31 Days of Halloween - Grab Bag Edition: Day 25 - Mononoke
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While this trailer is technically for the next chapter of Mononoke coming out next year, it does show a pretty good sampling for the 2006 run.
So to clarify for those that are probably curious, Mononoke is not the Ghibli film. It is dark. It is violent. It is beautiful. Mononoke is a horror anime that focuses on the travels of the mysterious medicine seller as he deals with bad spirits that are tormenting the people he comes across. This may or may not end well for the people being tormented. The medicine seller is more interested in the truth of the haunting that the safety of those involved.
The setting is in the transition from the Edo period to the Meiji in japan. It focuses heavily on yokai folklore and touches on a few less pleasant subjects in terms of what leads to these situations. The art might be my favorite I've ever seen in an anime series. Much like Kimetsu No Yaiba, Mononoke kind of feels like a japanese wood cut come to life mixed with the style of the artist Gustav Klimt (look him up and you'll understand). The stories are told in arcs and are fairly stand alone. The second arc does have a bit of a cross over with a previous story from another horror anthology that Mononoke spun off from. I also highly recommend watching the Bakeneko arc from Ayakashi Japanese Horror Classics. I feel it might be the strongest arc as well as my personal favorite.
I could gush forever about Mononoke but unless you experience the series you really wont understand. In closing i leave you with the trailer for Ayakashi and a taste of Bakeneko. I do hope you find as much to love as i did.
Mononoke-anon here! Idk if the other anon answered you, but the Medicine Seller was originally part of a three-story horror series called Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. The final story, called Bake-Neko, was his debut. The episodes are available online or you can buy the dvd on Amazon.
I watched the Mononoke series first, then was perusing classic Japanese horror when I found Ayakashi. The first two stories are fine, but let me tell you I went feral when I saw the Medicine Seller again, lol. Ayakashi, being the first Medicine Seller story, is a lot more muted in colors and crazy. I agree with anon that he seems a bit more caring and social, actually cracking sarcastic jokes. Although, the all important “meh, women deserve to murder” is still very much here.
If you remember/care about other characters, this is where he met Kayo, the maid from the ship story, originally. So when you go and watch this, it makes sense how she knew all about him and they have some fun interactions. There is also a manga version of the Ayakashi Bake-Neko, so if you’d like more images of this man, I recommend looking it up.
I enjoy how Kusuriuri (Medicine Seller) makes his debut with a Goblin Cat and they chose to end the series the same way.
i don't think i'll watch the entire show, but i might just check out that final arc 👀👀👀 his relationship with kayo (i've also seen sayo? that might just be a translation thing tho) was one of my favorite things about the incest boat arc, and i would probably watch an extra few episodes just for her, if my dear and beloved husband was not also in them. doing cat-themed things, at that.
and i'm not mad at it, but idk how to feel that one of my favorite recent series is actually a spin-off T-T marvel and all their bullshit kinda has me trained to immediately hate shows based off of popular side-characters from different shows, and although i recognized that that's just the Jaded Consumer part of my brain talking, it still does kinda have an effect. i think i'll keep him on the husband list but, like, with a little 'bargain bin' tag or something. just to keep him in his place.
again, i'm not guaranteeing the quality or likeability of any of these things. they are foundational for me, but they may not be to your taste. check for cws because i don't feel like listing them but i will make special note for things i find especially triggering for me personally.
Mononoke | モノノ怪 and its origin in Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales | 怪 〜ayakashi〜 Japanese Classic Horror, the Bakeneko story [化け猫] (severe cw for rape, sexual assault, kidnapping, imprisonment, murder, and gore in Bakeneko Story)
Apostle
Crimson Peak
Kingdom | 킹덤 (congratulations to kingdom for being the only zombie show that i will ever give a fuck about)
Hinterland | Y Gwyll (cw for a cop show)
Pacific Rim
Black Butler | 黒執事
Paranorman
Princess Tutu
And Then There Were None (2015)
The Great Queen Seondeok | 선덕여왕
House of Flying Daggers | 十面埋伏
Granada's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Copper Beeches (the entire show is incredible but like. i love the copper beeches it's my favorite holmes story of all time because it includes This Spectacular Sequence:
which is the best scene of all of holmes imo)
Derry Girls (all seasons)
Harlots (ONLY SEASONS ONE AND TWO because then they kill off my favorite character and i lose all interest)
Jeeves and Wooster (cw for period typical racism) (the link is to the pilot but the entire fucking show is a goldmine)
Shetland (cw for another cop show)
Geraldine McEwan's Miss Marple and David Suchet's Murder on the Orient Express (do not FUCKING talk to me about kenneth branagh i hate every single thing he's done with poirot with every fiber of my being)
Penny Dreadful (seasons 1-2 only, season 3 sucked, and city of angels does not exist)
Sailor Moon R: The Movie | 劇場版 美少女戦士セーラームーンR
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Netflix's Daredevil (all seasons, yes, even s2, i'm obsessed with elodie's elektra)
Chobits (don't @ me i love my sweet robot children hideki doesn't fucking matter)
what’s really cool is that this series is born from the overwhelming popularity of a character introduced in the short series called Ayakashi : Japanese classic horror
so before watching mononoke i would advise watching it, only the three last episodes of this series are about the character of the medecine seller introduced but
the bakeneko arc is, the most, soul-crushing, infinitely beautifully compassionate, there is a purposeful callback to it at the end of the series entirely dedicated to the medecine seller so PLEASE, watch it!!
▶️ Il primo trailer per il film di MONONOKE è qui e nonostante alcune sostituzioni all'interno dello staff, il mondo del Venditore di Medicine è affascinante come sempre! Il debutto è atteso per l'estate 2024.
La pellicola è diretta ancora una volta da Kenji Nakamura (Gatchaman Crowds, Kuuchuu Buranko, Tsuritama), già regista dell’originale serie tv di 12 episodi prodotta nel 2007 presso TOEI ANIMATION, che potete ancora trovare in streaming su VVVVID.
Il peculiare mistery sovrannaturale nasce come spinoff della precedente serie antologica dal titolo AYAKASHI: JAPANESE CLASSIC HORROR e ha come protagonista un enigmatico esorcista.
Mononoke is a horror anime! It started as (the last) three episodes in Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror before having its own anime as mononoke, it deals a lot with horror done to women idk what the movie is going to be about but if you want to check it out looking at the trigger warnings of the anime first might be a good idea, just in case!
It’s an amazing series I would definitely recommand it if you think you can stomach the heavier themes! It’s beautiful, has such a interesting atmosphere and the way the stories are told is sooo cool!
That sounds really intriguing 👀 thank you for sharing, I will definitely look into it!