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Kitaro: Drawn and Quarterly Edition #4
Kitaro The Vampire Slayer
Brit-pop meets Japanese folklore as Shigeru Mizuki summons equal parts humour, spookiness, and sheer absurdity
Kitaro the Vampire Slayer is the fifth volume in Shigeru Mizuki’s bizarre stories about a yokai boy and his entourage of otherworldly friends. One of the most popular Kitaro tales, the title story pits Kitaro and his family against a Beatles-inspired mop-topped, guitar-playing vampire named Erit and his castle of horrors. In an unexpected twist―spoiler alert!―Kitaro meets his demise, but even death is hardly enough to keep our favorite yokai boy down.
Along with the villainous vampire, Kitaro faces a trio of monsters straight from Japanese folklore. Mizuki often pulled from classic Japanese folk tales for inspiration, as shown in these three stories. A certain serpent and temple bell appear in “The Phantom Steam Engine,” then it’s onto a bird-like creature with a big beak in “Ubume,” and Kitaro had better not look behind him when the Ushiro Gami comes to town.
The four stories in this volume are collected from the late ’60s golden age of Gegege no Kitaro. Appearing in English for the first time, this kid-friendly edition is translated by Mizuki-scholar Zack Davisson and includes bonus features like “Yokai Files,” where we are introduced to Japan’s folklore monsters, and the fifth installment of the “History of Kitaro” essay by Davisson. For fans of quirky horror, Kitaro the Vampire Slayer is not one to miss!
Kitaro the Vampire Slayer is the fifth volume in Shigeru Mizuki’s bizarre stories about a yokai boy and his entourage of otherworldly friends. One of the most popular Kitaro tales, the title story pits Kitaro and his family against a Beatles-inspired mop-topped, guitar-playing vampire named Erit and his castle of horrors. In an unexpected twist―spoiler alert!―Kitaro meets his demise, but even death is hardly enough to keep our favorite yokai boy down.
Along with the villainous vampire, Kitaro faces a trio of monsters straight from Japanese folklore. Mizuki often pulled from classic Japanese folk tales for inspiration, as shown in these three stories. A certain serpent and temple bell appear in “The Phantom Steam Engine,” then it’s onto a bird-like creature with a big beak in “Ubume,” and Kitaro had better not look behind him when the Ushiro Gami comes to town.
The four stories in this volume are collected from the late ’60s golden age of Gegege no Kitaro. Appearing in English for the first time, this kid-friendly edition is translated by Mizuki-scholar Zack Davisson and includes bonus features like “Yokai Files,” where we are introduced to Japan’s folklore monsters, and the fifth installment of the “History of Kitaro” essay by Davisson. For fans of quirky horror, Kitaro the Vampire Slayer is not one to miss!
192 pages, Paperback
Published January 16, 2018
76 people want to read
About the author
Shigeru Mizuki
742 books332 followersShigeru Mizuki (水木しげる) was a Japanese manga cartoonist, most known for his horror manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. He was a specialist in stories of yōkai and was considered a master of the genre. Mizuki was a member of The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, and had travelled to over 60 countries in the world to engage in fieldwork of the yōkai and spirits of different cultures. He has been published in Japan, South Korea, France, Spain, Taiwan, the United States and Italy. He is also known for his World War II memoirs and his work as a biographer.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 1, 2018
Along with the first volume, The Birth of Kitaro, this is one of my favorites so far. The main story, "The Vampire Eyrt," takes up about 2/3 of this volume and is one of the longest Kitaro stories collected in this recent series from D&Q. And it's also one of the stories I've found most enjoyable. For some reason, this novella-ish narrative resonated with me more than another long story, "The Great Tanuki War," did. But going back over "Tanuki," I appreciate it more.
July 13, 2018
This is really Nezumi Otoko's volume - he does a lot more than Kitaro, who really isn't a terrific match against vampires.
Full review eventually appearing on ANN.
Full review eventually appearing on ANN.
April 14, 2019
It’s time for another volume of stories about the yokai boy named Kitaro! As you might guess, there are vampires this time.
“The Vampire Eryt” is a long tale involving a mop-topped bloodsucker with a guitar, visually inspired by the Beatles. Even though his playing can force people to dance, Eryt has not taken the path of the rock god. Instead, he holes up in an isolated house surrounded by skulls and mostly has servant bats steal small amounts of blood to have a steady supply.
Eryt has returned to Japan after twenty years away chasing beauties in France, and now has a list of Japanese celebrities he wants to suck dry. At the top of the list is the Defense Minister, as Eryt has never before drunk the blood of a government minister.
