I want to apologize for going nearly two weeks before going nearly two updates before adding the second entry in this series. Real life and my other pursuits got in the way of things for a bit, but hopefully that won't happen too much in the future. Took me a bit of time to get adjusted to blogging at a regular pace when I first started that, as well, after all!
This time around we leap forward nine years from the previous post to 2007's Mononoke!
Mononoke is interesting because it is a different sort of horror series. It follows a self-proclaimed medicine seller who wanders Japan exorcising mononoke -- or youkai; unnatural spirits -- from the world. To do this, the medicine seller needs to know three things -- the mononoke's shape (the type of spirit it is), its truth (the circumstances behind its appearance) and its reasoning (why it goes after the particular people in each arc). Only then can the medicine seller help put the spirit to rest, although it is ambiguous as to whether he really does put the spirits to rest, or if he simply destroys them somehow.
A big part of what makes Mononoke a fresh series is that its roots are firmly placed in Japan's history, but often with a modern twist -- or, more accurately, the characters and situations are viewed through a modern lens. The stories in Mononoke are often surprisingly straightforward horror tales, but they also involve critical looks at the treatment of women, people in low social standing and even jabs at modern development later in the series. Mononoke is at once a very Japanese series (the horror stories are all inspired by Japanese legends), and also a series whose themes make it universal. Frankly, I was intimidated before watching this series because I thought it would be incomprehensible (since I have next to no knowledge of the subject matter) and/or pretentious, but the series is shockingly approachable and exciting.
What should leap out to people immediately about Mononoke is its unique visual style. Just as its stories are inspired by Japan's past, so too is the art. Splashes of inspiration ranging from ancient scroll art to ukiyo-e are all over the place in Mononoke. Anyone who has grown long tired of the modern, generic style that permeates many series today should be willing to give Mononoke a shot because of the beauty and freshness of its art. (Which is sort of ironic not only because Mononoke is inspired by ancient styles, but also because the character designs are almost uniformly ass ugly. This is deliberate, however, because as a horror series, Mononoke often dives into the ugly side of humanity. Even the medicine seller is a morally gray hero at best.)
As a horror series, Mononoke is largely successful. While rarely out and out frightening (at least to me, although there is one scene in the final arc that legitimately scared the hell out of me), the series has some fairly disturbing imagery, and for people such as myself who are unfamiliar with Japanese horror, the various creatures and malevolent spirits will probably burn in the mind for far longer than the serial killers and tired stock monsters of modern horror. If some weird frog creature with Norio Wakamoto's voice demanded to know your deepest, darkest fear, you would be at least a bit creeped out, right?
Even when it isn't scary, Mononoke is almost always quite intense. It's animated in a stylish manner that emphasizes the claustrophobia and the feeling of being in an entirely different world that accompanies the appearance of the mononoke. Oddly enough, the medicine seller himself also contributes not only to the intensity of the series but also that feeling of being in a completely different world. As you can see by the image at the top of the post, the medicine seller barely looks human. And the vocal performance by Takahiro Sakurai lends the medicine seller a gravitas that makes him appear from a completely different era, with his deliberate, clipped speech that emphasizes certain words and syllables in a slyly dramatic way. He's a cool customer, completely unflappable and the perfect foil for seemingly unstoppable spirits.
Another interesting point about Mononoke is that it is part of a movement of sorts in anime. The show was the eighth to air in the noitamina time slot, a late-airing time block dedicated to series with subject matter expanding beyond the norm in anime. The noitamina block was the home of series such as Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Eden of the East and Mononoke's predecessor, Ayakashi, whose final arc is a story involving the medicine seller. Mononoke also has a connection to another noitamina anime -- fall 2009's Kuuchuu Buranko (aka Trapeze) was directed by Mononoke's Kenji Nakamura, and also features a distinct visual style, a mix of surreal animation and live-action.
In an era where startlingly few series seem to be daring in any way, Mononoke shoots to the top as a show that is both original and surprisingly accessible.
