This Week in Anime

The Psychedelic Horror of Mononoke

Nicky
Nick, I feel like I need to hire someone to perform an exorcism for the curse you just placed on me and this whole column right now. Fortunately, I think I know someone fit for the job.

Did I mention he's pretty handsome too?

It also helps that it's currently available streaming for free via RetroCrush, though only in 480p as it's still a 2007 digipaint show with no upscale or Blu-ray. The subs for this show will look a little crunchy, but the design and visual work are still absolutely timeless bangers that a modern audience can still appreciate even at low res.

And y'know Discotek currently has this series' predecessor anthology, Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, which also features the first appearance of our mystery-solving Medicine Seller.

Mononoke is an anime bursting with style reminiscent of its Edo period setting, including a paper-like grain filter over everything that looks great, but equally seems like a nightmare to restore. With the upcoming newly made film produced by Twin Engine, at the very least we'll be able to see a more modern version of this aesthetic next year.
https://youtu.be/gL076eIru9k

The OP goes so hard both in the auditory and visual departments. Definitely not one you should ever skip. It's really fitting with the experience of the rest of the show.

There's no way I can accurately describe this show to someone and do it justice without telling them to just look at it themselves. It's one of those few anime I'd have to label as an "experience."

Yeah, there's no holding back on the touchy subject matter in this show. We're going to try our best to talk about these in the best way that we can, as always.

Despite being set in the Edo Period, the structure of each story is more similar to a haunted whodunnit using folkloric figures. In order to expel a mononoke with his sword, the Medicine Seller must discover The Form, the Truth, and The Reason behind each of them. In other words, it's all about the Who, How, and Why! I'll also note that since it's the Edo period and the height of the four class system, at the time only a Samurai, the highest class, was permitted to have a sword, while Merchants like the Medicine Seller were considered the lowest class. Hinting at his somewhat deceptive nature of playing both a high-card and a low-card role as both executioner and observer within each story.

Each little mystery is also helmed by a different writer, some of which you may have heard of, including Ikuko Takahashi, Manabu Ishikawa, Chiaki J. Konaka (before he decided to create an evil cloud representing cancel culture), and Michiko Yokote.

He pretty much lets the events run their course, but he never gets in the way of letting the audience figure out what happened and we also get to have the catharsis when the real perpetrators get their just deserts. Although the mononoke are dangerous and violent apparitions, most of them only exist as a response to some actual crime or circumstance.

This was my first time watching it after sitting in my backlog for years so I had a lot of fun unraveling each set-up as they went along.

A lot of the true victims also curiously tend to be women or involve womanhood. Which isn't uncommon for horror but it's notable given how little agency women had during Japan's history. At the time, women were basically property with few chances for social mobility outside of marriage.

There's quite a bit of subtle information being given at any time so there's a lot of room for interpretation because the show isn't keen on explaining absolutely everything or completely moralizing everything that goes on. The ambiguous nature works in its favor because it leaves a lot to discover even on re-watch, and it's part of what makes this show feel like a classic. Some people may not understand everything the first time through, but I felt in most cases its main messages were pretty clear even with all the heavy abstractions and specific cultural allusions. Though, definitely think hard about all that sexy traditional art the show goes out of its way to present.

I'm sorry, I forgot not everyone feels turned on when they look at this incredibly detailed period-accurate screen door used to break into play acts. But that's just me showing my true reputation as an art pervert. This show was made for people like me.

It's a maximalist aesthetic in the same way Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, using digital and traditional styles to create something more surreal. I was surprised how well the CG aged and blended in to the point where some people might not even notice the difference at first because it's already conceptually uncanny.

Having multiple separate mysteries also means that stories that don't work for you are balanced out by ones that will. I wasn't a big fan of the ghostly boat arc Umibozu both because of the uncomfortable "pure" incest plot and the somewhat softer resolution, but I adored the more psychological Noppera-bo and how it explores the personal effect of abuse has on a person. Though, I think the execution on all of them remains excellent. I never disliked watching them.

