#Cackling Kitarou

[holy-cucumber01]

Gegege no Kitarou

Genre : adventure, fantasy, comedy, horror, mystic, shonen, seinen

Category : Аnime series / Аnime film / Special

Episodes : (Gegege no Kitarou (1968)) 65 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (1971)) 45 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (1985)) 108 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Jigoku Hen) 7 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (1996)) 114 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (2007)) 100 duration 25 min, (Hakaba Kitarou) 11 duration 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (2018)) 97 duration 25 min / (Gegege no Kitarou (1968)) 50 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Chisougan) 12 min, (Gegege no Kitarou (1985, Movie) 23 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Youkai Daisensou) 40 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Saikyou Youkai Gundan! Nihon Jouriku!!) 50 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Gekitotsu!! Ijigen Youkai no Daihanran) 50 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Daikaijuu) 55 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Obake Nighter) 30 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Youkai Tokkyuu! Maboroshi no Kisha) 25 min, (Gegege no Kitarou: Kitarou no Yuurei Densha) 12 min, (Gekijouban Gegege no Kitarou: Nippon Bakuretsu!!) 75 min, (Kitarou Tanjou: Gegege no Nazo) (2022) / (Gegege no Kitarou: Kitarou Tanjou-hen) 3 min

[tokidokitokyo]

Summer makes me think of yokai 妖怪 (or Japanese ghosts and monsters), and it always puts me in the mood to watch the anime Gegege no Kitarou *ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 - which follows the adventures of a yokai who enters the human world to protect it from a variety of yokai.

The manga was originally created in 1960 and was based on an even older iteration, a 1933 kamishibai (or Japanese street performance). There are 7 total anime series that have been produced since the 1960s, but I’ve been watching the last series, which began in 2018 and finished in March of 2020. The original manga was deemed too scary for children and later manga was toned down, but I still find the new animation to be pretty creepy.

For an in-depth introduction to yokai you can start at Yokai.com!

*ゲゲゲ = a cackling sound

[glittertomb]

Gegege no Kitaro (”gegege” is a cackling onomatopoeia, so Kitarou’s Cackling), which was originally called Hakaba no Kitarou (or Kitarou’s Graveyard).  This spooky 60′s anime by Shigeru Mizuki has a cult-like following for it’s wonderful yokai (supernatural monsters, spirits and demons in Japanese folklore).

[yabloko]