Gegege no Kitarou (2018)

GeGeGe isn't a show for most people. It's long and unless you're really into Japanese yokai and folktales you most likely won't like this series that much. However it still is really good and fun to watch.

This series is a mixture of a sort of overall main plot of trying to get humans and yokai to get along, while also having many sub stories that take a few episodes to just being episodic of one episode stories. In all, each of the stories were interesting with few exceptions, and have some relevance to the main plot. I both laughed, felt extremely sad, and really ... happy while watching the series and while it's not one of my favorite shows of all time it has a close place in my heart.

The characters are all pretty interesting and our main cast get some good character development while the other side characters don't really get all that screen time they do get like an episode or two which gives them the spotlight and after awhile, especially after watching the show for 2 years, the characters really grow on you.

It's one of those shows where after awhile you feel like a part of their group, you feel like you're apart of Gegege forest and close to the characters, as long as you like or at least semi like the characters and story.

Overall, was a fun show to watch weekly for 2 years, sad it ended after all this time but I had a blast. Definitely not a series for everyone but give it a few episodes and see if you enjoy it.

Taking this one out of the queue is an odd feeling. To have something so constant in your life for so long to be gone. It's making cry thinking about it being over honestly. Kitaro was something I'd never even heard of until this anime was announced. Had not a clue it was the 6th Kitaro or anything about it other than dealing with yokai. Just saw that something was replacing Dragonball Super at its time so why the hell not see what could possibly have the prestige to pull that off.

Didn't think I'd get this invested in the show really. Kitaro with Daddy ... Eyeball, Catchick, Sand Witch, Wally Wall, Oldman Crybaby, and even Ratman, were such a solid heart to this show. When it started I still couldn't wrap my brain around the whole thing but these characters and how the world looked with this style drew me in and kept me wanting to come back at the start. Mana being an audience surrogate helped too, brining us into this yokai world we knew nothing about.

With it being mostly episodic, not including the few specific arcs scattered about, we were given the chance to slowly acclimate to this yokai world. Other than a single two part story I think every single episode of the first half of year one was a single self contained episode. which was a lot of fun really. Paid off huge later when we saw some of those characters come back in year two but even at the beginning it was cool seeing Kitaro take on these unique yokai conflicts.

Also going with that since things were mostly one offs there was a fair amount of dud episodes imo. Episodes that I either found boring or just not too interesting at all. Not a majority or anything even close but maybe out of the nearly hundred episodes I'd say ten to fifteen were meh and just kinda episodes I shrugged at. Now the actual story arcs that developers over time were something to see! I loved loved all of them. Taking on Faceless, Backbeard and the Western yokai with Agnes and Adele, the Four Generals with Rei, the finally against Nurarihyon. All were amazing storylines that had me glued. And on top of that there were some gems floating around in the single story episode soup. A couple specific ones that I still recall being awesome on their own.

Bringing all this together was I'm sure no easy feat. Have to applied Toei for bringing Kitaro to the modern day these few decades into the 21st century. Like I said never seen a Kitaro series before this one but so glad I decided all the way back then to give this a try and all this time of thinking to never let go.

It's bittersweet saying goodbye, especially this way I mean omg Mana in the finale broke my heart, but I understand it's necessary to stop after a certain point. Kitaro thank you so much for this journey. I loved so much of it and certainly glad I spent all these days watching. There's many lessons about harmony and discrimination to be learned from this show and glad to have experienced them.

8/10

For a child, I can see this show being one of the best on TV. As an adult, however, the episodes are usually enjoyable but can be a bit hit or miss. However, the show isn't afraid to delve into much darker themes which have produced some great episodes that I would see myself going back and re-watching.

I never grew up with Gegege no Kitarou so the entire idea of yokai was new to me. Though, that never decreased how much I liked the show or my understanding. On the other hand, the older watchers are more than likely watching it (at least in some ... part) out of nostalgia.