I am so happy to be with you today my dears for it has fallen to me to introduce you to one of the shelf’s new heroes (and provide you with a free crochet pattern of course!). We received today’s graphic novel, The Birth of Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki from PanMacmillan Australia (thanks!) for review and we just fell in love with the little one-eyed yokai boy Kitaro. Having read Mizuki’s graphic memoir, NonNonBa, a year or so ago, we knew we were likely in for a treat with this collection of short paranormal fiction stories, but we weren’t prepared for how fun and endearing Kitaro would end up being. But enough shilly-shallying: without further ado, I present to you: The Birth of Kitaro! Here’s the blurb from Goodreads.
Meet one of Japan’s most popular characters of all time-Kitaro, the One-Eyed Monster Boy
The Birth of Kitaro collects seven of Shigeru Mizuki’s early, and beloved, Kitaro stories, making them available for the first time in English, in an all-new, kid-friendly format. These stories are from the golden era of the late 1960s, when Gegege no Kitaro truly hit its stride as an all-ages supernatural series. Mizuki’s Kitaro stories are both timelessly relevant and undeniably influential, inspiring a decades-long boom in stories about yokai, Japanese ghosts, and monsters.
“Kitaro’s Birthday” reveals the origin story of the yokai boy Kitaro and his tiny eyeball father, Medama Oyaji. “Neko Musume versus Nezumi Otoko” is the first of Mizuki’s stories to feature the popular recurring character Neko Musume, a little girl who transforms into a cat when she gets angry or hungry. Other stories in The Birth of Kitaro draw heavily from Japanese folklore, with Kitaro taking on legendary Japanese yokai like the Nopperabo and Makura Gaeshi, and fighting the monstrous recurring villain Gyuki.
With more than 150 pages of spooky and often funny comics about the titular yokai boy, The Birth of Kitaro is the perfect introduction to the award-winning author Mizuki’s most popular series, seminal comics that have won the hearts of Japanese children and adults for more than half a century.
So although Kitaro is new to us, he has been kicking around in Japan for many a good long year and is well known there as the yokai boy who is available to assist with all your yokai-removal needs, possessing, as he does, the powers of his Ghost Tribe ancestors. The book is presented in traditional manga format, so younger readers will no doubt find great amusement in having to read from the back of the book to the front. Before the comics start there is a short introduction explaining Kitaro’s popularity in Japan and some background about the author. Then we dive straight in to the story of Kitaro’s birth, in which you will meet possibly the most delightful and charming ghost/zombie/undead couple upon which one could ever lay eyes. These darling creatures are Kitaro’s yokai parents, and their only desire is to find a safe place for Kitaro to grow up before they perish for good.
Following on from this are bite-sized chunks of adventuresome goodness, as Kitaro steps in to assist with all manner of unearthly problems. These include, but are not limited to, giant sea-cow-crab monsters, face-stealing spirits and shape-shifting cat people. While they didn’t particularly scare us as adult readers, the stories are full of strange beings and a mythical world that I suspect most westerners wouldn’t be familiar with, so I think younger readers will appreciate this more as “horror” or at the very least, strange ghost stories, while older readers will just revel in the fun and oddity of it all. The stories all have a tiny bit of a moral, usually related to someone or other behaving in a way that brings misery down upon themselves. The individual stories are easy to follow and I can picture the excitement imaginative youngsters would experience on discovering Kitaro and his adventures for the first time.
At the back of the book are a few unexpected and fun activities, including a yokai wordsearch, a drawing activity, a “spot the difference” puzzle and a run-down of all the yokai featured in the stories and their geographical origins. Overall, this is an extremely impressive package and it is clear that the creators of the book have gone to great lengths to make it kid-friendly.
We at the shelf would recommend this book most highly to young readers in the middle grade age bracket or older, who are either capable readers or fans of graphic novels (or both!) and are looking for tales that are good, clean, paranormal fun.
We just loved meeting Kitaro and will definitely be seeking out the second collection of stories (whi
ch was published a number of years back) posthaste.
