Halloween fun with Kitaro and Q-Taro!

Obake no Q-Taro (1965) episode 12B

Based on the gag manga by the duo known as Fujiko Fujio, here’s half of an episode of the original black and white anime. The first series featured Machiko Soga as the voice of the mischievous ghost, who in addition to voicing 007 in the 1968 Cyborg 009 series, later went on to portray villains in live action tokusatsu series such as Rainbowman, Denjiman, Sun Vulcan and Zyuranger.

Get it from Nyaa or Mega.

Thanks to Charles Brubaker  for providing the rare VHS source for this partial episode! He also wrote an article about the series on the Cartoon Research Site, you can read that article here.

 

GeGeGe no Kitaro movie #8: Ghost Nighter (1997)

Like the other 1990s Kitaro mini-movies, this is a remake of a story that’s already been done in the anime, but like every Kitaro remake this is a very different take on the story. In this case it’s a remake of the baseball story that was featured in the very first episode of the original series from 1968.

Get the 1080p softsub from Nyaa or Mediafire.

This is a joint release with Hokuto no Gun. Be sure to check out their site for some Halloween manga goodies as well!

I also used this year’s Halloween as an excuse to do some improved re-releases of some of the other Kitaro movies, most of which were also joint projects with Hokuto no Gun:

GeGeGe no Kitaro movie #1: The Giant Sea Monster (1968)

This is a compilation of episodes 5 and 6, Masaki Tsuji’s adaptation of one of the best remembered of the manga stories. Kitaro is voiced by the prolific Masako Nozawa, who would go on to play countless other anime roles, including the main characters in Galaxy Express 999 and Dragon Ball. She returned to voice Kitaro for the 2008 series Hakaba Kitaro, and in the 2018 series of GeGeGe no Kitaro (available to stream on Crunchyroll) she has returned yet again, but this time as the voice of Medama Oyaji.

Get the 1080p softsub from Nyaa or Mediafire.

 

GeGeGe no Kitaro movie #2: The Geomancer’s Eye (1980)

Here’s the second Kitaro movie, and the last one to consist of recycled TV footage. It’s actually a “fun size” abbreviated 12 minute version of series 2, episode 37. This was shown as part of the summer 1980 Toei Manga Matsuri (cartoon festival), which also included a Magical Girl Lalabel short, the Denjiman movie, and a re-release of the very first full length Disney animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Get the 480p hardsub from Nyaa or Mediafire.

 

GeGeGe no Kitaro movie #7: The Giant Sea Monster (1996)

This is the only one of these movies that isn’t a joint project with Hokuto no Gun. It’s a digital remaster of an old school LaserDisc to S-VHS fansub done by Club A-Type. This was the first GeGeGe no Kitaro anime to be fan subtitled.

Get the 1080p softsub from Nyaa or Mediafire.

Shuichi Yamada, the villain of the original version, has a cameo at 30:48.

 

GeGeGe no Kitaro movie #9: Yokai Express! The Phantom Train (1997)

This one is sort of a mashup of Ghost Train (episode 7) and Great Yokai War (episodes 10-11), but it’s really almost nothing like those actual episodes. The vampire in this movie is voiced by one of my all-time favorite voice actors, Kaneto Shiozawa.

Get the 1080p softsub from Nyaa or Mediafire.

I hope you all enjoy these, and have a safe and happy Halloween. If anyone wants hardsubbed versions with smaller file sizes, let me know in the comments.

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