Nurikabe is a large, sleepy-eyed wall-shaped youkai, who uses his massive size to protect Kitaro and his friends. The original Nurikabe is a spirit which blocks the passage of people walking at night. Nurikabe first appears in a cameo as one of many youkai attending a sukiyaki party in the story A Walk to Hell (Rental version) before making a more prominent appearance in The Great Youkai War (Shounen Magazine version). In the 2002 Kodansha International Bilingual Comics edition, he is referred to as Wally Wall.