Series 1 Episode 21

Yō-Kaijū (Part 1) is the 21st episode of the 1968 GeGeGe no Kitarō anime.
==Cast==
;Main
*Masako Nozawa as Kitarō, Old Lady
*Isamu Tanonaka as Medama-Oyaji, Police Officer, Committee Member
*Chikao Ōtsuka as Nezumi-Otoko
;Guest
*Kōsei Tomita as Gyōbu-Danuki, Construction Crew Foreman, Onlooker
*Keiichi Noda as Silk Hat Tanuki, Bomber, Assistant, Committee Member, Next Episode Preview
*Akiko Tsuboi as Kimono Tanuki
*Yonehiko Kitagawa as Dansaburō-Danuki, Construction Worker, Commander, Committee Member
*Kōsaku Sugiura as The Secretary, Sailor
==Synopsis==
In Shikoku, construction work with dynamite was begun near the mountain home of the 808 Tanuki. And old lady warns the crew not to disturb them, but she is laughed off and taken away. Sure enough, the 808 Tanuki are released and scare off the crew. The old lady reaches a police box and tells the officer to phone the government. They get through to a politician (from here on referred to as "the secretary"), but are taken out by a tanuki in a kimono before they can give him much information. The secretary tells his aide to set up a meeting to deal with the possible threat.
Later, a second moon appears over Tokyo, sending the people into a panic. Kitarō arrives and points out to the crowd that the moon is fake. He explains that it is the work of yōkai, but is laughed off by everyone. The secretary and his aide then follow him in their car and requests his presence at a meeting the next day to discuss the situation. But as Kitarō heads home, the second moon follows him closely, and he runs for his life. He trips over a patch of dirt that turns out to be a disguised tanuki, and a large tanuki named Dansaburō leads others in beating Kitarō with clubs. The next day, an unconscious Kitarō is found in the river by Nezumi-Otoko. Medama-Oyaji explains that the 808 Tanuki are making their move and they must run away.
Before they get too far, they are quickly surrounded by tanuki. A tanuki in a top hat explains to them that they plan to take over the surface world and turn it into a tanuki kingdom. They also reveal that the second moon is actually the egg of the giant beast Kōryū (the titular Yō-Kaijū). They then bring them back to Shikoku to meet their leader, the Gyōbu-Danuki. The Gyōbu-Danuki tells his minions to take them to see their other giant beast, the Ōnamazu. There they see the secretary has been captured as well, but he tells them he had already given the order to launch an attack on the second moon, unaware it contained Kōryū. Sure enough, back in Tokyo, the army launches a missile at the egg, dropping it into the Tokyo Bay.
In retaliation, Gyōbu-Danuki demands the secretary speak to the government about handing over Japan. He refuses, but Kitarō convinces him to go along with what they say for now. The Gyōbu-Danuki gives Kitarō three days to help the secretary get things in order, and he kisses him on the cheek to symbolize the promise. Kitarō instead gets to work resealing the 808 Tanuki's cave with Nezumi-Otoko's help, although Medama-Oyaji warns him against breaking a promise with the Gyōbu-Danuki. Although the tanuki are sealed again, Kitarō's cheek that was kissed suddenly swells and the next day he begins transforming into a tanuki.
Knowing Kitarō will object to it, Medama-Oyaji and Nezumi-Otoko drug his food and head back to Shikoku to break the new seal, hoping it will end the curse. They succeed in breaking the seal but are immediately captured by the re-released tanuki. Kitarō returns to normal but then hears an unfamiliar roar in the distance. He travels by Bake-Garasu to Tokyo just as Kōryū hatches from it's egg and rises from Tokyo Bay. The episode ends as Kōryū goes on a rampage, completely undeterred by the army's missiles.
==Characters in order of appearance==
==Differences from manga==
*The old lady and the cop at the beginning of the episode are original to the anime. The exact depiction of the emergence of the 808 Tanuki is slightly different as well.
*In the manga, the politician Kitarō teams up with and who is later captured by the 808 Tanuki was Japan's prime minster of the time, Eisaku Satō. In the anime he is replaced with an original character referred to only as "Secretary". The secretary is also introduced sooner, as the prime minster did not appear in the story until he meets Kitarō.
*In the manga, the tanuki's first assault on Kitarō is forcing him off the road and into a river with the second moon. In the anime, while the second moon still chases Kitarō, it is instead used to lead him into a tanuki ambush.
==Navigation==
Category:1968 Episodes