History Manga / GeGeGeNoKitaro

* OurDragonsAreDifferent: As expected most dragons in the series are of the Eastern variety, though some such as Kouryou don’t look like any sort of traditional dragon. [[spoiler: The main villain of the 2007 movie is none other than Yamato No Orochi and for most of the movie he takes the form of a little boy.]]

** Also in the first 2018 episode, Charatoi, the arrogant vlogger who [[spoiler: [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom unknowingly]] removed the talisman that sealed away the episode's demon.

* AdaptationalVillainy: Miage Nyudo was originally just portrayed as a supernatural GrumpyOldMan, who's main goal was simply punishing disrespectful children. His 2018 counterpart devoured thousands of people, with he ultimate goal to TakeOvertheWorld.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Most of the Kitarō Family, in the japanese lore, are human-killing monsters or nuisances. Nurikabe is meant to block travelers, preventing them from following their path and causing them to lose their bearings, Sunakake Baba, like the occidental ''Sandman'' is a witch scattering sand around and causing sleepyness and red eyes, Konaki-Jijii disguises himself as child and then uses his weight-altering powers to crush the human coming to help, Ittan Momen wraps himself around people, strangling them and Neko Musume, while being an original creation of the author, is meant to be a female Bakeneko, a cursed cat spirit. In the manga and anime continuity they are, collectively, a close knit "family" of friendly yōkai defending humanity.

* AntiHero: Believe it or not, Kitaro and Medama-Oyaji were this in the beginning as seen in 'Kitaro Night Tales', which basically follows ''Hakaba Kitaro'''s storyline with a few deviations here and there. Kitaro was a very creepy child who mostly cared about his father, pretty girls and making money to survive; he was, more or less, a younger Nezumi Otoko. Medama-Oyaji tricked Mizuki into falling down a hole to Hell when the man called the cops on them. This can be seen as a bit of DisproportionateRetribution since Mizuki raised Kitaro from infancy despite his creepy nature. Thankfully, they showed him the way back to the world of the living.

* AssholeVictim: VERY frequently Nezumi Otoko, he takes a huge amount of abuse but is so selfish and duplicitous it’s hard to feel sorry for him. Also a lot of humans over the series end up paying big time for their greed and apathy; often at the hands of an angry Yokai.

* BreathWeapon: A lot of ''yōkai'' have these. On a similar note, Nezumi-Otoko's halitosis can subdue people.

* ChildrenAreInnocent: The usually grouchy and grumpy Sunakake-Babaa has a soft spot for children in every incarnation of the trope, and in the 2018 anime Medama Oyaji declares that, since human children are still growing, their soul is also in flux and their natural innocence makes puts them halfway between human beings and yōkai, allowing them to believe in the supernatural, seeing spirits and ghosts and access the [[HiddenElfVillage mystical GeGeGe Forest]] where yōkai thrive and gather in modern times.

** Despite the [[spoiler: the kill happens offscreen, the yōkai keeps bragging about his actions with Kitarō. The retribution is swift and brutal]]

** Usually from situations Nezumi-Otoko had caused by his greed and cowardice in the first place, naturally.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: The main motivation for many evil yōkai in the 2018: while they spent most of their immortal life revered and feared by humanity, the XXI century has no place for them. So, they try to bring back the fear of the Darkness humanity used to have.

* FantasticRacism: Especially in the 2018 series, most evil yōkai justify their action by claiming [[AbusivePrecursors they're just taking back the Earth by the undeserving, greedy and polluting human beings that stopped respecting and revering them]].

*** A minor detail in the anime and the manga, a major plot point in the live action movie ''GeGeGe no Kitarō: Sennen Noroi Uta'', where Medama Oyaji willingly witheld this tidbit of lore from Kitarō as he knows the BigBad would try to turn Kitarō by his side [[RememberTheAlamo giving him a reason to hate mankind]].

* LighterAndSofter: Progressively. The 1980s anime in particular, which made the few times someone actually ''died'' in that version much more shocking. Subsequent adaptations made the 1980s anime seems grimdark.

** Afterall, Kitaro has the emotional maturity of a 13 years old kid.

* PokemonSpeak: Nurikabe (at least in the 80s series).

* ProgressivelyPrettier: In the 2000s series, Cat Girl goes from a gangly, weird-looking... thing with a bowl cut and mouth full of needle-like teeth to a pretty girl with an attractive, if tomboyishly scruffy hairstyle, CuteLittleFangs and the figure of a ballerina. She's also red-haired now for some reason, too. Her 2018 incarnation (at least, when she's not in youkai mode) goes farther by ading height, turning her cat eyes into large TsurimeEyes, an adding a more feminine figure to her.

* PsychoForHire: Neko Musume, the most trusted Yokai, punishes wicked humans. Kitaro employs her to threaten Nezumi Otoko to stop his latest scam should he get dragged off to hell by a more uncompromising Yokai.
** In the 2018 Neko Musume, part of the Kitarō Family, the ''inner circle'' of Kitarō's close friends, is always at his side when there are fights to fight. When she's not fully transformed in her yokai form, her SlasherSmile and BadassBoast sentences tell how much she relishes and likes fighting.

* TakeThat: The very first episode of the 2018 reboot has a vlogger, after making an ass out of himself in the middle of Shibuya, transform into a large tree. Earlier that year, a Youtuber named Logan Paul got in trouble over vlogging in the suicide forest.

