Whale

Whales
Name
Japanese	クジラ くじら 鯨 大鯨
Rōmaji	Kujira Ōkujira
Meaning	Whale
Additional Information
Located in	The Ocean
First Appearance
Manga	Kamaboko (1969)
Anime	Series 2 Episode 13 (1971)

Whales (クジラ or 鯨 or くじら Kujira) are marine mammals that live in the oceans.

Within GeGeGe no Kitarō, they are the descendants of Zeokuronodon.

Description

Shizuko's Father telling that whale spirits are surrounding them, within Bake-Kujira's body in the 1996 Anime.

Whales are a diverse group of fully aquatic marine mammals of the Infraorder Cetacea. They are large animals with blowholes on top of their heads, a pair of flippers, and a tail fluke. They come in a number of species, such as the Sperm Whale, which are the natural predators of giant squids.

Some species go to Whale Graveyards when they instinctively sense when their lives come to an end.

According to Medama-Oyaji, whales and their spirits are gentle and caused a "miracle", the reunion of Shizuko and her father, which is marvel even by Yōkai standards.

History

Kitarō as Ōika attacked by a sperm whale.

Manga

Han-Gyojin puts Kitarō in the Ōika's body to collect fishes. This attracts a Sperm Whale and attacks Kitarō.

Deceased whales' skins have been used for the Whale Blimp.

1971 Anime

A Sperm Whale attacks Kitarō while he was overfishing in the Ōika's body, and Kitarō took the challenge and eventually made the whale withdraw as Kitarō fiercely attacked in order to get out of the squid's body.

1985 Anime

Whale carries his friends to Ryukyu Islands

In episode #73, when wondering how to head back to the Ryukyu Islands where Kijimunas came from, Kitarō noted that he befriended the whales at some point in the past, and he asked one of them to carry him and his father and Ittan-Momen and Nezumi-Otoko and Neko-Musume and Kijimuna to the Ryukyu Islands, and they thanked the whale when they arrived. Later, the whale sent back Kitarō and others to Japan.

1996 Anime

Whales nearby the Whale Graveyard.

Whales appeared in episode #18 Deep Sea Miracle! Bake-Kujira. Old whales are known to travel to the Whale Graveyard to rest in peace which is located in the deep beneath of a tropical ocean. Bake-Kujira is said to be an entity composed of multiple whale spirits and is the guardian of the sacred place and ocean.

GeGeGe no Kitarō: Dai-Kaijū

Blue whales saving Dai-Kaijū Kitarō.

When Kitarō was turned into Dai-Kaijū and lost his power and will due to unwanted destructions he caused on Tokyo, a pod of 5 Blue Whales came to rescue and carried him to a small island nearby, and kept escorting weakened Kitarō. Later, when Kitarō was about to finish off Akamata for what he had done, Kitarō saw the whales cavorting and recalled the previous event, and forgave Akamata and others for the sake of the whales and their ancestor, Zeokuronodon.

2018 Anime

Han-Gyojin puts Kitarō in the Ōika's body to collect fish. This attracts a Sperm Whale who attacks and eventually defeats the Ōika-Kitarō.

Other Media

Jōmon Shonen Yogi

In the first episode, a carcass of stranded baleen whale closely resembling either a Right Whale or a Bowhead Whale had become a focus of inter-tribal dispute including Yogi's clan.

Trivia

Illustration of Mermaid by Shigeru Mizuki.

• The small island which Blue Whales took Kitarō as Dai-Kaijū in the GeGeGe no Kitarō: Dai-Kaijū strongly resembles the small island where Kitarō as Dai-Kaijū resided with Shūichi Yamada's sister and mother in the manga.
• Shigeru Mizuki noted in his books that Honfu and Fastitocalon and Leviathan and the Fish of Jonah could be also types of whales.
• Similar to the illustration of Bake-Kujira, Mizuki's designs of the Mermaid and the whale carcass in Jōmon Shonen Yogi are based on several European illustrations in 19th century.
• Mizuki's illustration of Kitarō as Ōika fighting a sperm whale is based on the 1914 illustration Kraken versus Sperm Whale by Arthur Twidle.
• Mizuki's illustration of Jonah and the Fish which was titled as Phorcys, is a direct ectype of the 280-290 CE sculpture Jonah Cast Up.
• In the original manga and 1971 and 2018 anime adaptations, it was Kitarō whose soul was entrapped within the body of Ōika by Han-Gyojin to overfish, and was attacked by a Sperm Whale after Kitarō severely depleted fish in the vicinity. This is on the contrary to the situation in the Yōkai Sen Monogatari where Kitarō summoned Bake-Kujira, a guardian of the nature, to fight against Han-Gyojin and Ōika.