Somehow, the Japanese government has gotten notice of this threat to the minister, but are helpless in the face of monsters. Therefore, they turn to the one known monster fighter available, Kitaro. This is an early story, so Kitaro is much less openly heroic than he would be by the time the TV series rolled around. At this point, Kitaro’s homeless and poverty-stricken, smokes cigarettes, and has a rather low opinion of humans. He agrees to help anyway.
Kitaro also isn’t getting along with Nezumi-Otoko, who is also on the skids, and they haven’t hung out in ages. So when Eryt advertises for a well-paid secretary, the rat-man is more than willing to take the job. (Nezumi-Otoko kept the trait of working with the villain of the week, even in stories where it makes much less sense.)
The initial battle between Kitaro and Eryt goes badly, with Kitaro being reduced to a skull and puddle of goo for most of the story. Medama-Oyaji has to carry much of the chapter, but the true turning point is when Eryt falls out with Nezumi-Otoko and learns what the rat-man’s true power is: farts.
“The Phantom Steam Engine”: In this one, the menace is a vampiric creature named Pii, who looks kind of like a fish standing on its head. It can convert humans and yokai to vampires by bite, or tricking them into wearing its hat. Pii is accompanied by Marilyn, a vampire who looks like Marilyn Monroe (and is drawn in a completely different art style to most of the characters). It’s not clear if she’s the real Marilyn vampirized, or if a vampire used her blood to shapeshift.
Pii’s afraid of bells, but is cunning and puts its hat on Nezumi-Otoko to have a willing servant. Soon, they’ve taken over a small village. Kitaro struggles magnificently, but soon it looks like everyone will become vampires–until the steam engine finally arrives!
“Ubume” has Nezumi-Otoko revive the title monster, a giant bird, to use as an aerial steed. Naturally, the first thing it does is enslave him. Ubume’s main schtick is kidnapping human infants to raise as its own; as a hobby it also enjoys inducing incontinence in older children by cursing their futons. The minor moral of the story is not getting stuck up about having good grades.
“Ushiro Gami” features a yokai of abandoned houses. But there’s no abandoned houses in this neighborhood. So the Ushiro Gami teams up with a monster cactus that absorbs humans into itself. Once everyone is absorbed, the house is abandoned, and Ushiro Gami can move right in! Kitaro puts a stop to this. (Surprisingly, Nezumi-Otoko is not involved at all.)
The introductory section covers Mizuki’s rising popularity in 1965, leading up to his first anime adaptation. And of course, there’s a helpful listing of the yokai seen in this volume at the back.
Eryt’s considered one of the classic stories of the manga and the other ones are interesting too. Eryt may be a bit strong for children coming to it directly from the latest anime. Recommended for Kitaro fans!
“The Vampire Eryt” is a long tale involving a mop-topped bloodsucker with a guitar, visually inspired by the Beatles. Even though his playing can force people to dance, Eryt has not taken the path of the rock god. Instead, he holes up in an isolated house surrounded by skulls and mostly has servant bats steal small amounts of blood to have a steady supply.
Eryt has returned to Japan after twenty years away chasing beauties in France, and now has a list of Japanese celebrities he wants to suck dry. At the top of the list is the Defense Minister, as Eryt has never before drunk the blood of a government minister.
Somehow, the Japanese government has gotten notice of this threat to the minister, but are helpless in the face of monsters. Therefore, they turn to the one known monster fighter available, Kitaro. This is an early story, so Kitaro is much less openly heroic than he would be by the time the TV series rolled around. At this point, Kitaro’s homeless and poverty-stricken, smokes cigarettes, and has a rather low opinion of humans. He agrees to help anyway.
Kitaro also isn’t getting along with Nezumi-Otoko, who is also on the skids, and they haven’t hung out in ages. So when Eryt advertises for a well-paid secretary, the rat-man is more than willing to take the job. (Nezumi-Otoko kept the trait of working with the villain of the week, even in stories where it makes much less sense.)
The initial battle between Kitaro and Eryt goes badly, with Kitaro being reduced to a skull and puddle of goo for most of the story. Medama-Oyaji has to carry much of the chapter, but the true turning point is when Eryt falls out with Nezumi-Otoko and learns what the rat-man’s true power is: farts.
“The Phantom Steam Engine”: In this one, the menace is a vampiric creature named Pii, who looks kind of like a fish standing on its head. It can convert humans and yokai to vampires by bite, or tricking them into wearing its hat. Pii is accompanied by Marilyn, a vampire who looks like Marilyn Monroe (and is drawn in a completely different art style to most of the characters). It’s not clear if she’s the real Marilyn vampirized, or if a vampire used her blood to shapeshift.
