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Amanojaku is the main ghost in Ghost Stories. He is banished into Satsuki and Keiichirou's cat Kaya in Episode 1 and remains imprisoned for most of the series, much to his initial chagrin.

Amanojaku gains energy by absorbing the fear of living beings. He can channel this energy into supernatural powers such as levitation, supersonic waves, and other phenomenon to incite fear. As he absorbs power he also gains size, solidity and musculature, becoming more formidable and frightening as a result.

Appearance[]

Amanojaku (small)

Amanojaku as he first appears in Episode 1

When Amanojaku first appears in Episode 1, it is as a tiny, harmless-looking spirit, glowing red and with a whispy tail instead of legs as well as a comically large navel. His voice is high-pitched. His first lines are asking Satsuki to be friends with him. When she refuses he fades away ominously saying that Satsuki would be better off friends with him than enemies. What follows is several supernatural phenomenon, breaking the windows and causing the chandelier to fall on them, frightening Satsuki and her friends and feeding Amanojaku with power so when he reappears, it is as a larger spirit.

Episode 1 timestamp 13-29

Amanojaku (2nd form)

Amanojaku's second form has longer hair and a more defined physique. His voice has deepened unsettlingly. Bandages have appeared on his forearms and he appears to have gained legs. He beckons Satsuki to come over and be friends with him once again, but it turns out to be a trap as, as soon as Satsuki steps forward, Amanojaku makes the umbrellas in a stand to the side rise and fly at her, scaring her and her friends once again and giving Amanojaku even more power. This triggers his final growth to his full-powered form.

Screen Shot 2017-05-31 at 6.21

Amanojaku growing to his full strength.

During his growth to the final form, Amanojaku reveals that he has a grudge against Satsuki, specifically her mother because of their meddling in his plans and sealing him away in the past. Amanojaku at full-power is a huge, hulking oni-like spirit with dark green skin, large eyes, and pointed ears. He has long red hair and beard and a hunched, gorilla-like posture. He has stripes of colored tattoos on his arms and chest, three blue ones on his arms and two purple ones on his chest. He wears a tattered loincloth around his waist and a small black hat with '邪' (evil, wicked) written on it. There are bandages wrapped around his forearms and legs and overlarge golden hoops at his wrists as well as ankle bracelets.

Kaya possessed, episode 1 timestamp 23-37

Amanojaku, possessing Kaya

As a cat, Amanojaku is mostly indistinguishable from Kaya and is a small, black-furred Bombay cat with differing colored eyes. His voice is subtly lighter and more human as Kaya than as a spirit.

Supernatural Abilities[]

In Kaya's body, Amanojaku has limited powers, only able to slightly move small objects. He absorbs the fear of Satsuki and her classmates through their ghostly encounters and regains strength and supernatural abilities. As a cat, Amanojaku can sense and identify ghosts in the close vicinity, it is unclear if this is a result of his spiritual nature, or an innate feline trait.

Character Arc[]

01 Amanojaku diary

Amanojaku in the Ghost Diary

Amanojaku is a typical tsundere character in the series. On the surface, he expresses great scorn and hostility towards Satsuki and her friends, taunting them about enjoyable it will be to watch later ghosts kill them. However, bit by bit, he starts to provide information and hints to Satsuki and her friends about the ghosts and threats in several episodes, reluctantly at first, but with increasing friendliness. Over the course of the series he comes to care about Satsuki and her friends, although he never completely drops his outward callousness. In particular he grows close to Keiichirou, with whom he is seen spending time with and bonding. He accompanies Keiichirou to the hospital where the boy's mother died in Episode 12 and assists in defending against the ghost Yamime in Episode 15 and the spirit Souma in Episode 16. He shrugs off these instances as moments of weakness and assures others that he is merely helping so he can get his powers back. However, in the final episode Amanojaku actively chooses to remain in Kaya's body until he is forced to leave it to save Satsuki, Keiichirou, and their friends from Lord Ouma in the climax of the series. At the beginning of Episode 20, Amanojaku promises Keiichirou that they would pick white daffodils, Satsuki and Keiichirou's mother's favorite flower, together, a promise which he laments being unable to keep in the scene leading up to him departing Kaya for the final battle.

Like other violent ghosts, Amanojaku at least initially expresses deep contempt for living humans. This becomes both an internal point of cognitive dissonance and a source with friction in his interactions with other ghosts. When called out for his association with humanity by other spirits, his responses are defensive and lean heavily on rationalizations such saying humans are his prey, or that the only thing he hates more than humans but hates a ghost's modus operandi even more. It is only in Episode 20 when he is openly willing to call Satsuki his friend.

The fate of Amanojaku at the end of the series is unclear, but it is implied that he is free in the world and haunting to his heart's content, however it is also possible he was placed in spiritual sleep in the camphor tree overlooking the cemetery as the final scene is his light laughter showing the sun-dappled branches of the tree. Either way, it is shown that Amanojaku no longer holds a grudge against Satsuki and her family as he leaves a bouquet of white daffodils for Keiichirou at the base of the tree.

Changes in the Dub[]

In the ADV dub, Amanojaku undergoes some line changes but largely retains his personality and character arc. Mean-spirited and provocative in his original lines, he perhaps already dovetailed nicely with the irreverent direction that the American voice actors took the series, and they simply made his new lines slightly more mean-spirited and provocative.

Trivia[]

Quotes (English Dub)[]

  • "I think [Satsuki]'s right; you ARE retarded!" —Amanojaku to Keiichirou, Episode 3
  • "Oh my heavens, I'm like the Wailing Wall! Get up, I can't stand to see the Jews suffer any more." —Amanojaku to Leo, Episode 14
  • "I'd like to thank my agent, my manager, Steven Foster for writing such a gay-friendly but still mainstream script that spoke to the universe..." —Amanojaku, Episode 20

References[]

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