And with Hakaba Kitarou, my schedule for the winter-season is complete. Seriously, this season has proven to be awesome.
Monday: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, Gundam 00
Tuesday: Suteki Tantei Labyrinth
Wednesday: Wellber no Monogatari
Thursday: none
Friday: Hakaba Kitarou, Ghost Hound
Saturday: Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shion no Ou, True Tears
Sunday: Shigofumi, Porfy no Nagai Tabi
And depending on when the subs will come out: Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji
In any case, I just knew that I was going to blog Hakaba Kitarou, the first moment I saw it. For those who haven’t read my first impression:
– Hakaba Kitarou is by no means a kid’s show.
– Hakaba Kitarou’s atmosphere nothing like its predecessor, Gegege no Kitarou.
– Hakaba Kitarou is part of the Noitamina-series, which previously featured series as Mononoke, Moyashimon and Honey and Clover and is known to be one of the most viewed late-night time-slots in Japan.
– Hakaba Kitarou is a fully fledged horror-series.
If you like horror-series, then I seriously recommend you to check out this series. It’s going to take a lot of effort to make this series lose the bad reputation that Gegege no Kitarou gave it.
This episode introduces Nezumi-otoko, or mouse-man. He works for a vampire called Dracula, though this Dracula is a bit different from what you usually see. He likes to eat any kind of human, an doesn’t just limit himself young women. He also ends up eating Kitarou’s father at one point. ^^; In any case, he and Nezumi-otoko end up along with Mizuki’s employer, in Kitarou’s house, while Kitarou has been possessed by a strange demon who likes to eat human flesh as well. This demon ends up fighting with Dracula, killing off both of them and leaving Nezumi-otoko without a master, which probably explains why he keeps hanging around Kitarou.
Mizuki’s employer seems to be something like the mayor, who has come to find out where the guy went due to some bad publicity he’s been getting because of it. He’s the one who ends up saving Kitarou, and drives off a cliff afterwards after seeing yet another scary-looking demon at the side of the road.
We then turn to the netherworld, and we see Mizuki return. It turns out that because he volunteered to go to the netherworld, he doesn’t have to go to the place of the dead, and instead he is doomed to see the dead head into the deeper parts of hell, where they’ll dwell forever (much like Jigoku Shoujo). He immediately blames Kitarou for it, but the fact remains that he died in an accident. Still, I doubt that it was just a coincidence that the guy died, with Kitarou inside his car. 😛
And if that didn’t convince you to check out this series, perhaps this will. Seriously, I had lost my faith in good OPs after the Autumn-season, but the Winter-season has so many new shows with excellent OPs.
right after i read your post on the first episode i put this anime on my list but it is sad to see that it is not being subbed since my japanese is not that good but maybe i will give it a try and watch it raw if in the end no one will subb it
I can’t wait to watch this. I am just waiting for the subs to come out. 🙂
I just saw that Shinsen-subs has plans to sub the first episode, so I’m glad to see that the fansubbers didn’t choose to ignore this one.
Is it just me or is Shinsen picking up everything they can lay there hands on?
I’m a bit worried they won’t have the manpower necessary to do everything at a reasonable without burning themselves out.
This is why their subs for a particular show is rather slow, yet there doesn’t seem to be any drop of quality…
At least this thing is gonna get subbed ; as for Porfy no Nagai Tabi, I think we shouldn’t even think about it. Guess I’ll just read the book, being a long-time fan of classic french litterature.
I’m also waiting for subs. Hakaba Kitarou is my top pick for this season. Last season’s was Shion No Ou, and so far I’m glad that I chose it.
Ahh, wish some1 would sub this XD~ been waiting a wihle and getting a little impatient, acutally so much that i wanna watch the raw cuz u make it sound soo good XD!
Shinsen just picked this up 😀