In the Edo period of Japan, a lone wanderer wearing a cloak of skins ends up in a gambling town run by demons, namely Boss Ounizo, that hide in the guise of humans to interact with other people.

Demons Youkai in this era, like the Fair Folk, were once equal citizens, and lived beside mankind peacefully; but as advances in technology, especially warfare (with the explosive introduction of the Gatling gun, nonetheless), humans have forgotten their tolerance and nearly wiped their counterparts into extinction.

[5] In his book The Werewolf Filmography, Bryan Senn described the film as a "mix of arty cinematography (slow-motion shots of swaying trees; endless close-ups of the brooding protagonist) and nightmarish exploitation (a basement room full of skulls and a half-eaten corpses; various severed limbs and arterial blood spray), Kibakichi never fully gels.

"[1] Senn noted that the creatures in the film "look more goofy than terrifying" and concluded that "the movie's (non)werewolf energetically attacks and leaps (almost flying at times) with supernatural vigor at the over-the-top, no-holds-barred climax.

Here the beast-man single-handedly decimates the band of gun-wielding human villains in a bloody and energized display of wirework and stylized violence that helps overcome the film's occasional tedium and disjointed feel.