(CR) New Gegege no Kitarou

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I thought being exiled to the underworld seemed a bit harsh for someone who was just a loser and a thief.

I disliked the translator decision, maybe there is some fear of touching religious themes? Because they clearly said jigoku which translates as hell. The underworld has a less religious connotations and makes me think more of D&D dungeons filled with monsters and treasure instead of a place of endless torment for evildoers.

Since life always gave Kakeru a lousy hand to play, going to hell for petty robbery would probably seem like the natural progression. The sad part is that his dad seems to have stayed in hell for the time being.

I recognized the thread they used to (partially) escape from other animes.

[Guardian Enzo]

9:00 AM. Sunday morning.

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Oh, and I think from the credits, an actual father-son voiced the characters.

I saw that, interesting. Unfortunately those Kanji are above my level so I can't make out the other actor's name - if Kaitou's dad is a known seiyuu, I wasn't aware of it.

[AntonKutovoi]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

I saw that, interesting. Unfortunately those Kanji are above my level so I can't make out the other actor's name - if Kaitou's dad is a known seiyuu, I wasn't aware of it.

I'm yet to watch the episode (and thus yet to add the remaining cast members for the episode on ANN), but something tells me it's Ishikawa Hideo people are talking here. And no, he's not related to Ishikawa Kaito.

EDIT: Yup. I don't even need to wait for credits - as soon as the character opened his mouth, I knew it was Ishikawa Hideo.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by AntonKutovoi

I'm yet to watch the episode (and thus yet to add the remaining cast members for the episode on ANN), but something tells me it's Ishikawa Hideo people are talking here. And no, he's not related to Ishikawa Kaito.

Yup, that's him - same Kanji. I mean, it is a pretty common name.

[AntonKutovoi]

Another great episode. And voice acting was really on point in this episode.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

I disliked the translator decision, maybe there is some fear of touching religious themes? Because they clearly said jigoku which translates as hell.

I went back and watched the "Ghost Train" episode, and there they used the word Hell. Don't know why they translated it differently this time around.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

9:00 AM. Sunday morning.

"Hey there, kids. Be good, or this could happen to you."

One thing left unexplained is why the father said he had harmed his family. If he just died from natural causes or an accident, he would be blameless. So perhaps he had killed himself or drank himself to death?

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

"Hey there, kids. Be good, or this could happen to you."

The message is more in the lines of "If you ever commit a crime, go to your nearest police station and confess" and I am not joking.

One thing left unexplained is why the father said he had harmed his family. If he just died from natural causes or an accident, he would be blameless. So perhaps he had killed himself or drank himself to death?

There is no mistery, just cultural differeces. You might have in some anime seen a representation of the afterlife, little kids piling stones near a river, only to have an oni hit the stones and they start all over. Well, those kids are in hell! Their crime? Dying before their parents, causing them a great deal of agony. Seems they care little about intentions and pass judgement on the end results, making true on the old addage "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".

So the father caused great anguish to Kakeru and his mother, that is why he is in hell, but in oriental beliefs hell is not a (after)life sentence, when Enma daiou deems he has paid for his crimes, he will be let go, albeit that could be decades, centuries or millennia later.

By no means I claim to be an expert on oriental theology, I still do not why Kakeru could leave hell, supposedly when you eat the food of the nether realms, you can no longer return to the world of the living, albeit he puked all the stuff (coupled with the most sinful part of himself) but first time I heard that would prevent you from being "infected".

Also, commenting on a comment you did on ANN (yeah, I am lazy today to do two posts), on the intermissions that appears at the half mark of each episode, the comments the gang does is an spoof on RAIN (aka LINE, which is the japanese whatsapp) and yeah, you can do groups so that you send a message to the group and everybody receives it. For some reason the japanese are in love with stamps, which are images you send similar to emoticons. I say it is as spoof since only Mana and Neko musume have smartphones (albeit the Sand Witch has the money and the saavy to have one, but do not remember her showing she has one). Ratman has a pretty worn out smartphone, but even if it can install line, doubt Mana or Nekomusume would add him to their contacts >_<

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

One thing left unexplained is why the father said he had harmed his family. If he just died from natural causes or an accident, he would be blameless. So perhaps he had killed himself or drank himself to death?

Already an explanation above, but yeah, he might be blameless by law/logic, but if he knows what happened to his family after his death, it wouldn't be weird to feel guilty that he screwed up his family by dying early, even if the death is natural.

[SeijiSensei]

So I was browsing some of the photographs of the statuary along the Mizuki Shigeru Road today and was surprised to find this one:



who is, of course, the villain Backbeard:



I thought at the time the Backbeard arc was largely Toei-original, but I guess I'm wrong. Anyone know if he was American in the manga?

[Guardian Enzo]

Yep, always American.

[BBOvenGuy]

At long last, the plot returns! I'm glad they hadn't forgotten that Mana has a lineage and power of her own. It would be interesting if word got around about that in the yokai community.

Neko-musume sure has been getting knocked around a lot lately. I realize it's Kitaro's job to be the hero, but we need some more bad guys she can beat up.

[AntonKutovoi]

A plot episode and another great one. Great drama, very good animation and, once again, stellar voice acting - this time by Tohru Furuya as Ibukimaru.

[Faux Mecha]

gee i almost confused the Oni-human couple for Nanashi's parents who are also an Oni-human couple.............

[BBOvenGuy]

So... how's that fluffy-happy-weekend-children's entertainment thing going?

[Guardian Enzo]

Very strange message that ending sent, I thought.

[Magewolf]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

Very strange message that ending sent, I thought.

The bad guy won and continued to enslave a family. The Kami was worse than a lot of the yokai Kitaro has fought.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Magewolf

The bad guy won and continued to enslave a family. The Kami was worse than a lot of the yokai Kitaro has fought.

In essence, yeah. What was the point of that - to urge unquestioning devotion to our Kami overlords? Taitanbou seems like the sort Kitanou usually fight with, not somebody whose legwork he'd do.

[BBOvenGuy]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

What was the point of that - to urge unquestioning devotion to our Kami overlords? Taitanbou seems like the sort Kitarou usually fight with, not somebody whose legwork he'd do.

Okay... understand that I'm going purely on observations here, and have zero knowledge of how Shinto works, but...

It seems to me that Taitanbou is almost like a force of nature. There was no creature with a physical body for Kitarou to fight. Just a rock that oozes stuff and curses you if you break it. Even Enma-daio has a body. Taitanbou doesn't seem to need one. Unless the rock is Taitanbou, in which case we've already seen what happens when anybody messes with that.

Kitarou will fight yokai to defend a human who's being mistreated, but he doesn't go out and fight against typhoons or earthquakes. It's almost like he's decided that the natural order is "serve the rock or be cursed," and given that choice, serving the rock is the better option, or at least the less bad one.

[Guardian Enzo]

Taitanbou is an old-time GGGnK antagonist from the original manga. Mizuki makes it clear he's a God and indeed, that's how Shinto works. Even if he's taken up residence in a boulder, the boulder is just where he has his mail delivered.

Again, I just don't get the point of the whole thing. Slavish devotion to tradition is not a message this series normally peddles.

[BBOvenGuy]

I don't think the point is devotion to tradition. I think it's about making sacrifices for people you care about, regardless of whether those sacrifices are "fair" or not. The grandfather didn't think about whether Taitanbou was being fair. He just knew his grandson was dying, so he did what he had to do. That's the example being taught to the kid, and that's certainly something Kitarou could get behind, given what he's going through for Mana and Neko-musume.