The farther it recedes into the rear-view mirror, the harder it is to believe the extended dark patch for Gegege no Kitarou 2018 really happened. It’s just so inexplicable – the show was so good before and after. And it can’t be entirely blamed on the Western Youkai arc either, because the interspersed stand-alone eps were generally uninspired and occasionally unpleasant. But the series is fully back on-track now in all its glory – funny, gorgeous, and incredibly clever in the way it updates this old chestnut for new audiences.
On that front, it’s worth reiterating because in the bubble of Western anime fandom, it’s so easy to forget – this series is a monster hit in Japan. It garners huge TV ratings, yes, and that clues us in that it’s popular with the general public. But it’s also among the most popular current anime in the doujin market. And in Animage’s Top 100 Character poll for 2018, GGGnK landed the #1 spot (Neko-musume) and no less than 3 of the top 10 (Kitarou was 4th, and Mana 10th). This has always been a massively successful franchise (that’s why it’s gotten so many reboots) but I’m not sure it’s ever connected the dots between otaku and the general public the way this version has.
Speaking of reboots and dots, one of the wonderful ways this franchise has always connected both is by bringing back seiyuu from earlier versions. But again, the 2018 has really upped the ante on that. Take this week’s love-themed episode – it features the Neko-musume of the 1985 version, Mita Yuko (as Yuki-onna’s mother), the 1996 version, Nishimura Chinami (as Yuki-onna) and the 2007 version, Hiromi Konno (as Numa-gozen). I mean seriously, how cool is that? And they’re all superb in their roles, too.
This is an episode that has pretty much all a modern Gegege fan could want – romance, Mana and Neko-musume being cute, Neko-musume pining for Kitarou, Nezumi-otoko scheming, some biting satire and a bit of pathos to boot. The premise finds Yuki-onna the subject of the affections of an “intense” guy named Shun (played by industry legend Morita Masakazu, himself a veteran of the 2007 edition). Shun is a doof, honestly, but he’s a sweet guy and persistent – and Yuki-onna has no clue what to make of him. So she goes to Neko-musume (and to her BFF Mana-chan) for help, and the former knows a thing or two about love.
Someone who knows not even a thing or two about love, as Catchick could affirm, is Kotarou-kun. That provides the grist for the episode’s best gag, as Ratman loans Kitarou an “Adolescent Academy: Dokidoki Paradise!” handheld romance VN (which is somehow part of his youkai-human match service inventory). Kitarou is predictably disinterested, but Medama Oyaji rightly decides that his son is terrifyingly ignorant in the ways of the heart, and insists that he play the game. Meanwhile it’s Nezumi-otoko that Shun-san goes to for help after a misplaced remark about pond smelts and too much aircon puts his relationship with the reluctant Yuki on ice – with predictably rotten results.
This is some really funny stuff, especially when Numa-gozen gets involved by hiring Ratman to “set her up” with a human man (I can’t imagine he was naive enough not to know the real reason, which is a good reminder of what a scumbag he can be). That man turns out to be Shun, and when she puts the squeeze on him a couple of things happen – Yuki-onna experiences jealousy for the first time, and Kitarou gets called in to help. But he’s logy after staying up all night with “Dokidoki Paradise”, and unable to use his RC Geta or Finger Guns. Happily though, his newfound skills allow him to defeat Numa-gozen by capturing her heart in what may be the funniest scene in this series’ 39 episodes.
This is all pretty great stuff, really, but we’re back in the mode where Gegege no Kitarou is going that extra mile, taking itself from good to exceptional. Yuki-onna’s romantic inclination for human guys is hereditary, it seems – and her mother tries to warn her off this behavior by reminder her of, among other things, the difference if lifespans between humans and youkai. But the end of the episode is a painful reminder of this, as we hear Yuki-okaa talking wistfully to Yuki-onna’s father – who now resides in an urn, one of several we see which presumably contain the remains of the other human men she’s loved and lost. It’s a bittersweet and gently macabre way to bring an otherwise light-hearted and irreverent classic to a close.
