Mononoke

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Mononoke (モノノ怪) is a Japanese avant-garde anime television series produced by Toei Animation that premiered on July 12, 2007 and ran for 12 episodes to September 27, 2007. A spin-off of 2006's horror anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, Mononoke follows the character of the medicine seller as he continues to face a myriad of supernatural perils and determine the three necessities of mononoke to overcome them. Mononoke takes place between the end of the Edo period and Meiji era of Japan with the four class system, Samurai being the highest class and merchants (such as the medicine seller himself) being in the lowest class. Only Samurai were permitted to carry swords, which is why it comes as a shock to many of the characters that the medicine seller would be carrying a sword. The English subtitled version translates the three necessities, shape (Katachi), truth (Makoto) and reasoning (Kotowari), as "Form", "Truth", and "Reason".

A manga adaptation of the original Bakeneko arc was published in Young Gangan between August 17, 2007 and August 1, 2008. The individual chapters were collected and released in 2 tankōbon volumes by Square Enix on January 25, 2008, and September 25, 2008. A second manga series started to be published on September 25, 2013 by Tokuma Shoten on its magazine Monthly Comic Zenon. The last chapter of the second manga series was serialized in Monthly Comic Zenon on November 25, 2014. The series was released into 2 tankōbon volumes on July 19, 2014, and December 20, 2014 respectively. Subsequently, more 4 more manga series were serialized in Monthly Comic Zenon and resulted in 5 more tankōbon volumes.

A short spinoff anthology novel titled Mononoke: Shū (モノノ怪執) was published in Jun 10, 2022.

A movie titled Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (劇場版モノノ怪唐傘, Gekijōban Mononoke Karakasa; lit. "Movie Mononoke: Paper Umbrella") by EOTA premiered on July 26, 2024. It later won the Bronze for the Best Animated Feature category at the 28th annual Fantasia International Film Festival (July 18 to August 4, 2024).^[1]

Plot[]

Mononoke follows a wandering, nameless character known only as the "Medicine Seller". The series is made up of individual chapters in which the medicine seller encounters, combats and subsequently destroys mononoke. The mononoke are a type of ayakashi, unnatural spirits that linger in the human world by binding themselves to negative human emotions. The Medicine Seller always proceeds in the same manner, using his knowledge of the supernatural to fend off the mononoke until he can learn the spirit's shape (Katachi), truth (Makoto) and reasoning (Kotowari). Only then can he unsheathe his sword and exorcise the demon.