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For this new review i’m going to talk of an old anime released in 2007 some of you may have heard about or even saw already. Mononoke, is a short anime very singular by his graphics and it’s use of an element coming directly from Japanese legend and tales. Referring to the anime name, Mononoke (Youkai) are preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore that comes in various forms and shape. You can distinguish oni (ogre), Kitsune (fox) or the snow woman (Yuki-onna). Some possess part animals and part human features like the famous Kappa and Tengu. Generally they have supernatural powers. |
The hero is an apothecary that sell cures and treatments to live but his major job is to kill Mononoke. Since they are preternatural creatures they don’t belong in the human world and they must be destroyed.
A Youkai is called in the human world when specific circumstance are reunited and it often means a tragedy between human beings.
To reveal the Mononoke true shape, the apothecary must know everything about the situation involved in its birth and finally to be able to destroy it.
He need to discover 3 things and to achieve this he need to ask directly the people involved.
Of course the tricky parts is to separate the truth from the lies!
A good exampe of the drawing richness.
What he need to reveal are :
The Shape : defined by the relationship the mononoke have with humans.
The Truth : what’s beneath the tragedy.
The Purpose : depend on the feelings who leaded to the tragedy.
Once he knows about those 3 things, his sword may be unsheathe and the Mononoke destroyed.
The only sword who's able to destroy mononoke
He became like this while wielding the sword.
The first thing that jump to your eyes it’s the graphics, very colored. A singular trait that may displease certain people. Myself, i was uneasy at first but rapidly the pace, ambient, voices, sounds captured me and i just couldn’t stop myself from watching.
The apothecary quest to reveal what he need to destroy the mononoke is rich, deep and sometimes complicated as many people are involved.
They’s no real plot who goes thru all episodes but tragedies taking 2 or 3 episodes to be solved. Each one is really worked and well thought that you can’t guess or imagine what happened until the final outcome.
The last tragedy in the train is particularly thrilling and i surprised me shivering while watching it !
This time the special not is not “Fun” since it’s not a comedy at all. “Frightening” seemed to be more appropriate.
Scenario : 9.5/10 – No real long term scenario but small one in 2 or 3 episodes describing a tragedy and the birth of a mononoke. Each of them are very well constructed and untwined like a detective show. Very thrilling and exiting.
Frightening : 8/10 – I’m not scared easily that’s for sure. But i had shivers on every episodes ! The very first times a anime do that to me. That was amazing !
Graphics : 9/10 – You love or you hate. Personally i think it’s beautiful. They used this style with a lot of colors and forms to create a unique atmosphere and abstraction that fits Youkai and supernatural things perfectly. I call this art, not less.
Ending : -/10 – No real note here since this anime don’t have a general storyline. Each tragedy also ends with the Mononoke’s destruction.
Total : 9.5/10 – You want to live a nonsuch anime experience ? Stop searching and try “Mononoke”. A complete UFO in the world of anime, clever, fascinating, intriguing … there’s no way you can’t be touched in a way or another by watching this.
A good example of the graphic colorfulness
Woah coool! I honestly haven’t seen Mononoke. I actually was expecting a post on Princess Mononoke when I saw the RSS feed.
The art style looks very interesting, and totally reminds me of a mix between Dead Leaves, and Final Fantasy artist Yoshitaka Amano. The “Super Flat” style is very heavy and apparent. Quite cool. Check out Super Flat on wikipedia. Quite an interesting article.
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Ah ah yeah lol i thought about Princess Mononoke when i posted this. It’s the first thing that comes into your mind when reading “Mononoke” after all.
I sincerely consider the graphics as a piece of pure art. I’ll check on “Super Flat” as you recommend and thanks a lot. Glad you appreciate it.
Lol, same with radiant at first I thought it was princess Mononoke the movie
I can’t really comment on the art work though haha but its look like animation done in very traditional Japanese drawing style. I love anime dealing with the occult like gasaraki, karas type of stuff and this vampire princess show but I can’t remember the name already though (getting old!!!).
Are the action scenes good?
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I wonder if another anime exist with the same style of graphics. Would be happy to know. I also love Japanese Folklore with their legends, superstition, gods, demons and such … so much to work with to create stories.
For action scenes … well i wouldn’t call them like that. There’s no real fight against the Mononoke. Once everything is known to the apothecary he proceed and destroy the Youkai. It’s brief but incredibly intense and beautiful.
This anime is focused on colors, sounds, speeches and mystery rather than pure action.
you forgot to add “princess” in the titl… wait a sec, nvm
ive never heard of this one before, sounds very interesting and im digging the unique art style. hmm a frightening anime? i havent seen one of those in a while, might check this one out. thanks for sharing ^^
As much as i love “Princesses” related stuffs, this is not the case here ^^
Give it a try, it’s worth it big time !
Ehehe, it seems most of us were expecting Princess Mononoke.
Still, this looks very unique. A short story compilation is good once in a while too, and this traditional yet distinctly colorful art style adds to that ‘single potent shot’ feeling. It does seem like a love hate sort of thing, but I commend originality.
And really, I’m a sucker for youkai. They’ve such a traditional Japanese flair.
But that’s probably mainly because of Touhou :p
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It is unique as far as i know. Yeah short story is nice here as you can’t stop watching it for month between 2 different stories and to getting lost in the plot.
I’m glad i found something you didn’t knew about
Unusual….???
I’ve heard of this anime several times during the end of the year when everyone was posting about best anime of the decade. I’ll have to give it a try soon (I’m currently in the middle of Kaiba)
Cool, feel free to come again after watching it and share your experience.
Mononoke is an anime i saw a long tome ago. As i love japanese folklore and phantasy creatures, i could only enjoy it.
I remember another show with this kind of graphics, but i can’t remember the name.
You too ! That’s great, we have on more thing in common then.
Another show ?? Too bad you don’t remember it’s name.
ah I remember this only 1 eps tho ^^;;; my heart still go with enma ai(jigoku shoujo) and saya(blood+) for supernatural anime
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Mmmm yeah i remember Saya and Enma, they’re both awesome too
It’s different from Mononoke but still very enjoyable. I haven’t watched third season of Jigoku Shoujo because i got a bit tired after the two first. Urami Kikitodoketaru 
I’ve never seen this anime before. Your review makes the anime look interesting. I don’t quite enjoy their style of graphics, but I might see if I could find epi 1 and give it a try.
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Tell me what you think of it once you watched it. It interest me to know your opinion.
Hello !
Your review interested me. I’ll watch it if I have time…
2007 ? old ?
Ooh, but it is a pretty recent anime, no ? Just 2004 & inferior is old for me.
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Well yeah lol i consider it to be old because i rarely watch anime who were released more than 2 years ago.
I try to not get distanced, there’s so many things to watch and not always the time to do it.
I think you might like this one ^^
Oh wow, I have vaguely heard of this before, but I never realized it is so artistic. I agree with you in that I also think it’s really beautiful. I’m really interested in it now. Thanks for the review.
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You’re welcome. I would be interested to know what you think of this after watching
Another anime to add to the long list of series that I must watch ^^
And you, have you watched Fushiigi no umi no Nadia ?
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Damn …. looking innocently at the ceiling #whistle