It's also the only one that explicitly references the events of Samurai Horror Tales and even brings back his assistant, Kayo, who was a servant in the previous case. As a result, we end up focusing on her perspective more than his as the audience surrogate. They also flirt a little by making goldfish smooch which I very much appreciated.

The show weirdly isn't afraid to tell you that the Medicine Seller is supposed to be attractive.

Oh my!~

Very much the dude you want to voice your mysterious and stoic protag. Though, some of his lines are delivered so straight they wrap back around to being funny. He bounces off well in Nue as well since he acts more of a direct participant in that one. Especially when we get to see him just straight-up try to freak people out into revealing their misdeeds.

He's a hard guy to read other than he just reaaaaaaally wants to kill the mononoke for whatever duty or maybe enjoyment he gets out of it, and occasionally he can be hella dubious. But as our closest thing to the story's voice, he doesn't always refrain from expressing his opinions even if it seems harsh to do so. He's the judge putting everyone on trial and his judgments must still be based in scrutiny and fairness. The last arc, Bakeneko, definitely feels the most like a courtroom to me.

All the characters reprise their roles too, implying that they're supposed to be the previous iterations' reincarnations in this new time period. Though the Medicine Seller still dresses and acts the same because, in his words, he "wouldn't get any work." Probably one of my fav bits of dry humor regardless of whether it was a bluff to avoid suspicion or sincere. He's extremely nonchalant with all his non-answers.

Bonus: His traditional Japanese wooden shoes were made for walkin'.

Especially with the victim being an (at the time) androgynous Western-style flapper with ambitions of moving her way up into the man-filled world of journalism. The two other female characters trying to move along the same lines whether it's about escaping the antiquated expectations of being a widow, or fitting into a picture of being a cute and modern city girl following her dreams.

(Editors note: in journalism, as of 2020 the split between men/women journalists is 60/40)

The conflict around the new subway system also reads to me as a commentary about how haphazardly declaring modernity can be a tool to cover-up already existing problems or threats. Today, Japan has one of the greatest, fastest, and safest train lines in the world and at the time of its introduction it deeply impacted their social structure into forcing people across class and genders into interacting with each other, but it also didn't happen without a cost. Bloody accidents like the one in the show were common after the railways construction. It took a lot of time to get to the level of quality and caution that exists in today's system. I really recommend people interested in this history read Tokyo in Transit: Japanese Culture on the Rails and Road by Alisa Freedman if they'd like to learn more.

But similarly, like the enthusiasm over a new technology, it's not enough to say that we live in an age where our injustices magically go away at the slightest bit of progress. Mononoke's problems are based in history but they reflect our modern crimes, too. To say all of the things dealt with are in the past would be a lie and an evil of itself.

The other characters are to a degree all guilty of her murder as well, but their sins are rooted in willful ignorance or neglect. Really like the negative version of three wise monkeys. Any one of them could've prevented the outcome if they had cared to be involved over turning a blind eye to a problem that was happening in front of them.

The resolution grants them a chance to atone as a community through proper acknowledgement. And as is law with most detective stories, there's an implication that even if nobody had done anything the real truth would have inevitably come out on its own.

We all have the ability to act as individuals but the last arc's ending sticks with me because it's the only time the solution ends in people acting as a group. They're not totally unified or pure, but their individual perspectives are also what brings about real justice and truth that couldn't exist otherwise. And like Noppera-bo, most of the time we don't even realize the real agency we possess. There's always a sky out there waiting for you and the day will come that you can reach it.

Who knows! The future is beyond us. But it's fantastic to see that truly great pieces of art can still hold up through time. Mononoke is a great work for blending so many historical and modern aesthetics and story elements into something truly stylish, unique, and engaging. It's a full display how confidence is everything when attempting to create a memorable experience that'll last the ages. And with that, I clap my hands, and say, "Good Show!"