Hello everyone~! This is Saori from Otaku Republic!

This time, some intriguing news has been announced, so I wanted to check it out! It’s had various media adaptations and collaborations before, but now it’s finally expanding into this medium as well~!

It’s finally getting a stage adaptation! The momentum of *Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe* just won’t stop~! So, it’s been decided that the 2023 broadcast of *Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe* will be performed on stage in January 2026! The cast has already been announced, with the script written by Mouri Nobuhiro-sensei, known for musicals like *Black Butler* and the *Hakuouki* series; direction by Nakayashiki Norihito-sensei, famous for stage plays like *Bungo Stray Dogs* and *World Trigger the Stage*; and music by none other than Kawai Kenji-sensei, who composed the soundtrack for the movie version of *Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe*. It’s a team of professionals who know how to elevate anime and manga into the 2.5D world!

In Japan, the R-12 version of *Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe* was just broadcast on terrestrial TV, so the stage adaptation decision comes right when the fanbase has exploded! With the barrier to refreshing your memory of the story much lower, I imagine a lot of people will go see it! ......And honestly, I’m really curious about it myself!

*Birth of Kitaro: The Mystery of GeGeGe* has two versions—the standard R-12 version, and the R-15 version, which has almost the same story but with different direction and additional scenes for more horror. I was wondering which one the stage version would use...... but since there’s no announcement yet that it will be the R-15 version, and the story is almost the same in both, I think it might be based on the R-12 version. Given the runtime, it’ll be difficult to fully recreate the whole story, but I’m really curious to see what story and production choices they’ll make~! Everyone, be sure to check out this stage play coming in January 2026!