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GeGeGe no Kitarō Gets VR App, 3D Short Movie

The 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō anime is inspiring the "Tamashii to Art" (Spirit and Art) digital art project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Shigeru Mizuki's original manga. Toei Animation is supervising the three-part project featuring virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and 3DCG works.

VR and AR maker Gugenka is developing a VR app titled "Tamashii no Okuribi" (Fire Sending Off Spirits), which will be compatible with the standalone VR headset Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream. In the experience, the user is lost in the world of yōkai and is guided back to the real world by Medama Oyaji. The user will meet familiar characters such as Kitaro along the way.

Toei Animation's digital production department is handling the modeling for the app. Gugenka xR artist Shō Namimatsu is directing the experience.

The Gugenka booth at Tokyo Game Show 2018 in September will offer a preview of the app.

Gugenka's HoloModels smartphone app will also add GeGeGe no Kitarō characters this fall. The app allows users to collect AR figures that appear to be in the real world through the smartphone screen. The user has the freedom to change the figures' poses and expressions.

Characters that will appear as figures include Kitaro, Medama Oyaji, Neko Musume, Nurikabe, and Ittan Momen.

Finally, Dynamo Pictures is producing a 3D video titled "Tamashii no Yukue" (Direction of Spirits). It will be approximately five minutes long and it will screen at an attraction theaters and events around Japan. It is actually the fourth 3D movie for the GeGeGe no Kitarō franchise; the first was 1999's GeGeGe no Kitarō: Kitarō no Yūrei Densha (Kitarō's Ghost Train).

The video is about a man who posts his dissatisfaction with everyday life on social media. He gets lost in GeGeGe Forest.

Sources: Toei Animation, Comic Natalie