Yama-Jijii (山爺, Mountain Geezer), also known as Yamanji, is a mountain Yōkai who often lives in GeGeGe Forest.
Appearance
Yama-Jijii has a large, oblong-shaped head, that is usually depicted as pale beige, or brown with one eye, usually with a ring around it, in the middle of his face. Two different sized nostrils and a backwards J-shaped mouth with two individual teeth sticking up behind his bottom lip, both usually colored as red, but some adaptations make them black. His entire body is covered in a straw raincoat, with only his arms and one leg are shown. He is rather short, usually being slightly taller than a young adolescent.
In the fourth anime, His pale beige head is noticeably larger than most of his body, his eye is white and surrounded by an orange ring, one of his nostrils is smaller and under the other, his lips are pink and the inside to both are black. His straw raincoat is also ruffled around his neck.[1]
Within the fifth anime, Yama-Jijii's head is brown, his eye is green and surrounded by a black ring with several cracks around it, his lips are yellow and the inside and nostrils are red and his teeth are more triangular. His straw raincoat is noticeably longer than most adaptions.[2]
In the sixth anime, his head has a more defined appearance, having a more pale wooden-like exterior, with more noticeable holes around his pale beige face. His eye is white and is surrounded by a thick brown ring with several cracks around it, green moss also appears around his face, his lips are yellow and the inside of his mouth is red. He still has his straw raincoat that covers most of his body, but it has a little tied knot in the front, under his head. Unlike in other adaptations, he is much larger than others having towered over a child like Yūta.[3]
Personality
Not much of Yama-Jijii's personality is known, due to his few roles, but in most adaptations he is shown to be rather harmless. He is rather cowardly once he realizes how grave the dangers he is in. Nonetheless, he is amongst the peaceful yōkai throughout many adaptations.
In the fourth anime, he is shown to be rather scatterbrained, seemingly always in a daze, being easily distracted by other things such as chasing after a butterfly. Unlike in previous adaptations, he is unaware of the danger he is in, as he continues to do what he's doing as his colleagues realize what they've been hired to do. He is however still cooperative with whoever he's working with, helping his fellow "assassins" to kill Kitarō, despite their incompetence.[1]
The sixth anime however makes him more formidable, being a serious threat unlike in other adaptations. Here he is quick to rage and is persistent to chase after Yūta, once he stole one of his fruit. After calming down, he forgives Yūta, as he is a child, but warns him to never to do it and gives him advice that "even yōkai have rules too".[3]
History
Early Appearances
Yama-Jijii first appears as one of the yōkai Nezumi-Otoko brings for Kitarō to ask to help against the Western Yōkai. Like most of the others, he disappears as soon as he realizes the danger involved. In this appearance alone, he had two eyes.
Yama-Jijii continue to make mostly background appearances in both the manga and anime. In Saishinban GeGeGe no Kitarō, he was at the GeGeGe Forest banquet. He filled the cup of the boy who came along with Kitarō.
First Anime
He first appears in the 1968 anime in episode #10, The Great Yōkai War (Part 1).
Fourth Anime
He appears in episode #113 of the fourth anime, Kitarō vs. The Three Assassins!. In this episode, Yama-Jijii is one of the Three Assassins hired by Shu-no-Bon for Nurarihyon. It's never clear what he is thinking as he seems to always be in a daze. His assassination attempt merely consisted of him throwing acorns at Kitarō.[1]
Fifth Anime
In the fifth anime he takes part in Yōkai Sports Meet.[2] Later he is one of the chosen 47 Yōkai Warriors and represents Kōchi Prefecture.
Due to the fifth anime adaptation's sudden cancellation at 100 episodes, he is among the 23 Yōkai Warriors that were not revealed aside from the movie GeGeGe no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!.
Sixth Anime
In the sixth anime series, he appears as a resident of the GeGeGe Forest in the episode The Taboo of the Mysterious Forest. When Yūta picks one of the berries off of his tree, he becomes enraged and grows to giant. He then starts to sprout numerous black arms from the ground and capturing yōkai at random, including Nezumi-Otoko and Konaki-Jijii. Once Medama-Oyaji realizes Yūta took one his berries, he tells Yūta to return it, which calms Yama-Jijii down. Later, when Yūta apologizes to him, Yama-Jijii forgives him but warns that "Yōkai have rules too". He then marks Yūta's palm with a warning mark and sends him on his way.[3]
He is among the crowd of yōkai gathered around the GeGeGe House, trying to drive Agnès out of the forest. He listens to Medama-Oyaji's warning that if they drive her out then the tragedy Malay yōkai will repeat somewhere else. Soon followed by Kitarō as he explains how grave the consequences are if Japan becomes a part of Backbeard's empire, causing the crowd to look at one another. Until their attention is drawn to Kitarō as he stands on his resolve to fight.[4]
Abilities
Yama-Jijii is usually depicted as being rather harmless, not showing any offensive or defensive capabilities in most adaptations.
Size-Shifting: Within the sixth anime, Yama-Jijii is capable of growing to tremendous sizes, towering over GeGeGe Forest when he was enraged and caused a rampage. He is also later show to be able to revert back to his normal size after calming down.[3]
Black Arm Generation: When enraged Yama-Jiji is able to sprout a multitude of black arms out of the ground, indiscriminately grabbing nearby yōkai. These black arms disappear after he calms down.[3]