* TooDumbToLive: the majority of humans who piss off Yokai either by accident or on purpose. Special mention goes to the "Not Logan Paul" who released the vampire tree spirit while recording it for his youtube account.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Despite the cast's generally okay attitude to living forever, as they have each other, with Kitaro in particular this sentiment occasionally rears its ugly head. A few times, even in the live action movies, Kitaro has shown a quiet but very apparent longing to have human friends and love...but is often stopped, sometimes by his father behind his back, by the notion that outliving friends or a love is just too painful for Youkai and is generally avoided. This has led to many scenes of Kitaro walking lonesomely away from humans he had just helped, or staring longingly at a world he can never really be a part of.
** In the 2018 series Kitarō tries to pull a ShooTheDog caper on Mana Inuyama, his human friend, After the Kitarō family [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out]] he references this trope, claiming that humans should revere and fear the supernatural and the darkness because while yōkai can thrive and survive in the supernatural world, human cannot and thus a human among yōkai will keep risking needlessly her life. This time [[spoiler: he just decides to keep Mana's friendship, but cautioning her to trust him and avoid dangers as much as possible]].
* YouDirtyRat: Nezumi Otoko
%%* {{Youkai}}

** Many yokai get more dramatic powers than they did in myhtology. The standout example is Makura-Gaeshi, originally a rather harmless prankster who's main goal was to move people's pillows around while they sleep, became an outright DreamWeaver.

** The 2018 anime, while still kid friendly, leans more towards the grim side of the scale. There's a stronger focus on utilizing horror aesthetics than some previous incarnations, and as of episode 5, [[spoiler: a youkai has gone as far as committing murder, albeit offscreen]].

** The 2018 anime, while still kid friendly, leans more towards the grim side of the scale. There's a stronger focus on utilizing horror aesthetics than some previous incarnations, and as of episode 5, [[Spoiler: a youkai has gone as far as committing murder, albeit offscreen]].

** The 2018 anime, while still kid friendly, leans more towards the grim side of the scale.

* EyeScream: Kitaro's father lives in his eye socket.

* HalfHumanHybrid: In the 2007 series, Sunakake Baba explains this as reason for Nezumi-Otoko's questionable relationship with other yōkai and his penchant for dabbling in human society. He himself brings it up in the 1968 series.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The first episode of the 2018 version has an idiot running around with a cellphone, disturbing the locals while telling his viewers to subscribe to his channel, believed to be a TakeThat to Logan Paul after his infamous vlogs earlier that year.

* TakeThat: The 2018 premiere seems to take one at the infamous Logan Paul incident in Japan, featuring an idiotic vlogger who runs around in traffic and causes the episode's problems for the sake of views. Unfortunately its not. Due to the cost and time it takes to animate something and the Logan Paul Incident happening about two months before the show aired, means that episode one was already complete by the time it happened.

* {{Crossover}}: In fourth ''Anime/YokaiWatch'' film ''Anime/YokaiWatchShadowsideTheReturnOfTheOniKing'' features Kitaro, Neko Musume, and a few other characters.

* LighterAndSofter: Most of the adaptations. The 1980s anime in particular, which made the few times someone actually ''died'' in that version much more shocking.

* TakeThat: The 2018 premiere seems to take one at the infamous Logan Paul incident in Japan, featuring an idiotic vlogger who runs around in traffic and causes the episode's problems for the sake of views.

* CameBackWrong: Medama-Oyaji died at the very beginning of the series, but when Kitaro emerged from his mother's grave (long story) concern for the newborn son (again, long story) resurrects him... however the only part of the body that hadn't decayed by that point was his left eye, which formed into the Medama-Oyaji that everyone is familiar with. This grisly origin of both Medama and Kitaro can be viewed in the much darker ''Hakaba Kitaro'''s first episode. Although Hakaba is a mostly separate continuity to Gegege, Kitaro's origin in both is essentially the same.

%%NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The first episode of the 2018 version has a random person running around with a cellphone, disturbing the locals while telling his viewers to subscribe to his channel. [[{{Understatement}} Clearly, Japan]] [[SarcasmMode hasn't forgiven Logan Paul]] [[NeverLiveItDown for his controversial visit.]]

* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Not quite twenty, but Kitaro was born the old-fashioned way (albeit out of his dead mother's grave), then aged from being an infant to a pre-teen adolescent who's remained that way ever since. Certain works of disputable canon have poked at the idea of Kitaro physically aging to adulthood though, and although it's established that he's immortal, it's never been specified whether or not Kitaro is meant to be a child forever, or if maybe his race (The Yurei Zoku or "Ghost Tribe") simply age far slower appearance wise.

%%* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: Neko Musume

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The first episode of the 2018 version has a random person running around with a cellphone, disturbing the locals while telling his viewers to subscribe to his channel. [[{{Understatement}} Clearly, Japan]] [[SarcasmMode hasn't forgiven Logan Paul]] [[NeverLiveItDown for his controversial visit.]]

* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Kitaro looks like a human child no older than 8 to 12 years, but in the 2007 movie he is revealed to be 350 years old.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness:
** Neko-musume, oh so very much. From adaptation to adaptation, she looks more human than monster, to the point where her 2018 incarnation is just a tall teenager with CuteLittleFangs. Compare that to her impish original design, and the difference is striking.
** Kitaro as well, just not to Neko-musume's extent. Over the years his {{Gonk}}ish features have been done away with, leaving him a reasonably cute young boy.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: In the 2000s series, Cat Girl goes from a gangly, weird-looking... thing with a bowl cut and mouth full of needle-like teeth to a pretty girl with an attractive, if tomboyishly scruffy hairstyle, CuteLittleFangs and the figure of a ballerina. She's also red-haired now for some reason, too. Her 2018 incarnation (at least, when she's not in youkai mode) goes farther by ading height, trning her cat eyes into large TsurimeEyes, an adding a more feminine figure to her.

* OnceASeason: Many of the animated series open up with a buck-toothed, bowlcut wearing young lad asking Kitaro and co. for help. This also happens in the 2018 version, but he's more or less taken aside when the heroine of the 2018 version first appears.