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Mōryō (モウリョウ) is a GeGeGe no Kitarō story that was first published as a chapter of the Shonen Magazine run. It has been adapted for the 1968, 1985, 1996 and 2018 anime versions of GeGeGe no Kitarō.
The premise is similar to a non-Kitarō story by Shigeru Mizuki called Shibito-Tsuki, which also features the yōkai Mōryō.
Characters[]
Plot[]
At night, a boy named Tamakichi is expected to keep watch on the graveyard in a village, but slept instead. Since ancient times, people were tasked to watch over the graveyard for about a month to prevent animals or yōkai from stealing any bodies. That night, a mummy-like yōkai walks near a grave. Tamakichi wakes up and notices the figure, recognizing the grave as one for the body of a man that was buried a few days ago. Tamakichi tries to grab onto the the figure, but gets knocked out by the man's coffin.
The next day, Tamakichi wakes up, confused. He noticed one of his hands was holding a finger of the yōkai last night. He heads to the head priest of the village's shrine, who tells Tamakichi he saw the the thing he saw last night was the yōkai Mōryō, an evil spirit that has lived near the village for as long as he can remember, constantly possessing new corpses to becomes stronger. The priest last saw it half a year ago, possessing the corpse of a man named Yamada, someone who died just 2 or three months earlier. Just then, Nezumi-Otoko appears as a salesman and tells the two about a company called "Yōkai Industries" and offers to help the two, offering a limited time deal costing 50,000 yen. The priest doesn't have enough money for it, so Nezumi changes it to a huge service fee of 2,000 yen. Nezumi adds that the company president is none other than Kitarō, who plans to take humans on tours to places in Jigoku, using Yōkai Locomotives. Nezumi-Otoko gets 1,000 yen from the priest and writes a letter to Kitarō, sending it to him via a crow. Nezumi boasts that while the boy will take care of the yōkai, he'll be taking the payment for it.
Afterwards, Tamakichi actively tries to leave Nezumi-Otoko, but changes his tune when the hanyō tells him the Mōryō will return to attack him. The two of them sleep at an inn at night, but are interrupted by the Mōryō bursting out of the windows. The mummy grabs Tamakichi, recognizing him, while Nezumi-Otoko runs. Nezumi-Otoko sees a pair of Oni-Bi and gets frightened, but in reality they're just the headlights of a Yōkai Locomotive driven by Kitarō! As the Mōryō muches on Tamakichi's forehead, Kitarō uses his Hair Needles to drive him off. Kitarō, Tamakichi, and Nezumi-Otoko later hide in the graveyard to spy on the Mōryō, and Kitarō later summons Tsurube-Bi to burn the corpse-stealing yōkai. In the morning, after Nezumi-Otoko checks on the remains of Yamada's body, the Mōryō's true form appears: a giant, monkey-like yōkai. Medama-Oyaji and Kitarō tell Tamakichi that since Mōryō doesn't have a true physical form and only possesses bodies to make up for his strength, he is already severely weakened. Just then, the Mōryō lunges at them, but just barely misses. Tamakichi remembers that he still has the finger of Yamada's body, and so when it's burned, Mōryō finally fades away.
Kitarō finds out Nezumi-Otoko has been scheming after the priest mentions the 1,000 yen he gave, and the two drive off in the Yōkai Locomotive as Tamakichi and the pries thank them.
Remakes[]
Manga[]
- Bokura - Mōryō (モウリョウの巻)
Anime[]
- 1968 Anime
- Episode 31 - Mōryō (aired August 4, 1968)
- 1985 Anime
- Episode 53 - Yōkai Mōryō of Plate Manor (aired November 15, 1986)
- 1996 Anime
- Episode 86 - The Death User, Mōryō (aired September 14, 1996)
- 2018 Anime
- Episode 78 -The Mōryō of Mukuro Village (aired October 20, 2019)