Backbeard is a powerful Western yōkai, specifically American in origin. He first appeared in "100 Ghosts and Hauntings of the World" in the August 1965 issue of *Shonen Book* before becoming prominent in *GeGeGe no Kitarō*. He appears as a giant sphere or disk composed of shadowy substance. His form features a single large central eye surrounded by a colored eyelid (blue, green, or light grey across adaptations) and numerous short, root-like tentacles. His eye's design varies: yellow or white sclera, red irises with violet veins or dark rings, with visible pupils in later series. The sixth anime adaptation granted him a temporary humanoid form with green-tinted, tissue-like skin retaining his central eye, used sparingly. Backbeard leads the Western yōkai factions, holding immense power. He exhibits a prideful, egoistic personality with strong disdain for Japanese yōkai, viewing them as weak. He strictly adheres to social Darwinism, believing the strong inherently deserve to dominate and the weak deserve eradication. He manipulates and sacrifices followers like the witch sisters Adél and Agnès for his goals, shows no loyalty to subordinates, and relishes inflicting physical and psychological pain. Despite this, he displays pragmatic obedience to stronger entities, such as accepting Akashita's rulings during the Yōkai Rally without protest. His powers center on his eye, capable of hypnosis (including countering others' spells), inducing prolonged dizziness, emitting heat beams that ignite targets, firing concentrated energy blasts, and generating lightning. His tentacles function as physical weapons for stabbing, binding, or capturing foes. He can grow temporary limbs for specific tasks like sumo wrestling. Narratively, Backbeard debuted as the primary antagonist in "The Great Yōkai War" (1966 manga; 1968 anime). He led a Western yōkai invasion—including Dracula, a Witch, Wolfman, and Frankenstein—to conquer Kikai Island, slaughtering half its population and nearly exterminating the Kitarō family. Medama-Oyaji defeated him by stabbing his eye. Later manga chapters like "Kitarō's Vietnam War" and "Yōkai Lockheed" showed him occasionally assisting Kitarō, such as locating a spy or breaking hypnosis spells, while retaining malicious tendencies like causing traffic accidents for amusement. His role fluctuated between antagonist and rival across media. In the "Yōkai Rally," he competed aggressively, finishing third and disputing the results until overruled. During the "Yōkai Sumo Tournament," he cheated using hypnosis and tentacle-stabbing but was defeated by Kitarō. In the sixth anime (2018–2020), he orchestrated the "Brigadoon Project": a scheme to strip global yōkai and transformed humans of free will, turning Earth into his empire. This involved exploiting the witch family—sacrificing their mother, manipulating Adél, and coercing Agnès into becoming the project's core—until his defeat by Kitarō and allies. Symbolically, Backbeard embodies Western imperialism in Japanese postwar culture. His invasions and conflicts with Japanese yōkai parallel historical traumas like the American occupation and the Battle of Okinawa, framing Western monsters as existential threats to Japanese cultural identity.