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GeGeGe no Kitarō
Episode 9

by Rebecca Silverman,

How would you rate episode 9 of
GeGeGe no Kitarō (TV 2018) ?
Community score: 3.8

You probably already guessed it, but the shirikodama the kappa in this week's episode keep taking are a special jewel located in the anus. Kappa are supposed to be especially fond of them, and as we can see in the episode, loss of one can mean loss of vitality. Presumably this wasn't explained within the episode because the original audience would have been well aware of the definition, but it isn't too difficult to guess at what's going on.

Shirikodama aside, this is another episode that's got a point to make about modern life. Underneath the latest harebrained scheme courtesy of Rat Man, there's a message about the culture of overwork in Japan (and anywhere else it happens; Americans aren't known to be good at taking their vacation days). When Rat Man decides to turn the yokai mailbox into a Dear Abby, he finds himself reading a letter from a little girl that makes it sound as if her father is possessed by a relatively uncommon yokai known as Isogashi. He's a play on the word ishogashii, meaning “busy”, and he just makes people work incessantly. As it turns out, when Rat Man and Kitaro go to talk to Isogashi, he's been just chilling at home for years – people don't need his help to work themselves to death these days. The little girl's father just suffers from a case of self-centered overambition, the kind of guy who could easily turn into the monstrous boss from episode seven. Instead, Rat Man sets him up with a horde of kappa employees, because they'll work for just three cucumbers a day instead of money.

As always, Rat Man's plan backfires spectacularly, and the kappa eventually revolt and go around stealing everyone's shirikodama in one of the show's zanier scenes thus far. But Isogashi's words reverberate throughout the episode – these are people who cannot stop until they are rendered physically unable to go on. The kappas' dry plates before they rebel become a symbol for the lack of proper nutrition and self-care that workers suffer – at first, Rat Man just rubs moisturizing gel on the kappas' plates, but eventually that stops working; it's no substitute for the real moisture required to stay healthy. Exploitation like this that leads to worker deaths are treated as serious issues in a lot of Japanese media, and this episode manages to make them evident even to a child audience.

Perhaps that's why the rest of the episode is so much goofier than previous adventures. While the ghost train story was making a specific point about bullying in the scariest way possible, this message about overwork is made in a much more child-friendly manner, trying to instill the message about overwork in a way that's much less alarming. Maybe that's simply because a lot of the kids watching will have working parents, and GeGeGe no Kitarō isn't interested in making them afraid that their dad's going to die because sometimes he misses dinner. But it could also be an easy way to make the story stick in their heads until they're old enough to more fully understand its point.

Whatever the reason, it looks like we'll be sticking with the sillier stuff next week as well, with an episode about those pesky seven mysteries that seem to plague every anime school. On the other hand, if any show is going to get something out of Hanako of the Toilet, this would be it – it will certainly be interesting to see where the story takes these old standbys next week.

Rating: B

GeGeGe no Kitarō is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.


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