The Morose Mononokean

Episode 10

One of the things I consistently enjoy about The Morose Mononokean is how it buries its ledes. It starts off like a completely different story, focusing on different characters, before getting to the real heart of the story with a new character. However, it never feels like an unnatural switch. The first story always blends seamlessly into the second one, with the latter feeling like a logical (albeit supernatural) explanation for whatever was happening in the first half of the episode.

Episode 10 also follows this formula. We start the episode at Zenko's place, where Yahiko the fox yokai has a problem. He has grown to a massive size, and it's not because he's depressed like most cases of yokai growth. Yahiko says he was just sleeping and he woke up like that. When they find potatoes from the farm that have an unusual stench—attracting Yahiko because they "smell of yokai"—they know they've found the problem. This leads them out to the fields, which are filled with a thick, pungent steam and mud. Once again, yokai are mysteriously attracted to this mud, as Fuzzy jumps into the mud and then swells to a massive size just like Yahiko. Something fishy is going on for sure, and even if they have to hold their noses, Abeno and Ashiya will venture into the steamy fields to find the source.

Of course, it's nothing so foreboding as the consequences would suggest. That's another feature of The Morose Mononokean's formula: the "problem" is often set up to be mysterious and scary, but turns out to be a more sentimental problem for the new yokai-of-the-week. In this case, the yokai is a one-eyed scarecrow named Nobou, stuck in the field after a tragic mistake during his visit to the "mundane world." Nobou is clearly different from other yokai, because the mud and steam leave him trapped and depressed, not huge and keyed-up like other yokai.

Ashiya finds out the full story when he becomes trapped in Nobou's "phantasmagoria," visions of his memories that Nobou can extend to other creatures. Nobou was sitting in this field, talking to a regular scarecrow, when a human suddenly dropped a cigarette in the field, starting a fire. Nobou stood by helplessly while the fire consumed the field, including his scarecrow friend, afraid to do anything and be hurt by the flames himself. He's wracked with guilt over this, creating the steam that's affecting the other yokai. It's like he's forever recreating the smoke to punish himself, binding himself to the mundane world as a form of atonement for betraying his friend.

Abeno tells Nobou that he has to solve this one on his own; he has to accept that what he did was wrong, realize there's nothing he can do to change the past, and try to move on from it. Nobou's guilt is confining him here, not his friend's "curse." After some painful confrontation of this past, Nobou is able to move on, allowing the steam and smell to go away and the other yokai to go back to normal. This also allows Abeno to finally open the gate to the underworld and return Nobou to it.

I'm fine with this repetition of The Morose Mononokean's formula, but I'm not sure how well this particular iteration succeeded. First off, the good parts: Nobou is certainly a fun character, distinctive and sweet. I love the way that he cries by having black mud bubble up in his one eye. He's easy to feel sorry for and emotive without going over the top into parody. Unfortunately, the circumstances of his sorrow feel a little too silly.

The previous "sentimental" yokai stories have usually dealt with genuinely upsetting circumstances. While it's easy to see why Nobou is upset, it doesn't hit as hard because the audience knows that the "friend" he's crying over is just an ordinary scarecrow, and he didn't "betray" any sentient creatures by letting it burn. This could have been cute and funny if the show acknowledged it, perhaps by having Ashiya and Abeno (who saw Nobou's vision and know the truth) comment on it, bringing out the inherent comedy in the premise. Instead, the show sticks to Nobou's tragic interpretation of the circumstances, assuming the audience will pick up on the truth themselves but never drawing attention to it. That felt like a missed opportunity, making it harder for me to get drawn into Nobou's "tragedy."

Also, while I'm not a worldbuilding stickler who needs to know the exact fantasy mechanics behind everything, I couldn't help but be curious as to why Nobou's smoke affected the other yokai in the way it did. Why were they drawn toward it, and why did it make them enormous? It eventually makes Nobou enormous too, after he shares his "phantasmagoria" with Abeno and Ashiya, so maybe the other yokai saw his visions too? But Fluffy was in and out too quickly for that, and he seemed emotionally unaffected by the situation. It would have been cool to tie those effects into Nobou's dilemma more clearly.

This isn't the strongest episode of The Morose Mononokean, but it helps demonstrate why the show is otherwise strong. Following a formula isn't necessarily a bad thing. In other episodes, this show has pulled off its formula beautifully in a way that wrings maximum emotion from the audience and helps us know the characters better. This episode didn't quite nail the landing, but it was still a fun time, like a supernatural dramedy should be.

Rating: B

The Morose Mononokean is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.