So far, the second year of Gegege no Kitarou 2018 is looking a bit like the middle part of the first. Obviously we have a major arc going on – then, it was “Western Youkai” and now, “Four Generals”. But there are going to be detours along the way, clearly, and this week’s episode was one of them. As it’s always done, the series offers bits and pieces of the larger plot at the start or end of most of these eps, but for the most part they’re stand-alone. The question for now is whether Rei is going to be the next Backbeard and stick around for a cour, or Nanashi – and do so for a full year.
It’s probably just as well these standalone pieces tend to be lighter in tone, as it provides more of a contrast with the recurring plot. This time around the youkai in focus are the Kinoko, the forest spirits of Kansai spirit lore. These are certainly not a threat in the conventional sense (even in RL legend about the worst they’re purported to do is steal your bento) but they do prove a bit of a tripwire for the human girl Momoyama Miyabi (Soyama Momoko, who didn’t appear in any earlier versions but has played about a dozen characters in this one). She’s a pal of Mana’s and frankly a brat, who makes her mother’s life a misery but has convinced herself it’s the other way around.
The youkai school episode early in the first year covered broadly similar themes as this one in considerably edgier fashion, but this whole idea of human children envying youkai is integral to the core mythology of Gegege no Kitarou, right down to the lyrics of the evergreen OP. Miyabi walks out of a konbini restroom and right into the forest of the Kinoko, and for a while things seem to be great. The mudpies and leaves taste like manna (not Mana) from Heaven and there are no parents or teachers to annoy and harass. But it becomes clear to Miyabi soon enough (when her clothes start to get a little tight) that something is amiss with this arrangement.
Who knew faerie forests that only connect to the human world once every 500 years get cell reception? No way she was on Softbank. I can only assume it was that temporary connection that allowed Miyabi’s youkai selfie to get through to Mana, but she’s lucky it did because if Kitarou and Medama-oyaji hadn’t showed up to bail her out, Miyabi would have seen her life go by in a flash. What was interesting about this to me is that the implication is that the reason all this stopped being fun is that Miyabi was actually aging mentally and emotionally as well as figuratively – literally (almost) turning into her mother.
The big bad of the episode is Yama-tengu (Matsuyama Takashi, another rare seiyuu who hadn’t appeared in GGGnK before this version but has now done so several times), but his part in the story is rather rote (if a bit creepy). I was amused to see him use a “nose hair needles!” attack on Kitarou, but as enemies go Kitarou has faced far worse. And frankly I think it was probably for the best that Kitarou exorcised Yama-tengu, because I wouldn’t have wanted to be the Kinoko stuck in that forest with him after they sided with Kitarou…
