GeGeGe no Kitarō

Episode 5

If you're at all familiar with the Kitaro franchise, you know about Rat Man. Nezumi Otoko (his untranslated name) is something of a grifter – he drifts around trying to make a buck any way he can, and his attempts at financial success often come at the expense of countless people. But they're just humans, right? So why should it even matter? Well, as it turns out, it's not just humans – this week's episode marks the second time he's gotten a yokai involved in his schemes, and this one is no less than a god: Kaminari-sama, the Shinto god of thunder. (You may know him better as Raiden or Narukami; all three names refer to the same basic deity.) His plans this time involve using the god to power a city while he rakes in the cash with his human patsy – money, power, and god all in one neat package.

As for how he gets Kaminari-sama to agree to his plan, well, that's also pretty classic Rat Man; he appeals to the god's vanity. There's a theory of deities that states a god has power only as long as anyone believes in them, and that seems to carry over here to a degree – when Kaminari-sama originally appears, it's because he heard Rat Man crying out to “kami-sama” and (deliberately?) misunderstood. Things haven't been great for the god of thunder since people stopped telling children to hide their bellybuttons during thunderstorms, and he misses the days when people really believed in him. He doesn't necessarily have less power now, but he's definitely feeling down about the whole thing. That makes him an easy mark for Rat Man, who sees a way that Kaminari-sama can get some new name recognition while filling his own pockets.

Despite the fact that Rat Man may really be on to something with the whole use-a-thunder-god-to-power-a-city thing, he's still Rat Man, so things are going to go south. Interestingly enough, it's the humanity of his partners, both the human he's installed as mayor and the human foibles of Kaminari-sama, that ruins things for him. Kaminari-sama wants to mingle with his adoring public (preferably the hot female ones) and doesn't want to hear that they aren't prepared to find out the truth behind their cheap electricity, while the mayor doesn't want to let any nosy reporters ruin his sweet new gig. When they kill said reporter, Kitaro's spidey senses start tingling, and that's bad news for rats.

Interestingly, Kitaro is a very small part of this episode. Rat Man's the real focus as he goes through his plot and gets peed on by stray dogs, with Kitaro only showing up at the last minute. Since the fight scene this week is particularly good, that doesn't matter much, but it also doesn't make the episode feel as dynamic as the show has been before. Given that the opening scene of the reporter being killed is one of the scarier parts of the series thus far, that's definitely a shame, because it sets us up for a payoff that the show doesn't really earn. Granted, Rat Man as the lead is generally a sign that we're going to have a lighter plot, but it still feels like kind of a letdown.

Hopefully that won't be the case next week, which looks like it has the potential to be quite creepy. That cute cat thing could be something truly horrific, and I'm curious to see if the old woman will be Yuta's grandmother, especially since the message comes through the yokai mailbox.

Rating: C+

GeGeGe no Kitarō is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.