"Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe" drama: Episode six of six, 'Mutsu-kabe Hill'

 

 Air Dates: December 27th until December 29, 2021 on NHK at 10:00 pm

Subs were done by Leviathan at NYAA

Main Cast: Just the top two appear in every show and mainly Issei. The title says 'Episode six of six' as this could be considered a continuation of season one which aired a year ago.

Issei Takahashi as Rohan Kishibe.... Eccentric manga writer who is also extremely popular and we thought until the first show quite wealthy. Rohan works for Shumeisha Publishing and had gone through many editors until Kyoka was assigned to him a year ago. The biggest thing about Rohan is his special ability which is to put people intro a trance like state when he utters the words 'Heaven's Door'. That will make the person pass out and somehow their face becomes a book(!) with the incidents of their life. Rohan can make edits to that person's life but only for future events, you'll see plenty of screenshots of this unique and odd power.

Marie Iitoyo as Kyoka Izumi.... Works for Shumesha Publishing and a year ago became Rohan's editor, the only one not to leave him after a month. A smart yet daffy woman who seems more suited to be the editor of a fashion magazine and broke up with her boyfriend in season one.

Guest stars for this episode

Rio Uchida as Naoko Osato.... Resident of the buildings that are next to the mountain Rohan purchased. She has two young children and is/was married to Shuichi, she's been the keeper of a vey dark secret for almost a decade.

Daichi Watanabe as Gunpei Kamafusa.... Ten years ago was a part time gardener at the Osato estate and was having an affair with Naoko until his death.... but is he really dead?

Ayumu Nakajima as Shuichi Takamado.... Started dating Naoko in college and the pair did get married, they've had two children but are they Shuichi's?

Links to the three recaps for the first season.

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three

 This mini series was subbed quickly and wish that happened more often! This mini drama is based upon the manga stories that ran in the issues of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventures" that started in 1997. Things don't follow the manga 100% but are close and the episodes are based upon the stories. Final show for this special mini series and will a third season be coming next year? Hope so but will admit the first season was a bit better and gave that a grade of 9.1/10, that's very high for me but it deserved it. This trio of shows will get a grade of 8.5/10 but it's still much better than most dramas airing these days.

 What made the first season better was that Rohan and his editor Ryoka shared more screen time together and kind of made for a unique detective team. That didn't take place in these three episodes, they were together a lot but never worked to solve a mystery. Plus the final two stories were a tad confusing or at least right off the bat. Things started to make a bit more sense writing the recaps up and looking at the screenshots but I'm still confused about a few things. That's okay as it's nice to leave some questions unanswered if you want to view this drama, perhaps there's a few negatives but all in all it's a series that's recommended. In episode one Rohan bought a mountain named Mutsu-kabe Hill which is the title of this show. He hadn't visited the place yet but it finally happened in this episode, one reason for buying it is that Rohan thought it was haunted and to an extent it was....

 The first two episodes had a link to this show as the people cursed had a connection to Rohan's recently purchased mountain. In the first show the runner Yoma had dumped the bodies of two people he had killed in the area. That top screenshot has a man named Kinoto who tried to buy the mountain back from Rohan in the second show and had been cursed when he visited the area. On to this episode's story and it was finally time for Rohan to visit his cursed mountain which he said was going to be the inspiration for new manga stories but was that all? To his shock when he arrived at the village who should be there but his editor Kyoka, Rohan told her so many tales of the mountain she just had to see it for herself. But as mentioned the pair didn't solve these mysteries as a team and for the most part went on their separate ways which was a bit of a disappointment. 

 The duo did investigate the area together as this location was new to Rohan though he did have  a very detailed map of the area. That fourth screenshot above is very important as Rohan explained a bit about this mountain which isn't a true mountain. Mutsu-kabe is a village and at one time there was a Hill by that name but it somehow 'disappeared' many years ago, why and how is what Rohan wants to find out. He did show Kyoka the area he's purchased which is where the Hill once was but is no longer there, adjoining this large patch of land were two residences. Both are owned by the above woman whose name is Naoko who is about 32 in age. She's a wealthy woman who has two children, she did get married a decade earlier to a man named Shuichi but is he still alive? Naoko knew Rohan was a famous manga writer and invited him to one of the houses she owns, there was a bit of small talk which was too much for Rohan who said his famous words 'Heaven's Door' which put Naoko into a trance. Saying those words allows Rohan to 'read' their life story and that's in the above final screenshot.