Pii’s afraid of bells, but is cunning and puts its hat on Nezumi-Otoko to have a willing servant. Soon, they’ve taken over a small village. Kitaro struggles magnificently, but soon it looks like everyone will become vampires–until the steam engine finally arrives!
“Ubume” has Nezumi-Otoko revive the title monster, a giant bird, to use as an aerial steed. Naturally, the first thing it does is enslave him. Ubume’s main schtick is kidnapping human infants to raise as its own; as a hobby it also enjoys inducing incontinence in older children by cursing their futons. The minor moral of the story is not getting stuck up about having good grades.
“Ushiro Gami” features a yokai of abandoned houses. But there’s no abandoned houses in this neighborhood. So the Ushiro Gami teams up with a monster cactus that absorbs humans into itself. Once everyone is absorbed, the house is abandoned, and Ushiro Gami can move right in! Kitaro puts a stop to this. (Surprisingly, Nezumi-Otoko is not involved at all.)
The introductory section covers Mizuki’s rising popularity in 1965, leading up to his first anime adaptation. And of course, there’s a helpful listing of the yokai seen in this volume at the back.
Eryt’s considered one of the classic stories of the manga and the other ones are interesting too. Eryt may be a bit strong for children coming to it directly from the latest anime. Recommended for Kitaro fans!
July 22, 2020
The first longer story in this volume pits Kitaro against Eryt the evil ancient vampire who seduces his victims with guitar music. Great fun for all ages. In the three short stories in the back of the book Kitaro goes up against proper yokai - supernatural spirits that Mizuki took from sometimes forgotten ancient folk stories and essentially gave them a new lease on life in his Kitaro series. These shorter stories have a surreal, almost absurdist quality, which I found really interesting.
A word about the art. The character designs are jawdroppingly good and as weird as they come. One of the yokai in 'The Phantom Steam Engine' is this bizarre vampiric creature that looks like the lovechild of a large fish and a Chinese dragon. The overall style is cartoony, but Mizuki likes to place his characters in realistically rendered backgrounds, perhaps to wow readers (it wowed me!). But I'm pretty sure he really, really loved drawing villages, houses, forests, mountains and interiors. These intricate backgrounds also add an additional layer of mystery and perhaps they reflect Mizuki's nostalgic longing for pre-WWII Japan, when people still believed in yokai.
A word about the art. The character designs are jawdroppingly good and as weird as they come. One of the yokai in 'The Phantom Steam Engine' is this bizarre vampiric creature that looks like the lovechild of a large fish and a Chinese dragon. The overall style is cartoony, but Mizuki likes to place his characters in realistically rendered backgrounds, perhaps to wow readers (it wowed me!). But I'm pretty sure he really, really loved drawing villages, houses, forests, mountains and interiors. These intricate backgrounds also add an additional layer of mystery and perhaps they reflect Mizuki's nostalgic longing for pre-WWII Japan, when people still believed in yokai.
June 11, 2020
I didn't like this one as much. Kitaro's more sullen and his relationship with his eyeball dad is strained or something. This was one of the earlier tales, so I'm guessing it's one of the ones Mizuki reworked when Kitaro became popular. It's got its moments. but it's a bit darker and less humorous than the other stories. The vampire is some kind of beatnik with a guitar, so it feels a little dated to boot. Not that when you're looking for that, it isn't good. But it's quite different tonally across the board. I wonder if they included it later so you didn't get a bad first impression of Kitaro...
November 2, 2018
I love Shigeru Mizuko's work, and especially Kitaro. It's got some definite Tove Jansson Moomin vibes going on. Getting a real kick out of read Zack Davisson's "Yokai Files" in these publications, too - especially learning how the editor of Garo supported Mizuki when no one else would! (And did Mizuki lose his dominant / drawing arm...?)
September 16, 2022
The gags & creeps & chills all land much better in the first, extended tale for - which the volume is named - than really any of the other tales so far (or in the series of shorts that follow).
Enjoyable and amusing.
Enjoyable and amusing.
June 9, 2025
1960s Japanese absurdist comic -- unsurprisingly I struggled a bit with the writing. The art is technically impressive. The story, the stories, were some level of zany meets deus ex machina that was kind of fun as the pages turned, but without much significance as a whole.
March 19, 2018
One of the more enjoyable of these little D+Q Kitaro volumes. Kitaro takes a bit of a back seat in the main volume but is still able to help all the friends out of the mess caused by Nezumi Otoko (as usual).
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews