Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Morose Mononokean
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Agreed. I loved this episode, but even if it was mediocre "slump" seems a bit too strong a word...anyhow, having just caught up with the (translated) manga, i can assure you that it will only get better don't worry, that's all the "spoilers" you'll ever get from me! 
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wolf10
 Posts: 905 |
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Just going by Abeno's offhand comments in the past few episodes, I'm guessing that the previous master ended up setting down roots not unlike the yokai in episode 2, and died from the medicine used to weaken them. It would explain Abeno's unwillingness to use it when we were first introduced to it, as well as his stated reason for wanting any employees of the Mononokean to be human: their inability to set down roots.
But ultimately this is just a guess, and I love being proven wrong on deductions if a story can make the real explanation work better. |
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I'm pretty indifferent fujoshi bait unless it's used for satire reasons generally. I like the Morose Mononokean because it doesn't come off as pandering to fujoshi. Rather, it feels to me more like a very typical (but well done) shoujo where the lead character was swapped from the traditional gender, but in all other ways is written exactly the same, well, except for any actual romance. Really the only reason I think the audience gets the impression that it's fujoshi bait is because we all have the meta knowledge that they surely won't make them into a romantic pairing.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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I would not be surprised to learn that Aoi was a woman. Although the name has increased in popularity for boys in the last decade or two, at the time Aoi was born, which certainly was longer ago than that, it was fairly rare to name a boy Aoi.
Fun factoid: Abe no Seimei's mother was rumored to have been the kitsune Kuzunoha. I wonder if they'll work that in somehow, or if this current storyline is just a nod to that legend. |
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JaggedAuthor
 Posts: 981 |
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Is... Is it not cool to play hide-and-seek in middle school? Not that I ever did, of course!
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Episode 8
I think I wasn't as invested in a dramatic answer to the rumor about Aoi, because I was quite satisfied with that scene. Abeno's calming Yahiko was dramatic (and impressive) enough for me. I'm also about 99% sure now that Aoi is/was female, though I'm not sure it matters either way. I loved the love birds!  I don't think Abeno was testing him though, as he seemed a bit chagrined that he didn't need his help after all. I'm not sure he meant to say "How infuriating" out loud, but it seemed to complete his previous thought.
The reviews have praised this series several times for showing their school life, but it's starting to bug me a little how it seems to be just a backdrop. When Zenko first showed up, they appeared to be changing rooms between classes, but they stop to talk to her and then Yahiko for quite awhile with nary a passing student in sight, and no urgency to get to the next class. In this episode, they're in the classroom, but no one seems to hear the rather loud conversation they're having or wonder why Abeno flicks his hand toward the window. Their classmates just disappear while they're talking. And no one ever seems to notice that they just take off at the drop of a hat for the rest of the school day. I suppose everyone just assumes Ashiya is in the nurse's office.
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chaccide
Posts: 295 |
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This was an incredibly boring episode. They spent half of it standing in the hallway talking about nothing while an exorcist and a couple of yokai are on the other side of the door doing something interesting. Good choice there. I know it's how the mangaka drew it, but it's still rotten storytelling.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Episode 9
^ I'm not sure there was anything more interesting going on inside the room. It was probably just Abeno locating the youkai, and standing around waiting for it to calm down. We essentially saw the redux when Ashiya finally went in and they were starting over at square one, except with Ashiya's empathy carrying the day. And they didn't waste half the episode in the hallway, they brought in the mother to take it elsewhere and have a conversation that revealed some of Ashiya's insecurities. I won't argue that there aren't infinite other ways to do that, and that some of those might be more interesting or dynamic, but the way it was done seems to suit this series. I knew as soon as mom sent the daughter away to make tea that she'd zip off back to the room. I was only surprised that it took her so long. But somehow the certainty that she would made me really antsy during their whole conversation. I don't know if it was anxiety over what havoc her disobedience would wreak or just worrying about Ashiya getting in trouble for leaving his post (you had one job...! ).
