#birth of kitaro: mystery of gegege

[darthpeggyart]

It’s called “Kitaro’s Parents Almost Die Hiking Sensoji” and it’s based on a true story.

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

gegegegegegegege

[rebellin-of-games2]

I justed watched Birth of Kitarō: The Mystery of GeGeGe and it is amazing. I knew a bit of Gege no Kitaro and when I heard they made a movie for the 100th anniversary I had to watch it. The story is gripping and the action is wonderful. The end had me by the heartstrings and now I want to watch the 2019 version. I love the leads and there relationship and I wish we can get more… I recommend it to everyone who likes mystery and japanese folklore

[the-insanity-of-mojiru]

Taking some very cursed Kitaro Tanjo photos with @stevoisiak

Bonus:

[glorioblog]

A Very GLORIO trip to Scotland Loves Animation 2024

Scotland Loves Animation is a yearly festival that runs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, bringing a curated selection of premieres and classic movies to the big screen for a week in October-November. Three of us from the GLORIO crew returned for a week packed full of old and new films alike. The event returned to the Cameo Picturehouse for a third consecutive year. While refurbishment continues on the…

[karan-koron]

Genazo cheat sheet ROUND 2!

I received questions about the movie here and on twitter, so after mostly focusing on the script in this first post, let's go for a second round of "taking a deeper look into Gegege no Nazo"!

Under the cut will be a collection of notes about the context around the movie, comments on specific scenes, and such. This time there's no effort to follow the movie chronologically, sorry. I also wanted to talk about each of the Ryuga individually, and list trivia and easter eggs, but the post became too long and disjointed, so this will be for, well, round 3.

I still hope it will answer interrogations you might have had, and help you enjoy the movie more!

Of course, there will be spoilers for the movie under the cut.

"Gege- !"

Upon seeing the man Osada's henchmen have captured, young Nezumi exclaims "Gege-!" before being pulled back. Remembering this, Mizuki decides to call that man "ゲゲ郎", "Gegero" : basically that same "gege" sound with a common kanji put at the end of male names (the same "ro" as in "Kitaro"), in an attempt to form, well, something that sounds like a male name.

Initially, the manga featuring Kitaro was called "Hakaba Kitaro", taking after the similarly named kamishibai story (albeit with a different spelling), then "Hakaba no Kitaro". Shortly before the start of its anime adaptation, the manga's name has been changed again to "Gegege no Kitaro", in an effort to sound less ominous and children-friendly ; it also marks a shift in Kitaro's character, fighting for peace between humans and yokai. In universe, "ge ge ge" is the sound of bugs, animals, and nature as a whole singing a song of praise for Kitaro at the end of every story :

Outside of the story, "Gegege" is inspired from Mizuki Shigeru's own childhood, when he couldn't pronounce his name properly and it'd come out as "gege" or "gegeru".

And now in Genazo, Kitaro's fathers are respectively named "Mizuki" and "Gegero"!

The Birth of Kitaro

It's the name of the movie, of course : "The Birth of Kitaro : Mystery of Gegege", but also the first chapter of the rental manga, which went through multiple remakes through the years.

The ending credits of Genazo feature illustrations that are mostly taken from said chapter.

The post-credit scene, too, matches the original story, however with one crucial change ; Mizuki has a flashback of Gegero in front of cherry blossoms (a memory that probably subsisted because it was when Gegero put the chanchanko on Mizuki's shoulders?), causing Kitaro's fate to be different from his manga counterpart.

Speaking of crucial change, the scene at the beginning of Genazo when Mizuki leaves his office desk to meet with the blood bank's president has been noted as an extremely important moment which separates the Hakaba Kitaro timeline and the 2018 Gegege no Kitaro timeline.

Look closely, and you'll notice there are two shadows in this scene: one for the Mizuki who decided to head for Nagura Village, and another for the Mizuki who didn't.

The Blood Bank

This is a Vast topic that I will clumsily summarize here, but I think it's an important point to have in mind when watching Genazo (as well as when reading the Birth of Kitaro stories and the Bloodsucker-tree story as well)

Blood donations were not commonplace at all in post-war Japan, and "blood banks" were a for-profit business : people came to sell their blood, and that blood was sold to hospitals. This led notably to a population affected by precarity regularly coming to such banks, sometimes multiple times a day, to sell their blood at the cost of their health and often their own life.

In this scene, the crowd here are people waiting to sell their blood.

