Shigeru Mizuki’s Kitaro: The Birth of Kitaro

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 a kid-friendly format and price point.

With more than 150 pages of spooky and often funny all-ages comics about the titular yokai boy, The Birth of Kitaro is the perfect introduction to Mizuki’s most popular series, which has won the hearts of Japanese children and adults for more than half a century!

“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.

Story by Shigeru Mizuki.