Trivia / GeGeGe no Kitarō

• Dawson Casting: The 2007 live-action movie went out of its way to simulate the look of the 1980s anime version, except that Kitaro and Neko Musume were played by adults. This was "justified" in-story as them having hit puberty without the older yōkai having noticed, but the actors were still clearly older than the age their characters were. Also Beauty Equals Goodness; the But Not Too Foreign actor playing Kitaro was Bishōnen instead of short and creepy looking.
• Genre Relaunch: Most historians and yokai specialists will tell you that Kitaro really helped bring Youkai and their associated folklore back into the public eye. Ever wonder why there are so many yokai inspired stories nowadays? And ever wonder why Kitaro gets an occasional mention or cameo? You can thank this franchise for that.
• Incidental Multilingual Wordplay: Sunakake Baba, as a sand throwing old women, has a name that translates perfectly to Sand Witch.
• No Export for You:
  • Almost none of the manga has been translated into English. This is beginning to change; partly thanks to scanlations, and partly because in the summer of 2013 an official English translation was finally released by Drawn & Quarterly: one volume of kid-friendly stories, and one more aimed at adults.
  • Weirdly, the sake brand of it can be easier to find than the original manga in the United States; it tends to show up in places with a larger East Asian alcohol selection.
    • Averted with the first live action movie as it was not only brought to America, but with an English dub supplied by the voice actors from Funimation, such as Monica Rial as Neko Musume. However, as of this writing, the second live action movie has not been brought to America nor dubbed.
    • The 2018 anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
  • A pair of Compilation Movies of 90's episodes were dubbed under the title "Kitaro's Graveyard Gang", but for some reason, have only ever been available in Japan officially.
• The Other Darrin: Averted with Medama-Oyaji, who had been portrayed by Isamu Tanonaka for the first five animes and the live action movies until his death in 2010.
• Outlived Its Creator: Even after Shigeru Mizuki's death, there will always be an anime adaptation of Kitaro.
• Recycled Script: Being a series that has lasted as long as it did, there are usually concepts explored in older adaptations that make it into later ones. Season 2 of the 2018 anime features an original plotline from the 1971 series, namely the story about the dead traditional children unable to pass on.
• Remake Cameo: Masako Nozawa, the first Kitaro seiyuu, voiced Medama-Oyaji in the 2018 version.
• Role Reprise: Masako Nozawa and Chikao Ohtsuka, who voiced Kitaro and Nezumi Otoko in the first anime adaptation in the 1960s, reprised their roles for Hakaba Kitarō, the 2008 anime adaptation of the manga.

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