Of course, in Genazo it parallels with the Blood Cherry Blossom : the blood of the Ghost Tribe is drawn to produce "M", the secret of the Ryuga's large wealth. But wealthy bloodsuckers target humans as well - as Mizuki says himself, anywhere, everywhere, the weak is exploited. But he was part of that exploitation, and that's a price he will eventually have to pay.

The situation in Genazo is slightly recontextualized, as the original story has Kitaro's mother selling her blood to buy medicine for her and her husband's sickness :

The horror lies in the then real fear of the sick contaminating blood supplies : in this story, patients contaminated by Ghost Tribe blood become ghosts themselves.

I recommend reading this article about the history of Japan's sold blood and how it relates to Shigeru Mizuki's works for a much better and deeper understanding of the topic!

"Diving into the underground like moles, the once insignificant Ghost Tribe..."

Otome's line finds its origin, again, in the original Birth of Kitaro. The scene where Gegero explains to Mizuki the history of the Ghost Tribe also uses visuals from the manga.

"You can't see things just by trying to see them with your eyes."

"It actually helps to cover one eye.", says Gegero.

I mentioned before how this line reminds Seki of "The Little Prince". This philosophy permeates Gegege no Kitaro as a work, and seems to be found first in "Nonnonba to Ore" :

There's a repeating motif involving the left eye in Gegege no Nazo, appearing to be covered (Gegero's), wounded (Mizuki's), or missing (Kitaro's). Moreover, the "curse" of the Kyokotsu targets the left eye of all its victims, and Sayo has a beauty mark under her left eye.

It's by seeing less that the invisible becomes visible ; and it's through his scarred left eye that Mizuki becomes able to see the supernatural.

After losing his memory, he is portrayed with his left eye obscured in the ending credits:

Why does Mizuki have white hair / become amnesic at the end of the movie?

I wanted to reply to this in the form of an ask but I got this multiple times over twitter on tumblr so I'll put it here.

It seems Mizuki suffered the same fate as Kozo : his memory wiped and his hair whitened after being attacked by the Kyokotsu. Gegero specifically puts the Chanchanko on Mizuki before telling him to leave the village : "As long as you wear this, you won't lose your mind". But later, Mizuki chose to make Gegero's wife wear it, covering her stomach, so he ended up affected by the Kyokotsu after all. Though the damage doesn't seem as severe as Kozo's - he vaguely remembers being with a woman, in the credits seems to have kept his sanity, and in the post credit kept a vague memory of Gegero in front of the cherry blossoms.

A bit off topic, but did you notice the soldier's helmet next to Mizuki in this scene? It disappears after a few frames like a ghostly apparition...^^ There are actually a lot of hidden ghosts and yokai hidden in the movie, so keep your eyes open to spot them...! or close an eye, I'm not sure.

(I guess this will be its own post later!)

Jizo statues

Statues of Ojizo-san, or just Jizo, appear not only in the movie but alongside Kitaro in one of the movie posters. They carry different meanings and offer many kinds of protection, but in Japan it is mostly associated with the belief that Jizo protects children, alive or dead, comforting the latter on the bank of Sanzu river. They are often dressed up with bibs, often red as it is believed to ward off evil.

Ghost Tribe powers

Gegero displaying multiple superpowers came as a surprise for watchers whose entry point into this franchise was Genazo. They are all powers Kitaro is seen using in the TV anime, albeit played a bit differently.

At the end of the movie, when the story comes back to present time, it's through an action scene where Kitaro's musical theme is playing as he shouts his signature moves' names - it does a great job suddenly shifting the movie back to the battle shonen genre associated with Gegege no Kitaro TV anime.

While Kitaro, the brave shonen protagonist that he is, likes to shout his moves names, Gegero stays silent (how I'd love to hear him shout "Remokon Geta!", though...).

So on top of oustanding endurance and agility, we have tensile hair (Kitaro uses as "Hair Needles"), flying geta sandals ("Remote-controlled geta"), electricity discharge ("Internal Electricity"), and of course, the spirit hair bracelet for Gegero that becomes part of the spirit hair Chanchanko vest for Kitaro. Ghost Tribe are displayed showing many more powers throughout the franchise, but this is all we see in Genazo...!

Oof! That post has gotten too long already. If you've read this far, thank you! I hope it will improve your enjoyment of the movie somehow, or make you curious to check out more of Mizuki's works and its adaptations.

I have more I wanted to say but it will be for next time!

