With the launch of Shigeru Mizuki’s seminal manga in 1960, Gegege no Kitaro transformed the landscape of an industry. It popularized yokai and Japanese folklore creatures in modern popular culture and remains a pioneer for horror manga that is heralded, referenced and reinterpreted even over 60 years since its initial publication. While the original manga embraced the horror and terror of the yokai which inhabit its pages, anime interpretations have taken more of an all-ages approach that made the subject more approachable. Most of the time, anyhow - last year's The Birth of Kitaro - The Mystery of Gegege is currently celebrating a return to Japanese cinemas with a bloodier, darker, extended R15+ cut that returns the series to those terrifying roots of old.
It’s a versatile series, and this has extended to its various video game adaptations. Gegege no Kitaro has been in a host of bizarre platformers, a 3D adventure title for the PS1, even a tower defence mobile game. They range in quality, but few truly embody the inherent horror of its source material. Enter Noroi Kago: The Grudged Domain, a co-op title that terrifies as much as it entertains, at least during the occasions when the game is willing to embrace the richness of its initial source material.
The game had a small presence at the most recent Tokyo Game Show, a hole in the wall overshadowed by long lines of players eagerly queuing to get hands-on time with the newest entry in the Professor Layton series. It would be easy for such a small booth to get lost amidst the swarm, but the love for the original series ensured it was a popular attraction throughout the show. The game is one of the first indie labels to be published as part of Toei Animation’s tentative steps into the world of video game publishing. Although the company also hopes to support indie creators in realizing bringing their own original ideas to a wider market, they’re also opening the doors to their rich array of anime IP to give indie creators a chance to inbue their own take on these beloved series.
With Gegege no Kitaro as a base, this is exactly what developer Toydium hopes to achieve with Noroi Kago.
‘We want older Kitaro fans to play this game, but we also want people who don’t know Kitaro to try it also’
Prior to the event a mysterious trailer for the game revealed very little of what to expect, as we slowly wandered a derelict Japanese house infected by yokai. Playing the demo for ourselves, Noroi Kago positions itself as a co-op game where four players must work together to collect katana around the environment, purify them and return them to samurai armor around the stage in order to purify and rid the home of yokai.
This is still an early build, so we were controlling more generic characters as opposed to the Gegege no Kitaro characters we remember (though Kitaro himself would appear if we looked at ourselves in the mirror). That being said, the unnerving dread of the core gameplay was otherwise thoroughly suspenseful and engaging. A lot of credit for the game’s atmosphere can be put down to the art style, with a grungy black-and-white design that called back to the original manga and shrouded the world in shadow that made every corner a mystery.
And when turning a new corner, there’s always a new fright to uncover. Down one seemingly-ordinary hallway I was jump-scared on more than one occasion by an okubi, a gaint head that would send me into a fight-or-flight mode the moment it suddenly dropped through the ceiling directly in front of my field of vision. Even more terrifying was witnessing the Tsuchigumo that stalked the halls of the house, a giant spider yokai that would attack and murder anyone it came across. It was possible to run and hide in cupboards in the hope of avoiding its presence, but its freakishly long legs and eerily-realistic movement were enough to leave me nervously peeking around every corner to ensure it wasn’t overhead.
We were unsuccessful at purifying the house within 15 minutes, but I came away intrigued by this unusual take on the long-running series. In particular, for a story-driven horror series such as this, the decision to turn the franchise into a multiplayer experience sets it apart from other games adapting the series, putting it in the company of games like Phasmophobia. Speaking with the game’s director Shunsuke Fujita, growing interest in the genre from players and a desire to keep the game accessible to even those unfamiliar with the series influenced this decision.
“We want older Kitaro fans to play this game, but we also want people who don’t know Kitaro to try it also,” he explains as we speak following our demo session. "The multiplayer genre is really exploding in popularity at the moment, and it seemed like a good way to bring new players into the series. Rather than making it a character-driven story, we wanted to ensure we could encourage fans to try the game while attracting players who are otherwise more accustomed to playing horror games but don’t know the series.”
This attempt to please both sides also factors into how the game has been marketed across different regions. Domestically in Japan and in regions in Asia here the series is popular and established, the game has been elevated as a Gegege no Kitaro title that takes a new spin on the classic franchise. In America and Europe, where the series is far from common place, the horror aspects of the title have been prioritized.
That’s not to say that the manga and anime is mere set dressing, a familiar name tacked onto an existing project for brand recognition. Even if the game is designed to be accessible even to the uninitiated, according to Fujita, the heart of Gegege no Kitaro remains at the core of this project. “Shigeru Mizuki’s original artwork [for the series] was the starting point for this project,” they explain of the visual look for the project. Indeed, the grungy black-and-white look was chosen to replicate the initial designs of the yokai and overall look from the manga of pages within a 3D environment.
“We believe that Mizuki’s place in history make this look the epitome of Japanese horror, and it captures the mood we wanted players to feel with this game. We would not have been able to capture this mood or bring these yokai to life or get the right mood unless it came from Mizuki’s work.”
Ultimately, the hope is that this embrace of the art and world of Mizuki, so embroiled in a particularly Japanese style of horror with roots back hundreds of years and a folklore underutilized within gaming, will help Noroi Kago to stand out from other titles in the genre, especially when bringing in friends. From Toei Animation’s side, the hope is that the series could even inspire horror fans who give the game a chance to discover the character and world of Mizuki’s work that continues to inspire.
“When it comes to Japanese fans, even if they’ve never seen or read the series, about 90-95% of people are familiar with Gegege no Kitaro, and not so much globally,” explains Tanaka Yohei, a representative from and producer at Toei Animation. “We hope that people can enjoy the multiplayer but also discover the series or a new way to appreciate it through this game.”
Will this gaming gamble pay off for Toei Animation? Noroi Kago is the first major challenge the company has faced as a publisher, although faith in the demo and its reception at the event were both strong. To see how the game expands beyond a one-time demo to an experience players could keep coming back to, and whether it can bridge beyond core fans of the series, will be the determination for the title’s success, and perhaps how the company wishes to continue within this space.
At the very least, the sense of dread and horror is present even in this early state. At times I still see the Tsuchigumo creeping through the dark corridors or growling in full view of the screen when it finally caught up to and murdered me. We need more than this for the game to justify its existence beyond a one-time demo, but it’s a promising start from a team with a desire to tribute a legendary mangaka.