Now is probably the ideal time to point out that in the first story in the collection – that involving Kitaro’s birth – we came across a character who stole the show and quickly became our favourite little disembodied (then re-embodied) eyeball of all time. We speak of Medama Oyaji, Kitaro’s father (pictured on the cover above – the green gentleman), who, after the decomposition of his undead body, resolves into a single, sentient and extremely active eyeball. Recreating this charming little father-figure was just too tempting to pass up and it is for that reason that I am now able to offer you….
A Free Medama Oyaji Amigurumi Crochet Pattern!
As ever, the pattern is written using American terminology, because that’s how I learned first.
You will need:
4mm crochet hook
A large amount of white yarn and smaller amounts of black yarn and the colour you would like to use for the iris (I used green).
A small amount of stuffing
A yarn needle
Scissors
Special stitches:
3dc cluster: make 3 dc in the same st. Before completing the final dc, remove the hook, place it from back to front in the first dc you made. Pass the hook through the last dc of the cluster, yo and pull through the first and last double crochet stitches. This will create a little bobble.
Eyeball (Head)
Using white yarn, make a magic ring and crochet six sc in the ring
inc (2sc in each sc) around (12)
*sc in next sc, inc* x 6 (18)
*sc in the next 2sc, inc* x 6 (24)
*sc in the next 3sc, inc* x 6 (30)
*sc in the next 4sc. inc* x 6 (36)
*sc in the next 5 sc, inc* x 6 (42)
*sc in the next 5sc, sc2tog* x 6 (36)
*sc in the next 4sc, sc2tog* x 6 (30)
*sc in next 3sc, sc2tog* x 6 (24)
*sc in the next 2sc, sc2tog* x 6 (18) Turn eyeball right side out and stuff
*sc, sc2tog* x 6 (12)
sc2tog x 6 (6). FO. Thread yarn needle and weave end in and out of final six sc. Pull tight to close the hole, FO and weave in the yarn end.
Body and Legs
Using white yarn, ch12 and sl st into the first ch to form a circle (12)
1-3. sc in each stitch (12)
4. sc in the next 3sc, 2sc in the next 6sc, sc in the next 3sc (18)
5-6 sc in each sc (18)
Sc in the next 4 sc, to move the beginning st to the centre of the figure’s back
Beginning of first leg:
7. sc in the next 9sc, skip 9sc and sl st into the initial sc to join
8-11 sc in each sc of the first leg (9)
12. *sc, sc2tog* x 3 (6)
13-14. sc in each sc (6)
15. sc2tog x 3 (3)
FO. Cut yarn and pull tight. Using yarn needle, weave in ends.
Join new yarn in the next unworked sc of round 7.
Repeat rounds 8 to 15 to create the second leg. FO, weave in ends.
Stuff the body and legs lightly and attach to the bottom of the eyeball/head.
Arms (make 2)
Using white yarn make a magic ring and sc 6 into the ring.
1 – 5. Sc in each sc (6)
6. sc in next sc, 3dc cluster in the next sc, sc in next 2sc, 3dc cluster in the next sc, sc in the next sc (6)
7. Sc2tog x 3 (3)
FO, weave in end. Attach arm to body.
Pupil
Using black yarn, make a magic ring and sc 6 into the ring. Sl st into the first sc. Pull the ring to close, but leave a small hole.
Change to white yarn.
Ch 1, 2sc in each sc. Sl St in the first sc to join (12)
Ch1, *sc in the next sc, inc* x 6, sl st in the first sc to join (18)
Change to black yarn
3. Sl st in each sc around (18)
FO.
Using the colour of your choice, embroider colour lines onto your pupil, adding a small white square in the original black magic ring.
Attach your pupil to your eyeball/head.
Display your work proudly!
So there you have it my dears! A fantastic paranormal adventure tome and a cute, cuddly eyeball for your very own. You can thank me later when all your friends are begging you to make them a charming eyeball companion.
Cheerio my dears,
Mad Martha