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This show is worth watching for the art alone. The experimental art style is like nothing I have ever seen before or since. Admittedly, the abstractness of it all and the PowerPoint-esque transitions take some adjusting to, but that is part of Mononoke's charm. The colorful buildings incorporating Western-style paintings give the whole anime an aura of whimsy, which perfectly fits the tone of the series. Watching the anime feels like watching a painting in motion. The paper texture overlay makes it seem like you are watching a recounting of a legend. A specific detail I particularly enjoyed was the grittier colors and the use ... of 3D "mannequins" in place of background colors in the final arc of the anime. This arc is set in the early 20th century, and thus these design choices are meant to convey a mood of soullessness that has arrived alongside the industrialization of Japan. Upon rewatching, I noticed other small details here and there in the backgrounds of shots that further enhanced what was happening onscreen. The Medicine Seller's character design is particularly memorable, and his air of mystery is especially alluring - is he human? Is he supernatural? The fact that he is voiced by Takahiro Sakurai makes him even better.

Each of the five arcs in Mononoke follows the same basic structure, though some arcs play with this structure more than others. I suppose you could compare the structure of Mononoke to that of a "whodunnit" mystery, with the Medicine Seller functioning as a detective of sorts. In each arc, he must find out what the mononoke's "form," "truth," and "reason" are; the way in which the Medicine Seller goes about discovering these elements varies depending on the nature of the arc. Both the Umibozu arc and the Bakeneko arc are very straightforward mysteries with ensemble casts that each get questioned in order to find out the story behind the mononoke. The Zashiki-warashi arc is slightly different, with the mononoke itself revealing these details to the Medicine Seller via supernatural means (the show does tend to get rather confusing at times, this was one of them). The Nue and Noppera-bo arcs are the most experimental regarding the "whodunnit" structure, with the Medicine Seller himself conjuring illusions to reveal to the characters the truths of their respective situations. The continuity of the arcs in Mononoke is not the most straightforward, which unfortunately makes the series a little difficult to get into. I recommend reading arc synopses after completing each arc, they helped me understand what I was watching, and upon rewatch, I grasp the concepts of these arcs far more than I did before. I have seen some people recommend starting with the final arc first, because it is the easiest to follow, but I personally think that the series should be watched as is. The first arc is a little confusing, but by the second arc, the general progression of each story becomes pretty clear. In fact, I recommend watching the final arc of Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales before watching Mononoke - Mononoke is a spinoff of Ayakashi's Bakeneko arc, and I believe that this arc demonstrates the structure of Mononoke quite clearly (it is practically a Mononoke arc despite being from a different anime, anyway). In fact, the Umibozu arc of Mononoke makes direct references to Ayakashi's third arc, and Mononoke's final arc is essentially a 20th-century version of this arc, with the cast implied to be reincarnated versions of their Ayakashi counterparts. I cannot possibly explain the plot of this anime any further without getting convoluted; watch the anime and witness its wonder for yourself.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Ultimately, Mononoke is a study of character. It explores the uglier truths of human nature, the base and primal desires that drive individuals to atrocity. The mononoke are human vengeance given form, the fruits of a cycle of hatred. Characters are forced to reconcile with themselves, to be introspective and come to terms with the parts of themselves they had been forced to suppress for so long. The Noppera-bo arc is definitely hard-hitting: it deals with the weight of expectation and the impact it has on a woman who has become engulfed in wanting to please the people around her. She is made to realize how she sacrificed her own sense of identity in order to appease a thankless family, a concept that audiences may find to be all too familiar. The final arc of Mononoke takes a look at the bystander effect. Everyone in the cast has, in some way, witnessed the murder of young news reporter Setsuko, but their unwillingness to report the crime subsequently leads to the murderer going unpunished, unleashing the vengeful spirit of the Bakeneko upon them. This arc also happens to be the creepiest, which I love - Mononoke is partially a horror anime, after all.

Mononoke masterfully uses art and music to set up a tense atmosphere. The score is the right amount of unnerving when it needs to be, and the long periods without any music at all set up a tone of anticipation. The sound design is also great - the overpowering roars of the Bakeneko still ring in my head (go watch this anime already, I cannot keep shilling this arc enough). The art style is the perfect amount of unnerving, such that the viewer is always just a little on edge.

Watch Mononoke. And then watch it again after reading through the Wikipedia summaries, and appreciate all the details that contribute to this experience of a show.

Beastars opens with a strong premise - a world where animals take the place of people, societies with their own cultures and norms regarding interactions between different kinds of animals. A trap I often find within stories that use animals as a means to convey a social message is that the author ends up using specific groups of animals to represent specific groups of people, a trap that can become quite messy rather quickly. Beastars, on the other hand, fully immerses itself in its animal world; rather than using the animal society as an allegory, it explores very human issues in the context of ... said society. The world-building of the manga is definitely its strongest point. Paru Itagaki explores so many different levels of her fictional society, from its gritty underbelly to its squeaky-clean corporate head. The audience gains a sense for how this broken world really works, how its many "necessary" evils are a crutch for society to function. It is all rather realistic despite its fantastical nature; this grounds the story and gives it realism.

