Gegege no Kitarou (2018) – 87

Gegege no Kitarou 2018, having finished being Gegege no Kitarou 2019, kicks off being Gegege no Kitarou 2020 with a rather low-key episode featuring two of the biggest names from the youkai folkloric catalog. But while the story wasn’t among the series’ more noteworthy, it did give us a whole bunch of interesting seiyuu stuff on the side:

Mana’s friend Aya finally gets a last name, and it’s the same as her seiyuu’s name – Ishibashi. That’s quite an honor for a relatively unknown seiyuu!
Not only that, but the family bakery is called “Cafe Momo” – and Ishibashi-san’s given name is Momo. And when her parents strike it rich they open “Momo Mall“.
Aya’s parents are played by real-life husband and wife Okiayu Ryotaru and Maeda Ai.
Perhaps most interesting to me is that Zashiki-Warashi is played by Hirohashi Ryou. Why? She played the same character in the 2007 anime. And while this series has obviously used many actors from earlier versions, I believe (though I won’t swear to it) this is the first time a recurring character has had the same seiyuu.

Zashiki-Warashi’s foil here is the Binbogami (played by 2018 series regular Tatsuta Naoki, who’s been in every version since 1985). He’s been living in Aya’s home, which is also her family cafe, with predictable results. When Mana (who seems to be growing both more forceful and more spirit-aware by the week) invites herself over after a half-day at school, she sees him – and soon, so does Aya. Mana calls in Team Kitarou for help, but things aren’t quite as simple as they seem here.

The long and short of it is that it’s Aya’s folks who are the real baddies, not the Binbogami – frankly, he’s been acting as justice’s hand. I think the parents get off a little too easily there in the end, especially after they show no qualms whatsoever in working poor Zashiki-Warashi almost to death to feed their incessant greed. But blood is thicker than ethics I suppose, and Aya can’t help loving her parents in spite of their faults. We also get a reminder that this is the year of the rat – and it’ll be interesting to see what GGGnK does with Nezumi-otoko’s character in playing around with that.