Mononoke (TV series)

Mononoke
Genre	Horror
Anime
Directed by	Kenji Nakamura
Studio	Toei Animation
Released	July 12, 2007 – September 27, 2007

Mononoke (モノノ怪) is a twelve-episode Japanese anime television series that aired in 2007. It is a spin-off of the "Bakeneko" arc from the anthology series Ayakashi. The character and concept designs were done once again by animator Takeshi Hashimoto.

A manga adaption of the original Bakeneko arc was published in Young Gan Gan Comics September 12, 2007.

Plot

The series is set in a highly stylized version of feudal Japan, often taking art styles and ideas from traditional Japanese art pieces and Art Nouveau styles similar to the work of Gustav Klimt.

The Medicine Seller combats spirits or "Mononoke" (a type of yōkai) using his wares. Mononoke are a type of ayakashi, which are unnatural spirits in the human world. However mononoke are usually more sinister in motive than other ayakashi, having been affected or "merged" with the strong emotions of humans.

Just like in the Bakeneko story (Bakeneko meaning "Goblin Cat"), the Medicine Seller weighs for where the mononoke is with a series of scales. The Medicine Seller uses his knowledge of the supernatural to fend off the mononoke as long as possible, until he can unsheath his sword. His sword can only be released and used to exorcise mononoke when the shape (Katachi), truth (Makoto) and reasoning (Kotowari) behind the mononoke is revealed.

Story Arcs

In all story arcs, including the Bakeneko story featured in Ayakashi, the only recurring character is the medicine seller himself, voiced by Takahiro Sakurai, although Kayo from the Bakeneko arc makes another appearance as one of the passengers of the merchant's ship during the Umibouzu arc.

Zashiki-warashi

• Episodes: 1-2

While spending the night in a traditional inn, the Medicine Seller stumbles upon a strange phenomenon. A pregnant woman who is desperately seeking shelter at the inn is led to a strange room upstairs. There, she is attacked by an assassin, who is then mysteriously and gruesomely killed. A group of Zashiki Warashi are haunting the room a pregnant Shino is sleeping in. They dispose of the assassin when he tries to kill her. Apparently, the inn used to be a brothel.

Back then, the inn's owner routinely aborted her worker's children so the girls could keep working. The unborn were then encased in small hollow dolls and kept in the ceiling, trapping their souls. The unborn are drawn to Shino because of her determination to save her own child and decide they'd like her to be their mother. After saving her, they cause a bunch of weird events which drag the Medicine Seller into the middle of the whole affair.

The Zashiki Warashi want Shino to give birth to them, and she agrees (to the Medicine Seller's dismay). She pulls a sutra off her stomach (after taking a beating from the inn's owner who was trying to abort her baby) and ends up seemingly miscarrying her infant five months into the pregnancy.

At the end of the episode, the Medicine Seller seems to have saved Both Shino and her child since she is seen with a big belly, knocked out on the floor. However, some speculate that the final scene after the ending credits implies that the child she is about to give birth to is in fact the Mononoke, having taken the place of her own miscarried child.

Cast

• Aiko Hibi as Zashiki Warashi
• Kouzou Shiotani as Tokuji
• Rie Tanaka as Shino
• Toshiko Fujita as Hisayo
• Eiji Takemoto as Naosuke
• Yûsuke Numata as Young lord

Umibōzu

Traveling on a merchant's luxurious ship, the Medicine Seller and the ship's other passengers end up stranded in the middle of a sea full of ayakashi. Among the passengers, the Medicine Seller has had a previous encounter with Kayo, a servant girl who helped him during his confrontation with the Bakeneko. Some very strange events occur, including the passengers of the ship being asked what their worst fear is by the ayakashi and having to experience it. In the end, though, the conflict is solved when Genkei comes to terms with his past. His sister was in love with him and to ease his conscience, he thought that he was in love with his sister, but the truth was that he was happy when she decided to sacrifice herself in his place. This is the first arc in which the sword the Medicine Seller is actually unsheathed on screen.