The story of Beastars can be divided into two parts: the murder mystery plotline, and everything that follows. I will discuss each independently, because sometimes it really feels like a different story in the second half. The first half is a solid 8/10. The murder mystery plot drives the story quite well, adding the right amount of tension to underscore a lot of the slice-of-life elements in the first part of the manga. Itagaki's writing shines in the slice-of-life moments. I love watching Legosi and Haru's relationship develop; Louis's internal struggle with his identity as an herbivore is especially compelling. The antagonist for the first half is also solid, though I will not elaborate so as to avoid spoilers. The reveal is well done, however, and Legosi's fight with this antagonist is the best in the whole manga. Itagaki stumbles a bit when writing action scenes, but she hit the mark with this particular fight. Overall, an entertaining and well-written arc.

The second half of the story is where the writing fumbles quite a bit. But I will start with the highlights. Legosi's time with the Hidden Condo residents has an aimless, ambivalent feel to it, perfectly encapsulating the mood of the story after the changes Legosi has gone through. The new characters are also rather endearing. I love Zaguan, and he adds a neat bit of worldbuilding about the underwater society within the world of Beastars. Pina - my personal favorite character - is annoying in the best way. Gosha is sweet; the audience pities his overly cautious way of living as a result of his venomous saliva. And then there is Yahya. Yahya is, in a word, cool. He is a superhero unto himself, a figure shrouded in legend. In a way, he replaces Gouhin as Legosi's mentor in the second half of Beastars; the two have a great dynamic. The issue is that a lot of these characters end up underutilized by the end. I understand that not every character will be given an equal amount of screen time in a series with an ensemble cast, but it feels like Legosi's connections to these characters ultimately led nowhere. Other characters are downright bad - though I cannot discuss them without getting into spoilers.

SPOILERS

Kyuu. What was the point of her character? To perform CBT on Legosi and then introduce a weird concept that is never once brought up again? To sell Legosi out to the villain and then dip until the very end? To me, Kyuu represents a lot of the issues with late Beastars. Concepts that come up out of nowhere, characters who ultimately amount to little, rushed arcs - and the worst part is that these ideas had potential.

The most egregious example of lost potential and my single greatest problem with this manga is Melon. I dislike how he ended up being the final villain of the series, with conflict quickly resolving as soon as he was defeated. There was much to be desired with Itagaki's exploration of the concept of a hybrid between carnivore and herbivore. As it stands, Melon is just another Joker clone who cannot feel normal emotions as a result of the circumstances of his birth. His backstory is interesting but never really touched upon aside from that one flashback wherein Melon kills his mother. It is an interesting backstory for sure, and I do enjoy how Melon's nature as an unreliable narrator clouds what is reality and what is fabrication. But that snippet is all we get. We find out that Melon's father is alive in the end - Melon's father, the cause of it all, the one who abandoned his vulnerable wife and son out of selfish fear - but it too leads nowhere. Melon's father barely gets a chance to reckon with the consequences of his actions. Melon's nature as a hybrid is also never explored, aside from that one chapter wherein he suddenly turns buff because of...biology. It is a shame, since I did genuinely enjoy Melon at first until he became a one-note Joker character. I do not like the archetype of villains who are unable to feel normal emotion and are thus insane and/or sadistic because of it. It is rather tiring and unoriginal at this point, and not to mention boring. The shock value of Melon's violent tendencies gives way to bland same-old. His final fight with Legosi is incredibly rushed, and he faces no consequences for his actions. Not every villain needs to die. It is, in fact, refreshing to watch a villain grow, develop, and start anew. But Melon does none of that. We never see the repercussions or implications of his actions, and what that means for hybrid animals. The thread about Melon supplying animal blood to illegal underground drug dealers is also dropped, unsurprisingly.

The second half of Beastars is insane, and not in the good way. It loses its sense of direction and starts adding all sorts of elements which make little sense. That said, I still commend Beastars for what it manages to convey in its first half. This was Paru Itagaki's first manga, after all, so some rockiness was to be expected. I hope she returns to the vivid world of Beastars in the future. Her series of one shots, compiled in Beast Complex, do a good job of further adding to the mechanisms of this animal society, and invoke the slice-of-life feeling of early Beastars. I highly recommend checking it out to readers who want more of this manga.

Now, for my final thoughts. The art in this manga is rather iconic, and you can see Itagaki's style visibly improve throughout the manga. Her style is unique, with lots of linework, large eyes, and small pupils that really emphasize how feral these characters are. Itagaki's inaccurate biology facts are definitely entertaining to read through. Logic must function differently in this world. I like that not everyone gets a happy ending. It is bitterly realistic how Louis chooses an arranged business marriage over his true feelings. I think that me and other ongoing readers thought that Legosi and Louis would become Beastars in the end, hence the title. That did not happen. Cool, I guess.

6/10. Solid, but falls off hard in the end. There is a lot more I could say about more specific elements in the story, though at that point I would just be rambling instead of writing a proper review; I have rambled enough. Regardless, I still recommend this manga. Even when it gets bad, it never really gets boring.