Usually, this version of Gegege no Kitarou has had a pretty clear dividing line between serious and comic episodes.  On occasion though we do see one with elements of both, and this week’s ep certainly qualifies.  I would say we had extremely dark content presented in a very whimsical fashion – which certainly made for an interesting final product.  And while it’s not new information, it’s nice to be reminded that pissing off Kitarou is a very bad idea.

The core premise here is the same one that forms the backbone of a lot of this franchise’s episodic outings – a youkai gets a taste for money and the pleasures of the world, and trouble soon follows.  And they team up with Nezumi-Otoko, who screws Kitarou over, before they turn on him and eventually screw him over too.  The youkai in question this time is the Han-Gyojin (Matsuyama Takashi, all over this series but none of the earlier versions), a long-standing antagonist of Kitarou’s.  He’s behind a string of disappearances of sailors near a small fishing village – though if nothing else, that particular crime wasn’t one he committed intentionally.

Kamaboko is one of those weird Japanese food products that’s quite unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere else.  It turns up in a lot of places, though I first got familiar with it in bowls of ramen.  For the longest time I assumed it was some sort of vegetable (maybe radish?), but I certainly never thought it was fish – kamaboko has no fishy aroma or taste if it’s done right (though how and why that is, I have no idea).  Han-Gyojin’s racket is a kamaboko business, which he’s been stocking using his witchcraft and pet giant squid (and Ratman’s online marketing).  But he gets the bright idea to use someone as the brains of his squid using his witchcraft, and Kitarou seems to fit the bill perfectly.

This is where a lot of the comedy comes in, though it’s certainly a stark contrast to what’s actually happening.  Nezumi-Otoko is only too happy to help lure Kitarou into being the sacrificial brain, but he’s horrified after Kitarou-ika gets turned into kamaboko himself – horrified because Han-Gyojin took care of the online marketing himself.  Medama-Oyaji believes Kitarou can be turned back, but only by buying up all the limited edition Kitarou-boko (at 10 million Yen) and taking him to the legendary youkai doctor (at 100 million).  Fortunately Sunakake-baba has been playing the crypto market (among other things, including of course the real estate game) and she’s loaded.

The denouement here is classic Gegege no Kitarou, as Kitarou extracts his revenge against Han-Gyojin in a very nasty manner indeed.  Kitarou has no sympathy for youkai who cross a certain line, and Nezumi-Otoko has a role to play in the downfall of Han-Gyojin after he’s forced to live out his days as a human.  That I was half-convinced he was going to throw himself in front of that train is a testament to the amount of cred this series has earned in terms of going dark, but in the end we’re spared that spectacle.  I suspect, though, that Han-Gyojin’s life as a human is going to prove to be both bitter and short, just like him.