Live action TV
Description
Ittan Momen is a yōkai who manifests as a long, living strip of white cotton cloth. His body typically measures around ten meters in length, though this can vary, and it thins out towards the tail, allowing for a degree of stretching. Despite lacking a visible mouth, he is capable of eating, drinking, and speaking. His face is marked by a pair of thin, pointed eyes without discernible pupils, and he possesses two arms, the number of digits on which has varied across different depictions. Internally, he has a bone at the front edge of his head, which is the hardest part of his body. This creature originates from the folklore of Kagoshima Prefecture, where it was said to appear at dusk to attack humans by wrapping around them or suffocating them. Within the narrative, however, he is a benevolent and loyal character.
Ittan Momen is defined by a personality that is both helpful and aggressive. He is a good-natured yōkai who regularly assists the protagonist Kitaro, but he possesses a distinct "war hawk" mentality, preferring to engage in a fight first and discuss matters later. He is exceptionally fastidious about his cleanliness, carefully washing and drying himself by hand because he despises the tumbling action of washing machines and the hot air of dryers. This fastidiousness extends to a strong dislike of rainy weather, as getting wet severely weakens his strength and forces him to be dried out to return to normal. He has expressed a general dislike of children, though he has been known to form bonds with specific individuals who help him. In the 2018 anime, his fondness for beautiful women and girls is a notable and overt trait, and he has a habit of expressing himself with puns related to his nature as a cloth. He is single and has shown an interest in finding a partner, and he enjoys admiring pretty women and beautiful kimonos. His dislikes include being used as a loincloth.
Ittan Momen's primary role in the story is to serve as a form of aerial transportation for Kitaro and his allies, carrying two to three people at a time with great agility and speed. Beyond this, he is also a competent fighter in his own right. He has been entrusted by Medama-Oyaji to lead troops into battle, demonstrating his value in combat situations. His key relationships are with the other members of the Kitaro Family, which includes the protagonist Kitaro, the elder Medama-Oyaji, and the often-deceitful Nezumi-Otoko, whom he frequently punishes by constricting. He also has ongoing interactions with Neko-Musume and other recurring yōkai. His role has evolved significantly over time; in the earliest anime adaptations, he appeared infrequently and had almost no dialogue. However, beginning with the 1985 anime, he became a much more talkative and comedic character, gaining a distinct dialect and a more prominent personality. In later series, his character was fleshed out with specific quirks, such as his love for reading, his dislike of flies in the 1996 anime, and his elevated self-care rituals in the 2007 version. He is also designated as one of the 47 Yōkai Warriors, representing Kagoshima.
Ittan Momen possesses several notable abilities. His most fundamental power is flight, allowing him to levitate and travel for extended periods. In combat, he can use his elongated body to wrap around and constrict opponents with considerable force, effectively restraining them. His body itself can also be used as a cutting or piercing weapon. He is able to camouflage himself and can even use his body as a blindfold. Due to his composition of cotton, he has specific vulnerabilities, particularly to fire, scissors, and water. However, his body can be repaired if it is torn by sewing the damaged parts back together, and in some adaptations, he is able to recover from severe wounds when exposed to water.
Ittan Momen is defined by a personality that is both helpful and aggressive. He is a good-natured yōkai who regularly assists the protagonist Kitaro, but he possesses a distinct "war hawk" mentality, preferring to engage in a fight first and discuss matters later. He is exceptionally fastidious about his cleanliness, carefully washing and drying himself by hand because he despises the tumbling action of washing machines and the hot air of dryers. This fastidiousness extends to a strong dislike of rainy weather, as getting wet severely weakens his strength and forces him to be dried out to return to normal. He has expressed a general dislike of children, though he has been known to form bonds with specific individuals who help him. In the 2018 anime, his fondness for beautiful women and girls is a notable and overt trait, and he has a habit of expressing himself with puns related to his nature as a cloth. He is single and has shown an interest in finding a partner, and he enjoys admiring pretty women and beautiful kimonos. His dislikes include being used as a loincloth.
Ittan Momen's primary role in the story is to serve as a form of aerial transportation for Kitaro and his allies, carrying two to three people at a time with great agility and speed. Beyond this, he is also a competent fighter in his own right. He has been entrusted by Medama-Oyaji to lead troops into battle, demonstrating his value in combat situations. His key relationships are with the other members of the Kitaro Family, which includes the protagonist Kitaro, the elder Medama-Oyaji, and the often-deceitful Nezumi-Otoko, whom he frequently punishes by constricting. He also has ongoing interactions with Neko-Musume and other recurring yōkai. His role has evolved significantly over time; in the earliest anime adaptations, he appeared infrequently and had almost no dialogue. However, beginning with the 1985 anime, he became a much more talkative and comedic character, gaining a distinct dialect and a more prominent personality. In later series, his character was fleshed out with specific quirks, such as his love for reading, his dislike of flies in the 1996 anime, and his elevated self-care rituals in the 2007 version. He is also designated as one of the 47 Yōkai Warriors, representing Kagoshima.
Ittan Momen possesses several notable abilities. His most fundamental power is flight, allowing him to levitate and travel for extended periods. In combat, he can use his elongated body to wrap around and constrict opponents with considerable force, effectively restraining them. His body itself can also be used as a cutting or piercing weapon. He is able to camouflage himself and can even use his body as a blindfold. Due to his composition of cotton, he has specific vulnerabilities, particularly to fire, scissors, and water. However, his body can be repaired if it is torn by sewing the damaged parts back together, and in some adaptations, he is able to recover from severe wounds when exposed to water.