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Ep 11:
In the scene on the roof, in which Abeno fires Ashiya and Ashiya vows to regain his powers and position, Yahiko the fox youkai is mimicking Abeno. It took me a minute to get it. At first I was a little confused--Abeno's disregard of Ashiya wasn't exactly out of character, but something seemed off, and the angry tirade he had after Ashiya threw his shoe at him sounded off, tone-wise, which tipped me that another voice actor might of recorded those lines, but they didn't sound the way Yahiko usually does, either. There was a flash of fluffy tales on screen, but it took me a rewind or two to make them out. But the next scene where Yahiko, in fox form, explains to Zenko that he got a bruise on his head because Ashiya hit him with a shoe pretty much confirmed it. Which brings up the questions: why was Yahiko impersonating Abeno, and why did he "fire" Ashiya? It's possible that Abeno asked Yahiko to impersonate him at school to avoid an absence when he took the day off to consult with the Legislator in the Underworld, but that is really out of character--Abeno doesn't like asking for help, let alone from youkai, and he doesn't trust Yahiko as it is. Also, normal humans can't see Yahiko. Perhaps they can see him if he's impersonating Abeno, but we've never been given any indication of this. If only Ashiya could see Yahiko's "Abeno" cosplay at school, that means Ashiya's sight is back--and he doesn't even realize it!
The only explanation for Yahiko's motives in being so mean to Ashiya (that I can think of) is that he's jealous of Ashiya's relationship to Abeno and is desperate to drive a wedge between them. He's both incredibly childish and powerful, which makes him the scariest yokai in the series so far. Ep 10: An incredible fable about survivor's guilt and PTSD almost completely undermined by the fact that the "victim" causing the guilt was an inanimate object. A cute looking inanimate object that was mistaken for a sentient being, but an inanimate object nonetheless. I don't think it was meant to be funny, but the choice is confounding. I suspect the author wanted to present a tragic tale without actually killing anybody off and it just comes off as weird and awkward. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Yahiko wasn't impersonating him, he was sitting on his shoulder.
When Ashiya throws the shoe, it misses Abeno and hits Yahiko. 
You can see the dust? sweat drops? fly off Yahiko and hear the *smack* when the shoe hits him and changes direction. Dunno why he was there instead of Fuzzy though. Looking forward to the conversation between Abeno and the Legislator.
As for Episode 10, I wasn't sure whether the scarecrow was entirely non-sentient or not. There's a belief that everyday objects can become imbued with spirits over time (tsukumogami, or tool gods - not sure if this would qualify), because of the attachments people form to them. So I thought maybe that might've been happening to the scarecrow because of the yokai's feelings ("Did you just praise me?"). It worked for me either way though. |
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Agent355
Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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Oops, I completely misinterpreted that scene! Dang it, I thought I was onto something there. Thanks for setting me straight, Gina Szanboti, I would have been lost next week. Oh, well.
That means Abeno was meaner than usual this week. I thought he was warming up to Ashiya. Guess not. Ashiya was right. It's not like Ashiya asked for the job to begin with--and he wasn't even getting paid, because Abeno claimed he was working off a debt! Even if he was getting paid, it was in "Underworld money". Ashiya should have aimed his shoe better and hit Abeno square in the forehead! If they wanted to show that the scarecrow had any aspect of life, they could have been clearer about it--even a wink would have worked. The emotions of the sentient scarecrow yokai was realistically portrayed but the other scarecrow threw it off balance for me. Then again, there is an idea in mental health counseling that all feelings are legitimate, even if they don't have a logical basis (or even if the counselor can't discern any logic to it). The fact that Abeno and Ashiya didn't invalidate the scarecrow yokai's feelings by insisting that the other scarecrow wasn't real was very respectful of them. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Episode 12 gets a 4, review gets one star for the spoilers and manga-did-it-different shit. I get enough of that garbage in the threads (and this one has been refreshingly free of it). I'll leave now before this becomes a major rant.
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Merida
Posts: 1945 |
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Yeah, that puzzled me a bit, even though it wasn't much of a spoiler. But if we are always urged to go above and beyond with using spoiler tags when it comes to talking about the manga in the comments, it seems odd that this shouldn't apply to the review itself. |
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chaccide
Posts: 295 |
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This show was ok, but for me it was basically the poor man's Natsume Yuujincho, and was keeping me occupied until Natsume comes back in two weeks. There really wasn't a story type here that Natsume didn't do better. Still, Fuzzy is waaay cuter than Nyanko-sensei, and I kind of want a Fuzzy plushie.
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meruru
Posts: 471 |
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I've only watched some of Natsume Yuujincho, but I personally found I enjoyed Morose Monokean more. It's not like I disliked Natsume, but it just didn't draw me in. I ended up getting distracted and wandering off rather than finishing it. I think the key thing really is the character interaction I think it's stronger in Mononokean, and also that it has tons of cute things I'm a sucker for, and not just Fuzzy. |
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