GeGeGe no Kitarō (1968)

The first GeGeGe no Kitarō anime was aired from January 3, 1968 to March 30, 1969. It ran for 65 episodes and is the only anime to be produced in black & white. Like all of the subsequent Kitarō anime, it was produced by Toei Animation and aired on Fuji Television.
==About==
Aside from toning down darker elements and some social commentary, every episode is a quite faithful adaptation of the original manga. Most episodes focused on stories about Kitarō aiding humans in need of his skills or thwarting the plans of evil Yōkai who threaten to torment humanity. Kitarō's personality was also made more friendly and likable. The anime was so popular that Kitarō became a popular children's hero and it created the Yōkai boom of the 1970s.
The music was written and composed by Taku Izumi, who would go on to major songwriter in the world of Japanese music. He also wrote the music to the opening and ending theme songs, which were often used as background music in the show (as well as the following 1971 anime). Furthermore, voice actors Kazuo Kumakura and Midori Katō were brought in to perform the theme songs thanks to Izumi, Kumakura due to their personal friendship and Katō because she performed many of the commercial jingles he wrote at the time. The theme song record sold over 300,000 copies.長田暁二『昭和の童謡アラカルト―戦後編』ぎょうせい、1985年、187頁。ISBN 4324001243。
The role of Kitarō was performed by Masako Nozawa. It was her first starring role, and she would go on to become one of the biggest names in Japanese voice acting. Each episode featured a different preview narrator and displayed the episode titles in a different font style, a trait shared only with the 1971 anime.
This anime also started the idea of Kitarō's allies coming to GeGeGe Forest to meet with him as well as the idea of the Kitarō Family.
Because the series was black and white it has rarely been rebroadcasted despite it's popularity, although it did get a rebroadcast in the 1980s.
==Theme Songs==
;Opening
#GeGeGe no Kitarō - Kazuo Kumakura
;Endings
#Karan Koron no Uta - Midori Katō
#Kitarō Nai Nai Ondo - Kazuo Kumakura (Ep. 27, 28, 31, 32)
#Kitarō Olympic - Kazuo Kumakura (Ep. 41~42)
==Cast==
Main Cast 	Main Cast 	Main Cast
 	 	
Masako NozawaasKitarō	Isamu TanonakaasMedama-Oyaji	Chikao ŌtsukaasNezumi-Otoko
Recurring Cast 	Recurring Cast
 	
Yōko OgushiasSunakake-Babaa	Ichirō NagaiasKonaki-Jijii
===Main Cast Notes===
*Masako Nozawa, Isamu Tanonaka and Chikao Ōtsuka would go on to reprise their respective roles for the following adaptation.
*Yōko Ogushi would go on to voice Neko-Musume in the following adaptation while Ichirō Nagai would voice various guest characters.
===Guest Cast===
*Yukari Asai
*Mitsuko Asō
*Miyoko Asō
*Sachiko Chijimatsu
*Sanji Hase
*Osamu Ichikawa
*Masao Imanishi
*Tatsuyuki Jinnai
*Midori Katō
*Reiko Katsura
*Shūichi Kazamatsuri
*Yonehiko Kitagawa
*Kiyoshi Komiyama	
*Yasoe Matsuda
*Takeshi Minami
*Katsue Miwa
*Seishichi Mukai
*Keiichi Noda
*Noriko Ohara
*Toshiya Ogata
*Hiroshi Ōtake
*Ryūji Saikachi
*Yōko Satō
*Fuyumi Shiraishi
*Sumiko Shirakawa
*Kōsaku Sugiura	
*Kazuko Sugiyama
*Kazue Takahashi
*Kōsei Tomita
*Akiko Tsuboi
*Nobuyo Tsuda
*Kenji Utsumi
*Yoshiaki Wakao
*Kōji Yada
*Kiyoko Yajima
*Nana Yamaguchi
*Keiko Yamamoto
*Sōsuke Yamazaki
*Jōji Yanami
*Tsuyako Yuki
==Episodes==
==Staff==
*Plannig - Iwao Sasaya, Yū Saitō
*Original Work - Shigeru Mizuki (serialized in Shonen Magazine)
*Music - Taku Izumi
*Producers - Yoshiyuki Shindō, Sadamitsu Matsumoto
*Cinematography - Masao Shimizu, Shigeyoshi Ikeda, Hirokata Takahashi, Masa'aki Sugaya, Hiroshi Meguro, Masayuki Hattori, Jirō Yoshimura, Takayoshi Fuwa, Nobuhiro Yamada, Kazu Moriyama
*Art Direction - Saburō Yokoi, Hideo Chiba, Shigeyoshi Endō, Makoto Yamazaki, Hidenobu Misore, Tadami Shitagawa, Masahiro Ioka
*Editing - Hitoshi Komura, Masa'aki Hanai, Hiroshi Suzuki
*Sound Editing: Fumio Arakawa, Isao Hatano, Yukio Ishii, Susumu Konishi
*Sound Effects - Noriyoshi Ohira
*Recording - Yasuko Sekiguchi, Fumie Tanoda, Kinuyo Sekine, Tsunako Hatano, Shizue Ninomiya, Hisako Takano, Kiyo Futamiya, Kiyoko Ikeda, Hisako Takebe, Setsuyo Sekine, Toshiko Kawashima
*Music Selection - Haruo Kagawa, Shigeru Miyashita
*Animation - Yoshihiro Kanako, Hidenori Yamaguchi, Tsunekiyo Ōtani, Akio Ueshima, Toshitsugu Mukaitsubo, Yoshikatsu Kasai, Katsutoshi Sasaki, Shinji Nakamura, Ikuo Ōami, Tokishi Kabuki, Osamu Kasai, Takeshi Okunishi, Yōichi Kominato, Takenori Kawada, Masa'aki Adachi, Kōichi Kamiya, Yasuo Yamayoshi, Tsunekiyo Ōtani, Terufusa Ishikuro, Kamasa Adachi, Minoru Okazaki, Tadao Wakabayashi, Kazuaki Shigeno
*Production Supervision - Shōzō Takemura, Saeko Akiyama, Tetsuo Misawa, Tetsuo Satō, Kazumi Fukushima, Yōjirō Kuma, Yoshiji Dōyama, Haruo Ibaraki, Heihachirō Ōtsuji, Hirō Kubota, Masahisa Saeki, Yoshirō Sugawara, Kazuo Hattori, Kōji Tachi, Katsuhiko Akiba, Kōichi Kudō, Yoshinori Takeda
*Processing - Toei Labo Tech
*Produced in collaboration with Fuji TV
==Movies==
*GeGeGe no Kitarō - Released July 12, 1968. A retelling of episodes #5 & 6.
==References==
pt-br:Anime de 1968
Category:Anime
Category:TV series