The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe

GeGeGe no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎), originally known as Hakaba Kitarō (墓場鬼太郎, "Kitarō of the Graveyard"), is a Japanese manga series created in 1960 by Shigeru Mizuki. It is best known for its popularization of the folklore creatures known as yōkai, a class of spirit-monster which all of the main characters belong to. This story was an early 20th-century Japanese folk tale performed on kamishibai. It has been adapted for the screen several times, as anime, live action, and video games. The word GeGeGe (ゲゲゲ) in the title is similar to Japanese sound symbolism for a cackling noise but refers to Mizuki's childhood nickname, a mispronunciation of his given name. Selections of the manga and the theatrical live-action films have been published in English, simply titled Kitaro. The 2018 anime series is streamed with English subtitles as GeGeGe no Kitaro. The publisher of the North American English manga is Drawn & Quarterly.