There seems to be a pretty distinct line in Gegege no Kitarou.  It divides the episodes that “matter” – the ones which are primarily concerned with the series continuity – from the one-off episodic plots (sometimes though not always comedic).  This divide goes beyond simply whether the plot is ongoing or not – it’s a matter of how the characters behave as well.  The very best episodes of the series, like the war remembrance of Mana’s great aunt or the youkai school episode – cross over into both camps, but those eps are extremely rare.

This week’s entry definitely falls into the first camp.  Not only is it focused around one of the Four Treasonous Generals (the first time we’ve touched that plotline for many weeks), but it takes a deeper dive into arguably the most important relationship in the mythology than any ep of the 2018 series has.  Because this is one of those episodes, the things the characters say and do really count – there are consequences that last beyond the closing credits.

The general in question is Kurobozu, played by the legendary seiyuu and sound director Chiba Shigeru, who’s appeared in no less than seven GGGnK incarnations and was Nezumi-Otoko in the 1996 series and three movies.  Mizuki Shigeru’s version of Kurobozu (unlike the folkloric one) specializes in befouling water, a plan he executed in the Meiji Era and killed “tens of thousands” of humans in the process.  Kurobozu is a pretty scary youkai because he seems to be driven by no deeper motivation than a desire to wipe out humans – he doesn’t seem especially interested in power as far as I can tell.

The real interest this week, though, revolves around Nezumi-Otoko, and more specifically his relationship with Kitarou.  This is kind of the elephant in the room with this series, so when Neko-musume comes right out and asks “What is Ratman to you?”, it feels momentous because it actually kind of is.  From the start this week we have Mana (I never noticed, but she has a Nurikabe phone case) walking in on one of Kitarou and Nezumi-Otoko’s endless fights (this time over a stolen piece of chashu).  Ratman is forever getting himself in trouble, forever getting rescued by Kitarou, and forever repeating the same cycle of mistakes.  Yet Kitarou keeps saving him, time after time.

All this comes to a head when Kurobozu brings Nezumi-Otoko in to run a scam selling water purifiers.  For him the goal is the usual, money and power, but as far as Kurobozu goes he doesn’t care about any of that, it’s just running interference for him.  Not surprisingly Isurugi Rei becomes involved, though this again turns out not to be he general that destroyed his people’s village.  He captures Ratman as a means of getting to Kurobozu, but he proves surprisingly resistant to torture and Rei eventually decides to just eliminate him (he’s half-human, mind you).  Naturally it’s on Kitarou to save his friend yet again, which is humiliating for Nezumi-Otoko.

Is “a friend” the answer to Catchick’s question?  In part I think it actually is, though it’s more complicated than that.  The scene where Kitarou and Rei engage each other in literal and verbal combat over Ratman is one of the most interesting in the entire series, and certainly one of the most revealing about the protagonist.  Kitarou issues no denials about being soft – but he also declares with no small pride that he’ll always try to forgive.  And in the most important moment of the episode, he tells Rei that “Thinking they should all be killed… To deny those who are different from you and to only allow those similar to you… To be unable to see how absurd that is… That’s what I fear the most.”

Ultimately this seems to be a message aimed straight at the heart of Japanese nationalism, and one which GGGnK has consistently embraced (with a few odd exceptions in this version) all the way back to Mizuki Shigeru’s manga.  Of course there’s a more personal side to Kitarou’s forbearance for Nezumi-Otoko, which he shares with Neko-musume – that Nezumi-otoko somehow seems to pick him up at his lowest moments (and indeed, he saves the day here in rather hilarious fashion).  I think what Kitarou is really saying here is that he admires Nezumi-otoko’s relentless drive to survive despite having been dealt a shit hand in life, and that in concert with his natural inclination to side with the downtrodden and disrespected makes Nezumi-Otoko someone special to him no matter how hard that can be.  And to have that addressed so directly at this point in the series is quite rewarding.