Daruma

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Daruma
Name
Japanese	だるま ダルマ 達磨
Rōmaji	Daruma
Profile
Species	Yōkai
Gender	Male
Family	Ko-daruma
First Appearance
Manga	Daruma (1966)
Anime	Series 1 Episode 59 (1969)
Portrayals
1968 anime	Yonehiko Kitagawa
1985 anime	Yasuo Tanaka Junpei Takiguchi (Ep. 8) Hiroshi Ōtake (Ep. 26)
1996 anime	Nobuo Tanaka
2007 anime	Mugihito

Daruma (だるま Daruma) is a doll Yōkai and frequent antagonist of Kitarō. He first appears in the story of the same name.

Appearance

In the manga, Daruma is a large, sentient, Daruma doll with humanoid limbs. He has a round body, big bushy eyebrows, big eyes and pupils, a large moustache and beard, and a frowning mouth filled with sharp teeth. The small Daruma inside him look similar, but have smiling mouths.

In the 1968 anime, Daruma looks similar, however he has a rounder body that appears to be lighter. The small Daruma inside lack the facial hair the large Daruma has.

Personality

In the manga, Daruma is a impulsive yōkai, forcing himself onto others and expecting to be accepted unconditionally. He seems to care about his fellow yōkai, but is otherwise indifferent to human struggle.

In the 1968 anime, Daruma is more reckless, tormenting and even killing certain humans.

History

1968 Anime

Daruma appears in episode # 59 of the first anime adaptation, Daruma. In this series, Daruma is directly related to the Asian unlucky number "4", and the Western unlucky number "13". He and the smaller Darumas first appears when Nezumi-Otoko opens the fourth locker door in the bath him and Kitarō were in. He later steals a man's truck with the liscence plate "Yotsuya 4 Shi 444" (Yotsuya in kanji uses the character for "4" (四) which is said as "Shi" just like the kanji for death, 死). Daruma runs over a woman in the process, who then spills out four makeup products while muttering his name while sleeping. When the truck driver calls help on the 44th Public Number, he hears Daruma laughing before the small Darumas emerge from the phone's receiver!

Daruma later visits a five-story building to ask the Landlord if he could rent a room for his "Yōkai Housing Problem Solving Specialist 4th Business". The man at first declines, even after Daruma gives him some cash, however the landlord's wife eventually convinces him to accept the yōkai's conditions. When they do, the humans that live in the building get terrorized by the new yōkai, but the landlord keeps this all under wraps as to not leak to the public. When the landlord admits all of this to Kitarō, he hatches a plan to get rid of the building's unruly visitors. When he's about to tear off a signboard Daruma hanged on the building, Kitarō gets splashed with gasoline and lit on fire by Daruma.

When all the building's yōkai flee in terror after Kitarō smokes out the place, Daruma, stubborn as ever, is still in the building. Daruma and Kitarō fight for a bit, with the boy even blinding him, and eventually ending with Daruma releasing the small Darumas out of his belly to attack the boy. Medama-Oyaji tells Kitarō that Daruma's weak spot is one of the small Darumas who is colored lighter than the others; the large Daruma's heart. As Kitarō bites the small Daruma, all the other Daruma's writhe in pain before surrendering. It's unknown where Daruma went after this, though Medama-Oyaji theorizes he might travel to Europe to rent out the 13th floor of another building.

2007 Anime

In episode #93 of the 2007 anime adaptation, Daruma appears The Obake Building's Yōkai Gentleman!.

Powers and Abilities

Daruma Creation: Daruma can create an army of smaller daruma, which are known as his "guts" and they obey his command. Within the 1968 anime, they represented his organs where Kitarō managed to defeat him by finding the one that is his heart. In the 2007 anime, Daruma is defeated when the one with sunglasses starts laughing hysterically.

Daruma Transmutation: He can transform others into inanimate daruma dolls by swallowing them through a hole from his stomach. In the case of Neko-Musume, she was turned into a Maneki-Neko doll.

Multiple Forms: In the 1996 anime, Daruma has the ability to change into three different forms; normal, Hi-Daruma, and Yuki-Daruma.

• Hi-Daruma: In this form, Daruma's body is engulfed in red flames.
  • Fire Manipulation: He is able to control these flames and is capable of sending them around his opponent.
• Yuki-Daruma: Daruma's body is converted into a snowman with a face that changes to match his mood
  • Snow Manipulation: Daruma is able to generate snow and can send a small snowstorm toward his target.

Electricity Immunity: In the 2007 anime, Kitarō's Internal Electricity is not effective against Daruma and Ko-Daruma.

Legend

Daruma is a living Daruma doll, traditional Japanese dolls that represent the Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism