Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional Live-Action Movie Releases New Trailer Introducing Main Characters

The upcoming live-action film adaptation of an episode from Hirohiko Araki’s Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe manga series, “At a Confessional,” released a new trailer to introduce its main characters.

In addition to the protagonist Rohan Kishibe (Issei Takahashi), the clip also introduces Kyoka Izumi (Marie Iitoyo), the editor in charge of Rohan, Tamiya (Arata Iura), a mysterious man who makes a terrible confession to Rohan in the confessional, Maria (Tina Tamashiro), a mask maker who is at the mercy of destiny, Sotoba (Shigeyuki Totsugi), a vagabond who utters curses with an unusual expression, and Mizuo (Shunsuke Daito), a man who challenges a trial using popcorn because of a curse.

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional is set to release in Japan on May 23, 2025.

As the first episode of the spin-off series to Araki’s representative work, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, “At a Confessional” was published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, then was included in the manga’s first tankobon volume released in 2013. The series centers on Rohan Kishibe, one of the main characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. Rohan, a manga artist, encounters a series of strange happenings at his research sites.

Issei Takahashi from the 2020-2024 live-action drama series and the 2023 feature film Rohan at the Louvre (Rohan au Louvre) reprises his role as Rohan Kishibe once again, along with Marie Iitoyo as Kyoka Izumi. Kazutaka Watanabe, who worked on the live-action series including the feature film, serves as director on a screenplay by Yasuko Kobayashi (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime series).

The synopsis of the film reads (translated):

At a church in Venice, manga artist Rohan Kishibe hears a masked man’s horrifying confession. It is a confession of the curse of “experiencing despair at the peak of happiness,” which was placed on him for accidentally killing a vagrant. The man, who has been desperately trying to escape from happiness, one day sees his daughter playing innocently and feels “happiness from the bottom of his heart.”

At that moment, the vagrant who is supposed to be dead appears and challenges him to an ordeal using popcorn. “If you can throw the popcorn and catch it in your mouth three times in a row, my curse will disappear. But if you fail, you must accept the greatest despair…”.

Rohan, absorbed in the strange confession, uses his special ability to read people’s memories and experiences by turning them into books…. Eventually, he realizes that the “curse of happiness” has struck him as well.