The "real version" of the sixth season of the TV anime "GeGeGe no Kitaro," based on the manga by the late Shigeru Mizuki, was released on October 4th, with 327 cuts retaken and re-dubbed. It got off to a good start, attracting about 97,700 spectators and earning about 156 million yen in box office revenue over three days. Including the record of "Kitaro Birth: The Mystery of GeGeGe," which was released in November 2023 and attracted about 1.95 million spectators and earned about 2.79 billion yen in box office revenue, the number of spectators has exceeded 2 million and the box office revenue has exceeded 2.9 billion yen.
It was also announced that, as a second bonus for visitors, trading cards using the inner visual of the deluxe edition Blu-ray disc drawn by character designer Toru Yatabe will be given away from October 11th. It is said that the back of the card hides a "secret" that only the recipient can know.
The "real version" is "the horror story that the production team had originally envisioned," and some of the retakes revived the horror scenes that were originally envisioned in the storyboards. "The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe" was rated PG12 (those under 12 years of age require parental or guardian guidance), but the real version is rated R15+ (no viewing for those under 15 years of age). "The Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe" was released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mizuki's birth. This is the first time in about 15 years that a movie version of "GeGeGe no Kitaro" has been released since "GeGeGe no Kitaro: Japan Explodes!!," which was released in December 2008 as the movie version of the fifth series of the TV anime, and it features Kitaro's father (formerly known as Medama Oyaji) and Mizuki as the main characters, and it is the first time that "the story of Kitaro's fathers" has been told. It was released on November 17, 2023, and was also a hot topic when it was selected for the Outstanding Animation Award at the 47th Japan Academy Awards.
