With the “Gegege no Kitaro” series reaching its 50th anniversary as of this year, Toei Animation that the horror/supernatural series will be gaining a sixth series.
Set to premiere on Fuji TV on April 1 at 09:00 for the memorial year, the new series will be Miyuki Sawashiro, who is currently playing the role of Charlotte Pudding in “One Piece”, as the role of Kitaro for the new series. Masako Nozawa, best known to have been the first voice of Kitaro will now be taking on the role of Medama Oyaji a.k.a. Eyeball Father, Kotaro’s father.
Other cast members for the new series include:
Nezumi Otoko: Toshio Furukawa
Neko Musume: Umeka Shouji
Mana Inuyama: Yukiyo Fujii
Sunakake Babaa: Mayumi Tanaka
Konaki Jijii & Nurikabe: Bin Shimada
Ittan Momen: Kappei Yamaguchi
For the story of the new series, it sets itself in modern-day Japan. At this time, people have just about forgotten about youkai; but that doesn’t mean that strange phenomenon aren’t happening. With people unable to explain them with science, many are left rushing around in confusion, all but one. 13-year-old girl Mana Inuyama makes the decision to settle the situation by sending letter via the “Yokai Post,” and summoning Kitaro.
Already a teaser video has been released for the new series.
“Gegege no Kitaro” was first released as a manga series by Shigeru Mizuki in 1960. It was serialized by the Weekly Shounen Manga magazine, the series reached a total of nine volumes before ending in 1969. It was in January 1968 that the first anime adaptation of the series first released before ending in 1969 with 65 episodes in total. Over time, the horror/supernatural work became a media franchise, gaining anime adaptations, a live-action work and even video games.
This is the story of the last survivor of the Ghost Tribe, Kitaro. Together with his father, Medama-Oyaji, whom was once a Ghost tribesman only to end up mummified and reincarnated to inhabit his old eyeball, a rat-man name Nezumi-Otoko and a cat-girl named Neko-Musume and other ghosts and ghouls of Japanese mythology, he embarks on different adventures in his path of uniting the worlds of humans and Youkai.
In the course of its run, the series has made itself known for popularization of Youkai as well as other folklore and folktales.
Source: Crunchyroll News