If you were to ask any anime or manga fan if they knew who Shigeru Mizuki was, I don’t think you’d find too many people that recognize the name. But much to their surprise, they would learn that he is actually an anime and manga legend and the creator of the legendary Gegege no Kitaro. Well, maybe anime legend isn’t the right term because he was more of a manga-ka.
Shigeru Mizuki might not be with us anymore, but in 2021, he would have been celebrating his 99th birthday. This past weekend Toei Animation held a live stream about four major projects that are going on to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the life of Shigeru Mizuki.
They will be kicking the festivities of with a new series called Akuma-Kun, which is based on Mizuki’s original works back in 1963 when the initial manga was published. The story is about a boy genius, Akuma-Kun, who only comes along once in 10,000 years, and with the help of demons and the twelve apostles, he aims to create an ideal world where there is no conflict or hunger.
Next they announced that the newest GeGeGe no Kitaro will be a movie. The new movie will be the sixth season of the series and will be titled Kitaro: Birth of Kitaro, Mystery of Gegege. It will explore the coming of Kitaro.
They also announced that they will be holding an exhibition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Shigeru Mizuki’s birth. The main theme of the exhibition will be ‘Yokai’, and will introduce a number of works that Mizuki drew in order to pass on the ‘legacy left by the people of the past’ to future generations.
Last but not least, Toei Animation, the animation producer of Gegege no Kitaro, has started a campaign project for the series. In order to convey the appeal of Gegege no Kitaro, they will develop character contents spanning all six series from the first TV animation series broadcasted in 1968 to the sixth series that started airing in 2018. The name of the project is Gegege Gegege no Kitaro, which uses six ‘Ge’s’ in Japanese, in reference to the fact that the project is related to six series.
Additionally, they revealed a key visual of Kitaro and his friends from the first to the sixth series.