It's the first GeGeGe anime for mature viewers. It's a 1956 origin story with blood, incest, gruesome murder, body farms and a bittersweet ending. Baddies are dead and baby Kitaro has been born into the form we know, but sympathetic characters weren't rescued and promises weren't kept. The theatrical release was rated PG12, but there's also an R15-rated "True Birth Edition".

Frankly, though, the real reason not to show this to children is because they'd get bored. The heroes are forgettable and don't initiate much action, while the storyline is mostly "look, evil baddies are evil". (This is undeniable and their sins are pretty staggering, but that's not enough for an interesting plot.) There are also horrible World War Two flashbacks, with a commander who hated soldiers returning alive and so would pre-emptively announce their honourable deaths before sending them back to the front lines.

There's movie-quality art, in both the beautiful backgrounds and the violent action scenes in the last forty minutes. Some of the yokai character designs look a bit goofy, but they're being faithful to Mizuki Shigeru's designs. I'd have been shocked if they'd done anything else.

I'd have liked this film better had I cared about the cast. We meet Kitaro's dad when he still looked human and indeed was arguably good looking (relatively speaking). Also, there's a salaryman called Mizuki (c.f. Hakaba Kitarou). They're not particularly dynamic, though, and there's no involvement for the familiar gang bar a very minor character who resembles Nezumi-Otoko. Admittedly, though, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it framing story with the 2018 versions of Kitarou, Neko-Musume and Eyeball Dad, with a surprising and quite strong emotional payoff.

This film was released to commemorate Mizuki Shigeru's 100th birthday. (He lived to the age of 93, which is pretty good for a one-armed World War Two soldier who got ordered to die for his country to avoid the dishonour of survival. To learn more, read his Onward Towards our Noble Deaths.) I love the guy. Did you know that the international smash hit Death Note used the same idea as an earlier one-shot Mizuki Shigeru story, The Miraculous Notebook, about a notebook that killed anyone whose name was written in it? This particular film, though, isn't a great introduction to him. It might be interesting to pair it with Hakaba Kitarou, but it's nothing like mainstream GeGeGe anime and it can be a bit dull.

It has atmosphere, though. It's one of those films that would probably improve on rewatching, as you got deeper into the characters and horror.

"We don't need his limbs. Cut them off."