• Episodes 3-5

Cast

• Yukana as Kayo
• Ryusei Nakao as Genkei
• Tomokazu Seki as Genyousai Yanagi
• Daisuke Namikawa as Sougen
• Daisuke Sakaguchi as Hyoue Sasaki
• Yasuhiro Takato as Tamon Mikuniya
• Eiji Takemoto as Goromaru
• Norio Wakamoto as the Umizatou
• Haruna Ikezawa as Oyou

Noppera-bō

Mixing noh, flashbacks, and inverted storytelling, this story tells of Ochou (a beautiful, but despairing woman) that has confessed to killing all her husband's family. The Medicine Seller and his attached Mononoke figure heavily-while the story is confusing the first time you watch, a re-watch of the story lets you clearly piece together the true tale of what happened.

• Episodes 6-7

Cast

• Houko Kuwashima as Ochou
• Hikaru Midorikawa as Man in Fox Mask
• Rin Mizuhara as Ochou's Mother
• Eiji Takemoto as Ochou's Husband

Nue

Attending an incense ceremony that will determine the inheritor to the "School of Seeing Scents", the Medicine Seller arrives to find three other men competing to take the hand of the Lady Ruri (the keeper of the School, and the last of the line). Strangely, when Ruri-hime and other residents within the mansion are murdered, the three men continue to fight over the "Todaiji" (a fragranced block of wood, that is rumored to give whoever possesses it great power). With the death of Lady Ruri, the Medicine Seller takes over the preparation and judging of the contest, taking great pleasure in tormenting and mocking the men involved. Indeed, his sadism towards the other characters is very surprising, until we reach the end of the story: thereupon, we learn that everything that we have watched (the 3 suitors, the murders, the contest) all happened a very long time ago, and are merely memories of past actions, brought to life by the Todaiji (the mononoke), in order to make it feel fulfilled and "something other than a block of wood".

Not relating to the story, but all 3 courtiers are shown as being from the three orders of Classical Japanese Theatre: Oosawa Roubo, from the Noh theatre; Muromachi Tomoyoshi, from the Kabuki style theatre; Nakarai Tansui, from the Kyogen theatre

• Episodes 8-9

Cast

• Takeshi Aono as Oosawa Roubo
• Eiji Takemoto as Muromachi Tomoyoshi
• Masashi Hirose as Nakarai Tansui
• Naoya Uchida as Jisonji Konari
• Wakana Yamazaki as Lady Ruri

Bakeneko

Set in a time period decidedly later than the previous arcs -implied to be in the 1920s - the Medicine Seller boards a train with several characters similar to the first Bakeneko story (who might be possible reincarnations of their former counterparts). When the train crashes into a girl on the tracks, they are all gathered together in one cart which mysteriously moves by itself. This is the arc where the Medicine Seller is actually seen to get wounded during the battle with the bakeneko, because the bakeneko struck before he could release his weapon.

• Episodes 10-12

Cast

• Eiji Takemoto as Moria Kiyoshi
• Hiroshi Iwasaki as Jyutarō Fukuda
• Minoru Inaba as Kadowaki Sakae
• Seiji Sasaki as Kinoshita Bunpei
• Yukana as Nomoto Chiyo
• Yoko Soumi as Yamaguchi Haru
• Aiko Hibi as Kobayashi Masao
• Fumiko Orikasa as Ichikawa Setsuko

Characters

• The Medicine Seller

A mysterious wandering man with a vast knowledge of the supernatural and is mystical in appearance. He carries around a large wooden box filled with medicine and holy tools. Among them is an enchanted sword that is used to slay the mononoke. To use the sword, the Medicine Seller must find the shape (形, katachi), truth (真, makoto), and reasoning (理, kotowari) of the mononoke he wishes to exorcise. Once the sword has been unsheathed, he transforms into a demonic-like creature. While his origins are unknown, it is clear that the Medicine Seller is not human or at least not entirely human; he has elf-like ears, and pointy canine teeth. Even in the time-skip Bakeneko arc, the Medicine Seller still appears as the same handsome youth from the previous arcs (the only differences in his appearance from previous arcs is he now wears small round red stud earrings and a ring on his index finger). It was revealed in the Umibozu episode when the ayakashi asked the passengers's fears, the Medicine Seller calmly answers he is afraid that there is no form, truth, or regret at the edge of the world, thus no longer having a reason to exist.

Zashiki-warashi

• Shino

A pregnant woman who took shelter at the inn, hoping to protect her unborn baby from assassins. She encounters the Zashiki-warashi while staying there.

• Hisayo

The strict elderly owner of the inn. In her youth, she was once the owner of a brothel (which has now become the inn). During that time, she was also responsible for aborting the babies of her female workers. The spirits of the deceased babies is what created the mononoke.

