The Quietus Reviews The Birth of Kitaro

The Kitaro comics were Shigeru Mizuki’s most popular work, loved by people of all ages. The Birth Of Kitaro is the first in Drawn and Quarterly’s planned series of books, which are being published in in English for the first time. The format of small paperbacks is designed to be child-friendly, with puzzles and quizzes at the end, as well as an encyclopaedia of yokai. The translation by Zack Davisson is updated for modern readers, featuring phrases like ‘bwa ha ha’ and ‘nom nom’, although this doesn’t jar in any way, such is the style of the stories themselves.

The seven tales here all feature yokai, which translates as ‘mysterious phenomenon’ according to the afterword. Some are spirits, some are monsters, and they vary between good, neutral and evil. Many of these date from the Edo period, a time of great superstition. Kitaro himself is a yokai, on the good side. The first story is of his birth, in a grave following the death of his yokai mother. His father also dies, but one of his eyeballs comes to life, grows a body and follows him around to help. Another recurring character is Nezumi Otoko, another yokai, greedy but hapless with it and often in need of rescuing from the consequences of his ill-planned schemes. Kitaro’s role is one of helper, whether he’s digging Mezumi Otoko out of trouble or acting like a one-yokai A-Team, getting unfortunate humans out of trouble, frequently with his superpower hair.

In the second story Kitaro accidentally eats the face of a face-stealing yokai. It ends with Kitaro heading for the bathroom to shit the face back out - a good illustration of the general tone, which is very playful and often funny. The art varies. There are incredibly detailed establishing images, quite beautiful, long shots with very little negative space, much like those found in Mizuki's other work. These contrast with the more event-driven panels, which tend to be much simpler and are much closer to the characters. This is a book that will appeal to children and adults alike, and I’m already looking forward to the next volume.