 As was the case in the first episode we viewed a very long 'life story' which didn't involve Rohan and to me that was the biggest negative of the mini series. While Naoko was in that trance like state Rohan read her complete biography and mainly about the incidents of a decade earlier, did what take place cause these curses to be awakened? Naoko's family was over protective of her and moved to this small Mutsu-kabe village from Tokyo. She still commuted to college there every day and met a wealthy young man named Shuichi at school who she became engaged to. This estate where Naoko's family lived had two residences, a main house and then perhaps a half mile away a smaller cottage which was still much larger than most houses. Over time Naoko met one of the gardeners for the estate who was named Gunpei and the two began a torrid affair which she had managed to keep secret. 

But all good things must come to an end and one day Naoko told Gunpei with her college graduation coming up it was time to end the affair for she would also be getting married. Naoko even offered the man a large envelope packed with money but Gunpei refused it, he's fallen in love with Naoko and why can't their affair continue? 'That's impossible' pleaded Naoko and she could see this man destroying her life before it really began, she slapped Gunpei hard which resulted in him doing the same to Naoko. She was stunned at that and pushed him hard, too hard perhaps as Gunpei went crashing into a wall and hit his head quite hard. So severely that blood began to stream out but even worse was that in a matter of seconds Gunpei was dead!!!! Naoko went into a panic and what could she do? What made it worse that even after Gunpei died he kept bleeding and that's not supposed to happen with a dead person. To top off that panic attack who should knock at the door shortly after the accident than Naoko's father who had her boyfriend Shuichi with him!

 Remember this was all taking place at the cottage Naoko lived in and not the main family house. Of course she couldn't let her father or Shuichi in and gave an excuse where she couldn't be interrupted. Naoko's father bought it but not Shuichi who had an inkling of that affair with Gunpei. Naoko had changed the lock on the main door which was a life saver as it took Shuichi a while to enter the house. During that time Naoko was able to clean up the bloody mess well enough and to roll the dead body of Gunpei into a rug for the time being. Shuichi discovered his girlfriend was alone and and was satisfied nothing was going on with another man, he soon left and Naoko still had some work to do. In the third screenshot above she brought Gunpei's body to the cottage's attack and was planning on burying it in the woods once it was dark.

 Thar never happened and to this day it appears the body of Gunpei is still in the attic! Naoko discovered when she splashed water on the dead body it would continue to bleed so in a way it was still alive, we found out that Naoko had loved Gunpei way more than Shuichi. So for a decade Naoko has kept the body in the attic and splashes it daily with water but there's something even more eerie. Naoko has a pair of children aged nine and eight, of course after getting married to Shuichi they must be his children. But are they mused Rohan as the action has now shifted back to present day. This curse of Mutsu-kabe Hill affects everyone differently as we saw in the first two episodes. What Rohan has creepily deduced is that Naoko's two children weren't with Shuichi but are the offspring of  the dead Gunpei! They even look like the deceased man and seems the curse Gunpei had was to reproduce and will admit I wasn't 100% sure why or how Naoko had his children, perhaps Rohan was confused too.

 Final segment for this drama and Rohan never did find out what truly took place with the disappearing mountain he purchased. But he did figure out that the death of Gunpei had awakened the curses that 'lived' on Mutsu-kabe Hill. And it seems there are six of them as Kyoka says above which was just before the episode ended. We've seen four in this mini series and to Rohan hopefully the other two will remain in that remote village. Rohan did encounter a girl in the forest named Kiriko and she was Naoko's daughter. She suddenly passed out in front of him and that scared Rohan to no end which is the above top two screenshots. He felt the little girl would possess him and quickly had to use his 'Heaven's Door' trance to change her bio to where she would have no recollection of him. Shortly after he finally hooked up again with Kyoka who was carrying a young boy on her back.

 His name was Kai and Naoko's son, Rohan was petrified that the boy's spirit would want to reproduce with Kyoka which didn't happen. Bit of a funny moment as Rohan mused the cursed boy was selective with who he possessed so it passed on Kyoka!!!! That all took place in less than a day as soon after Rohan and his editor left the mountain safely and will they ever make a return? Perhaps if there's a third season it could happen and will end off the recap on that note. So while not as good as season one do recommend this show and would help to view the previous season first, both are available at NYAA.