• Tokuji

Hisayo's frantic right-hand man, who works at the front desk of the inn. When the inn was still a brothel, it was his job to inform her of any pregnant workers.

Umibōzu

• Kayo

First appeared in the Bakeneko arc of Ayakashi. She was on the boat for Edo in hopes of finding another life for herself. Due to her previous experience at the Sakai mansion, she assists the Medicine Seller and admires him more than her fellow travelers.

• Genkei

An elderly monk of great fame. It is ultimately revealed that he directed the ship into the ayakashi sea to find his sister and put her soul to rest fearing it had become a Mononoke. However it turns out that it was simply his fear that created the Mononoke out of nothingness.

• Sougen

An apprentice to Genkei who he greatly admires. Their relationship maybe a form of wakashoku which was a common practice before the Meiji era.

• Genyousai Yanagi

A minstrel who is also an exorcist of some skill. Narcissistic and theatrical, he prides himself on his knowledge in the occult. While on the boat, he considers the Medicine Seller as a rival.

• Hyoue Sasaki

A loner and soft-spoken, he is a servant to the Lord of Shioya. He carves wood when at leisure. His disheveled appearance and squeaky voice coupled with the possession of a katana gives him a dangerous presence.

• Tamon Mikuniya

Owner of the ship, Solarismaru, where the story takes place. A merchant of foreign trade, he uses a compass embedded in the ship to guide his travels. Goromaru is his assistant.

• Oyou

Genkei's younger sister, alive fifty years before the arc takes place. The siblings were very close when growing up, rarely having anyone else their age to relate to, inciting an incestuous love to grow within her. Soon after confessing these feelings to her brother, she voluntarily replaced Genkei as the village sacrifice.

Noppera-bō

• Ochou

A woman facing execution for murdering her abusive husband and his family. She is confronted by the Medicine Seller under suspicion of being aided by a mononoke.

• Man in the Fox Mask

A mysterious man who expresses his moods through noh masks. Both he, and the Medicine Seller are seen smoking from the same long pipe which he uses to steal people's faces. It is implied strongly that he is the Medicine Seller's Mononoke, and created much of what we see in the story arc as a way of shielding Ochou's fragile soul from the reality of what has actually happened. When this character appears on his own (as the Man in the Fox Mask), he reveals himself to have a playful, life-loving enjoyment of things; when this character appears in service to the Medicine Seller, he never speaks, and is used only as warrior that kills other mononoke.

• Ochou's Mother

A strict mother. When her husband died she lost all of her money and property, and the shame and shock of it caused her to look to her young daughter as a bargaining object for regaining family prestige. She begged the Umezawa family take her daughter so the family would be wealthy again. We see her intermittently throughout this arc, gloatingly praying at the graves of her ancestors-Ochou's husband's family. While never directly shown, it is implied that she is there for her daughter's funeral.

Nue

• Oosawa Roubo

A courtier who like the others is competing for the Todaiji. He has a very refined sense of smell but he is very squeamish and shows cowardice at any sight of danger.

• Muromachi Tomoyoshi

A samurai from Satsuma who is easily offended at being referred to as a "country samurai". He killed Jinsonji after the latter angers him.

• Nakarai Tansui

A man well known in his town and seeking to remarry after his wife's death. He wears a cone shaped nose piece to protect his sensitive nose. He is hypocritical when he scolds the other two men for caring little for Ruri-hime, but shows himself to just as greedy for the Todaiji. He murdered Ruri-hime out of jealousy.

• Jisonji Konari

One of the participants for Ruri's hand, murdered at the beginning of the arc and the first to arrive at the competition. He openly berates Muromachi, commenting on the awful smell the samurai emits.

• Ruri-hime

The prospective bride to be. Whoever wins her hand in marriage also gets the rare Todaiji. She is murdered by Nakarai before the victor can be determined, who becomes enraged at seeing her pleasuring herself.

Reception

The directing and art have been called "boldly confrontational." It seamlessly blends a murder mystery structure with "twist of supernatural and a shake of historical, peppered with plenty of stylistic experimentation." It frequently achieves "the ideal - great directing combined with great animation." The Mainichi newspaper said it could not be dismissed as a mere experiment, and that the story's themes were every bit as advanced as the digital animation techniques employed.

External links

• Official website Template:Jp icon
• Official Toei website Template:Jp icon
• Mononoke ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia