This anime is truly something on an entirely different level. No silly, it’s not Princess Mononoke from Studio Ghibli, it’s on a different spectrum of anime! Mononoke is harrowing, scary, intense and one of the best visual experiences I’ve ever seen. I’m going to have trouble explaining it, because honestly, even after a week has passed since I’ve seen it, I still can’t make out what the heck I just watched.
Before I even begin, Mononoke follows the tales of someone called the Medicine Seller and yes, that’s the only name we’re ever given throughout the 12 episodes, he sells medicine, buuuut not at all. The format of Mononoke mimics that of Mushishi and even the Medicine Seller reminds me of Ginko. It’s not episodic, it’s more like…. Arc-based, some arcs last two episodes, others last three, so I can’t call this format of anime episodic at all. Medicine Seller travels to places where he believes Mononoke reside in, similar to how Ginko travels the world and helps out people with Mushishi problems; though the stark difference is that with Ginko, we sort of have an idea about the resounding world, in Mononoke however, Medicine Seller just appears at these places (As in, the episode already starts with events in motion).
So Medicine Seller is a Ginko type of person and the world isn’t really explained. On top of all this the Medicine Seller himself is rather strange, he chooses his words extremely carefully, to the point of only saying a few phrases, at most a couple paragraphs an episode, honestly, the guy just doesn’t talk much. He’s also unfazed by the events that occur around him and it’s… so bad ass. The way he reacts to things is just astounding. So he’s not really a Medicine Seller, in-fact he seems hell-bent on destroying Mononoke (I’ll get to it in a moment, I promise!!), but for good reason. Mononoke, from what I was able to comprehend, are Ayakashi that have latched onto a human emotion…. or rather, a specific emotion that is incredibly strong, like deep hatred, regret and things like that (all dark emotions). Now the Ayakashi, from what I was able to understand, are like demons, they’re powerful, similar to gods, but not quite. Mononoke on the other hand are like Ayakashi, since they emerge from them, but they are considered god-like and could be considered above gods in power. Now not all Ayakashi are evil creatures, in-fact we meet one in the 2nd arc that starts on Episode 3, but…. Well I’ll let you experience that harrowing event.
What’s even more interesting about this Medicine Seller is what he carries around with him, it’s like a huge Medicine cabinet, but one of its’ contents is a sword; more specifically the Sword of Exorcism; now this sword is super crazy, it requires three things about the Mononoke, its’ true form, its’ regret and its’ truth, once all these things are known, the sword will unleash itself from its’ own sheath and honestly…. what happens when all those things are known, the way the sword looks, I’ll just leave that for all you to witness and experience because it’s craaaaazy. I was going to screen cap what happens to the Medicine Seller when these events occur, but that’s a spoiler and should totally be experienced naturally without spoilers. It’s not even explained what happens, the sword and the Medicine Seller; don’t expect to know what the heck is going on, which is quite a shame because it would probably be mind shattering material.
Now the stories within Mononoke are……uhm…… I can’t even describe them. At first I thought they were Japanese legends or Japanese mythology or something, but doing some quick Google-fu, not much comes up. Like… I mean I was blown away at the contents that I witnessed. The first arc throws you into the world fast, the 2nd arc does some more exposition, but not enough at all and the consequent arcs just go crazier and crazier, I would honestly expect no one to really know what’s going on. It looks like there are manga for this anime too, but I’m unsure if things are better explained there too. It’s not just the crazy stories, it’s how they’re solved/handled, now of course the Medicine Seller kills the Mononoke and he is 100% unfazed by the events; but he’s not that important, it’s the supports. These people have no idea what’s going on and the way they’re shown to us, eyes moving sporadically, shivering, gasping for air because of shock, sweat pouring down their faces, shivering in place, crying uncontrollably, it’s harrowing, it’s so ridiculous and I had full-body goose bumps throughout the entire anime, it gets even crazier and then my eyes tear up, like…. What did I just watch? I had my brother watch the first arc……… he came back with the biggest what the heck face in the world and that seems to be the norm.
Now one of the best things about Mononoke is the absolutely insane art style it uses; it’s drawn on what appears to be Rice Paper (not my words, my brother thinks this is the case). It’s super unique because you can actually see the grains on the paper, like it looks hand-made and things. The colors are wild and the animation to go along with it is just as insane. Things like the snow and wind and rain are animated differently than you would expect. They’re not realistically depicted in Mononoke, instead they’re visualized in a way that you wouldn’t ever expect; rain doesn’t fall down straight, it goes down, wind blows a droplet so it takes a 90 degree turn to a new position and then continues to fall towards the ground, snow looks bizarre, the wind is visualized as air streaks accompanied by flowers; it’s beautiful, but it has this Mononoke darkness looming over it. I normally don’t do this, but I feel like I should when I talk about art styles, I’ll have a few samples from Episode 3 below, to show off what I mean about this insane style for art, it’s jaw dropping-ly good and 100% the most unique type of art I have ever seen, like… ever.
The music in Mononoke is…. well it’s what you’d expect from an anime that has an arc about …. Ahhh I wish I could tell you. It’s spine tingly good, it’s somber and dark, but somewhat soothing and smooth. The instruments, the overall choreography of the music and the animation/scenes that we witness, it aligns so freaking well. I have no words, expect the sound design in Mononoke to send chills up your spine, I’m almost positive it will happen. The OP is good, but it’s the ED I really like; I’ll just leave a link of the ED here for you all to listen =).
I was told about Mononoke a long while ago about an anime that was different from anything else, so off base from what you’d ever watch and honestly, it is just crazy. From what I can tell, (thank you Wikipedia), Mononoke is a spin off series from a horror series titled Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, and after watching Mononoke, I’m pretty sure I need to watch this one too. I will tell you right now, your head will spin trying to understand what’s going on with the story, but watching some of the earlier episodes again, Mononoke has so much detail in the words and backgrounds and actions of the characters that if you really pay attention, you might be able to figure out the plots really early on, but honestly, you’ll be caught off-guard and stay off-guard. It’s beautiful, it’s ridiculous and it is by far a most definite must watch for people looking for something not moe, not cute, no lolis and something rather serious. (Just watch something happy and cute after this)
NOTE: Holy crap, I didn’t research the word Ayakashi until just now….. it is based on Japanese Mythology and…. yeah supernatural monsters and things, so holy crap at that.
