper with it's featured story the death of a college professor. This unnamed man had apparently holed himself up in his office for the past month and his family didn't know where he was, why didn't they check there? The previous night this professor had an outburst in his office where he kept screaming out the word Kushagara which you'll see many more times. What the professor meant by screaming that word was unknown and a security guard found him alone in his office with no indications of how he died. Needless to say that roused Rohan's curiosity and he wished he could have read that man's bio before the death.

 Later on that day Rohan was at his fave cafe, he goes there for the peace and quiet. That quietness didn't last long enough as the above man appeared at Rohan's table. His name is Juugo and like Rohan is a manga artist for Shumeisha though Rohan has never liked the oddball man and always avoids him. No avoiding him this time and Juugo did have an interesting item to show Rohan. His editor had given Juugo a list of 'taboo words' that the company didn't want it's writers using, shortly after that the editor disappeared and no person could find him. Rohan had a nice chuckle at many of the words and he couldn't understand why so many would be banned. Plus he wondered why had Juugo been the only person to be given that list?

 The most important word on the list was the final one and Juugo pointed that out to Rohan. This word was the same one the professor had screamed before his death which was Kushagara. Juugo had never heard of that word before and had been spending days searching the internet and dictionaries for the word's meaning, all to no avail. Rohan too was a bit perplexed at the word and he also wanted to discover it's meaning but wasn't as fanatic as Juugo. He's such an off the wall person but became even more wilder after finding out about this unknown word. Soon after Juugo took his leave which Rohan was so grateful for, there was no time to spare finding out the meaning of Kushagara!!!!

 In the mangas Rohan's new editor above Kyoka was only in one story, luckily for us(me) she's in all three episodes. She fits in well with Rohan though he doesn't want to admit it, Kyoka is kind of a quirky young woman. Kyoka hadn't heard of that 'taboo word' list either and the management at Shumeisha was scratching their heads at what happened to Juugo's editor. Rohan told his new editor if you want something done you need to use your two feet which is what she did, more on what that means later on. Meanwhile most of his story revolved around Juugo and his quest to find out the meaning of the word Kushagara, nothing in life meant more to him.

 His days were filled reading every dictionary he could lay his hands on. Books too he scoured through, older ones as perhaps it's a word that has been discontinued over the years but Juugo had zero success. Rohan ran into his peer at a used bookstore where Juugo was laying into the owner about the word, Rohan had to intervene to save the man's life! Though Rohan has always avoided Juugo he now has some feelings for the man when he saw the shape he was in. Juugo hadn't eaten for a week and his apartment was in shambles with books and magazines piled everywhere. 24 hours a day Juugo has been spending searching for the word Kushagara. 

 Kyoka used the advice Rohan gave her which was to use her own two feet. She began investigating the disappearance of Juugo's editor and to Rohan's surprise found the man. His family said he was holed up in a storehouse near his residence and refused to leave, his family also said the editor had become such a crazed person. Which he was when Kyoka went to the storehouse, what she found out from the man was that the meaning of the word Kushagara was never meant to be found out. But the editor thought that if others knew about the word the curse on the editor would be lifted but seems that hasn't happened. A question could be how did this editor learn of the word?

 While that conversation was taking place who should burst into Rohan's mansion than Juugo! You can see him above and he's become more crazed than ever, he's even thinking the secret of Kushagara lies in the box of pizza Rohan bought him! As bad as Juugo was before his appearance has now even shocked Rohan, needless to say Kyoka was in a state of panic and fear. 'Enough is enough' Rohan said to himself and it was time to use his special 'gift'. He quickly scooted Kyoka out of his mansion and went to work on Juugo who at this rate may not have much longer to live. When Rohan says the words 'Heaven's Door' that person will pass out. While they're in that state pages such as you would see in a book appear on that person's face, it's a brief account of their memories.

 With Juugo down and out for the count Rohan went to work but had a tough time helping his fellow manga artist. Besides reading a person's memories Rohan can also make changes to them such as writing to forget things or do do a certain task that will help the unfortunate person out. To forget is what Rohan attempted to do with Juugo's memory but it was a failure for the first time ever. Rohan was writing to forget the word Kushagara but to no avail, when he wrote that word it immediately disappeared He tried doing it over and over to Juugo's memory with the exact same results, how can he cure his fellow manga artist? Rohan finally deduced what the problem was which was that Kushagara is a cursed word even though it's not a real word.

 Besides that there was also this tiny back sac on the pages of Juugo's memory which kept repeating Kushagara over and over and over. That kind of petrified Rohan who was unsure whether to destroy it or leave it as it was, could destroying it unleash a more powerful curse? Eventually Rohan figured out what to do which was to not write the word Kushagara which was a mtaboo word. So instead Rohan with his special pen jotted 'forget everything from the past month' which worked but left Juugo with no memories from that stretch of time, small price to pay for his sanity to return. So after the ritual Juugo awoke as his old self, one that was somewhat normal and of course he wondered what am I doing in Rohan's mansion?! So it was a happy yet bizarre ending and after Juugo departed a confused Kyoka asked what happened as she was outside the house the entire time. Rohan told his editor it was hypnosis which cured Juugo and that may have been a mistake on Rohan's part. That's because Kyoka thinks he's also a hypnotist which is what she'll need in the next recap.

 Without a doubt that was one wacked out show but once again this was such an intriguing episode. But thought the first episode was the best followed the final show which is the next post. Shame there was just these three episodes as it was such an interesting set of stories, there's about ten more in the Rohan series so am hoping for another mini trilogy in the future.