If you have a problem with breather episodes, this week’s Gegege no Kitarou may not have been your cup of tea. But after a very heavy last few weeks, I think the series was overdue for one. And this was a rock-solid standalone episode of Gegege no Kitarou, which is noteworthy because even those took a dive when the series when in its “Western Youkai” funk.
One of the things I truly love about this series (dating back to Mizuki’s work) – and which likewise took a mysterious leave-of-absence during the dark days – is its common-sensical and unvarnished take on the problems of modern Japanese society. Be it whitewashing the WW II era, unhappy kids being brainwashed in schools, the decline of the small town or environmental degradation, GGGnK was always there to call it like it is. So when it decided to take on the idol industry, it’s no surprise that it would do so without the sugarcoating most idol anime sprinkle liberally over the topic (out of fear, no doubt).
The hero of the piece this week is Kitajima Atsushi (Okamoto Hiroshi, veteran of the 2007 version), though calling him a hero is a little strong – which is rather the point. We first meet him as a little boy, a diehard fan of “Go Go Man”, playing in the park with his friend Nono-kun. Nono-kun is none other than Nopperabou (Kumai Motoko, anime’s Honda Goro and Syaoran Li, also a vet of the ’07 series and one of anime’s best ever at portraying boys). Eventually Akkun growns up, stops being able to see Nopperabou and becomes an idol – one half (the “playboy”) of a duo called Paradise with “prince” Yuu (Tanaka Kenta). He also keeps in contact with Nopperabou on RAIN (just give up and call it LINE already), though as he never meets “Manjiro-san” he has no idea it’s his childhood friend.
In case I haven’t already made my opinion on this clear, the idol industry is run by disgusting ghouls (in truth, deeply connected to organized crime) and is a soul-destroying blight on the face of modern Japan. Therefore it’s no surprise that it’s destroying Atsushi’s soul, as he’s daily forced to pretend to be someone nothing like who he really is, and who he increasingly hates. Eventually Atsushi reaches out to Manjiro-san asking to meet, and the flustered Nopperabou asks Kitarou to stand in for him. Kitarou actually offers some pretty solid advice, but his personality could hardly be more different than Nopperabou’s, so this ruse is destined to go down in flames.
In the end, this is really a feel-good story – as one pauses to reflect, those have been in short supply on Gegege no Kitarou. Yuu turns out to be not just a bad person but not a person at all, rather the man-eating (and classic music loving?) youkai Oshiroi-babaa. Oshiroi-babaa is played by Tatsuta Naoki, who may just have set the record for GGGnK appearances, having been in no less than 8 separate incarnations – over the years he’s played Ittan Momen, Nurikabe and Konaki Jijii. Oshiroi-babaa is quite a realistic take on an idol industry representative actually, and there’s no question that Nopperabou is going to come to his friend’s aid even after the disastrous ending to their reunion.
It’s good to be reminded that Gegege no Kitarou sees the possibility that real good can come out of human-youkai relationships, because it’s far more common that they turn out poorly for all involved. Nopperabou is about as pure-hearted a youkai as you could ever imagine of course, but Atsushi is just a regular guy with big dreams – it’s his relationship with Nopperabou both as a child and adult that’s given him the courage to be true to himself. And if that isn’t a positive message coming from this series, I don’t know what is. Also, that bit with Neko-musume trying to seduce Kitarou into an exchange diary was adorable.
