Kitarou is a yokai boy born in a cemetery and essentially the last living member of the Ghost tribe, aside from his mostly-decayed father. He's missing his left eye, though his signature grayish-silver hair usually covers the empty socket. (The 2007-2008 anime version notably gave him brown hair instead, which has led fans to speculate it might be a different Kitarou altogether.)
His main gig is keeping the peace between humans and yokai—which usually means protecting people from whatever supernatural trouble the yokai are cooking up. That black and yellow vest he wears? It's made from the hair of his ancestors, which doubles as a functional piece of armor.
Kitarou's toolkit is delightfully weird. He's got remote-controlled geta sandals and a detachable hand that works the same way, plus a magic chanchanko vest that shields him from danger. His hair itself is weaponized—he can shoot spines like arrows and has a strand that acts as a spirit-detecting antenna. He also carries a magical ocarina that usually summons Ittan Momen and can transform into a whip, baton, or occasionally music powerful enough to damage certain ghosts.
Since his debut in the 1960s, Kitarou's become the face of yokai culture in Japan. There are statues, museums dedicated to him, merchandise everywhere—basically the yokai equivalent of how Gundam dominates robot/military imagery. The oldest version fans have seen is from the 2006-2007 live-action film, where he appeared as a young adult somewhere between 18 and 24.
Content compiled by AnimeList.moe from publicly available sources.