[anonymouslyel]

oh hell yeah im gonna start watching gegege no kitaro and related anime/media for my man mizuki even tho i saw a post that said he's barely in it. after watching the movie birth of kitaro mystery of gegege, i got to attached with mizuki and how he was so perfectly human how he's both selfish and selfless and how kind and loyal he is and how he's the father AND mother that stepped up for kitaro. i gotta know everything about him and his son.

[wishforged]

2024 top hits

good media, would consume again

where the two flowers meet

an unexpectedly poignant visual novel with a lot of engrossing twists and turns. I really like stories where characters are driven to near-madness by grief; it's such an enormous emotion. currently pay what you want on itch.io.

charisma house

a multimedia project with wonderfully idiosyncratic characters and a main story posted to youtube in the form of short videos. also funny as hell which isn't a surprise considering the main writer also worked on gintama. my music taste is poisoned bc of these joseimuke projects but I loved the songs too

we don't know ourselves: a personal history of modern ireland

extremely readable and honestly hard to put down even though it usually takes me forever to read longer nonfiction books. also im kind of a weeaboo for ireland. loved the "personal history" format, which contextualized events in the author's life with concurrent political and social developments in ireland.

dungeon meshi

it's so lovely to encounter female characters like marcille, falin, and izutsumi (among others.) it also feels so validating and nice to see a complex central character of south asian descent in kabru. a very warm and kind story and I'm looking forward to season 2 of the anime...

honkai star rail 2.1 main story patch: "into the yawning chasm"

specifically, the story mission "all the sad tales" did it for me -- there is a video of me crying while playing through that part lol. playing from the pov of a character slowly having his mind broken as you progressively confront the emotional scars in his past, chasing his child-self through a warped landscape -- yup, sequences like these are why video games are one of my favorite storytelling mediums. which I did not think I'd ever say in reference to a gacha game...

detective conan anime

I've been watching episodes of this like every day lmao so I had to include it... endlessly watchable and comforting in its formulaicity. I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other central characters soon...

birth of kitaro: the mystery of gegege

idk anything about the source material but this was very captivating as a stand-alone nonetheless. a beautiful horror story... I need to rewatch it

the uses of literacy

I randomly picked up a used copy of this in a bookstore when I was vacationing in another country and found it to be really applicable to current culture and how people interact with media today, despite being written in 1957 and focusing specifically on the British working class.

tashiro-kun, why're you like this?

I have nothing insightful to say about this bl manga rn but it's genuinely so uplifting and funny and sweet lol

movie honorable mentions: conclave, lawrence of arabia, drive-away dolls, challengers

[otaku-republic]

【Gegege no Kitaro】On 10/7, The Duo is Returning! “The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe” True Birth Version is Coming Soon!

[asukatuduki]

水木-Mizuki-

From "Kitaro's birth story -The Mystery of GeGeGe"

He is a friend of Kitaro's father.

And, he is Kitaro's adoptive father...

[cooltrainererika]

Watched a special screening yesterday!

Think Rocky Horror screening mixed with the vibes of a J-pop concert.

It was so fun!

The movie was Kitaro’s Birth: The Mystery of Gegege. It’s often crossed over with Godzilla Minus One in Japanese Twitter fanart.

Though I shouted English things like “SUS” or “Aw, that was BRUTAL!” to stand out, no one wrote about me on Twitter… awww.

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

i need them. who said that

[gonagaiworld]

The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe e gli effetti speciali di Godzilla Minus One trionfano ai Chofu Film Town Awards The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe vince come miglior film, Shirogumi Inc. vince il premio speciale. Read more:--> https://www.gonagaiworld.com/the-birth-of-kitaro-the-mystery-of-gegege-e-gli-effetti-speciali-di-godzilla-minus-one-trionfano-ai-chofu-film-town-awards/?feed_id=19991&_unique_id=67bb8df6e3361 #GodzillaMinusOne #KitarōTanjōGegegenoNazo #TheBirthofKitaroTheMysteryofGeGeGe

[the-insanity-of-mojiru]

Yeah so I pretty much forgot to take photos of my cosplays this year, have this Kitaro family rerunion photoshoot instead LOL

[glorioblog]

A Very GLORIO trip to Scotland Loves Animation 2024

Scotland Loves Animation is a yearly festival that runs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, bringing a curated selection of premieres and classic movies to the big screen for a week in October-November. Three of us from the GLORIO crew returned for a week packed full of old and new films alike. The event returned to the Cameo Picturehouse for a third consecutive year. While refurbishment continues on the…

[aceshadowstar]

Japan Box Office: The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe Anime Film R15+ Version Makes No.3 Debut - Crunchyroll News