Mononoke

""I'm just a simple medicine peddler.""

Not to be confused with Princess Mononoke, the Miyazaki film.

A spin-off of the horror anime Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales, though unlike Ayakashi the mononoke pursued have merged with the strong emotions of humans, making them even more dangerous and hard to combat.

The story follows the mysterious, nameless medicine peddler in his travels and the various people -- and monsters -- he ends up encountering. To slay the mononoke he must find the Shape (true form), Truth (origin), and Reason (what it hopes to accomplish) in order to defeat it. The series is divided into five story arcs.

The style of the anime is done in the Unmoving Plaid style of Gankutsuou (although to a lesser extent--there are actually some solid colors here and there, for example), and though it may take some getting used to, the way the series utilizes it is absolutely chilling in certain cases. Highly recommended, though be prepared for a Mind Screw of Neon Genesis Evangelion proportions and lots of unanswered questions.

Mononoke contains examples of:

 * Alien Geometries: In the Zashiki-warashi arc.
 * Ambiguously Human / Not Quite Human: While the Medicine Peddler always refers to himself as human, his Facial Markings, Pointy Ears, Cute Little Fangs, demonic sword, supernatural powers, long lifespan and Badass alter-ego say otherwise.
 * Animal Motif: Thanks to his face paint, ears, and fangs, the medicine peddler is a spitting image of a traditional Japanese representation of a fox spirit.
 * Animal Stereotypes / Cunning Like a Fox
 * Asshole Victim: Chou's husband and in-laws.
 * Badass Long Hair: The Medicine Peddler's other form.
 * Bag of Holding: How many scales does he have in one of his box's single small compartments?
 * Batman Gambit: The Medicine Peddler is implied to be behind the events of both the and to some extent the.
 * Beware the Nice Ones: If someone is initially presented as wise, patient, or kind, odds are they're actually behind the whole thing.
 * Bishonen: You can see why the ladies love the Medicine Peddler.
 * Bittersweet Ending: To almost every arc.
 * BFS: The Medicine Peddler's sword looks so... stunted in its little case, but just wait until he gets his shape, truth and reason!
 * Bland Name Product: Zeiko watches in the Bakeneko arc.
 * Black Eyes of Evil / Red Eyes Take Warning: The Medicine Peddler's other form has red irises and black sclera; while he isn't "evil" per se, if you're a mononoke you had better stay well clear.
 * Blatant Lies: Just look at the page caption.
 * Blue and Orange Morality: The mononoke, as explained in the manga.
 * Body Horror: So very much. One word: fishbaby.
 * Brother Sister Incest: A major motivation for, and was the reason for the creation of the mononoke in the Umi-Bozu arc.
 * Call Back: A girl that worked for the family haunted by the bakeneko in Ayakashi is a main character in the Umi-Bozu arc. What seem to be reincarnations of her and that entire family also show up in the last arc, mainly for the purpose of planting Epileptic Trees.
 * Catch Phrase: "Tada no kusuriuri desu yo," or "I'm just a simple medicine peddler."
 * Celibate Hero: For all intents and purposes, the Medicine Peddler appears to be happily married...to his 'job'.
 * Closed Circle: About once an episode, often due to the Medicine Peddler closing off all the exits to prevent the mononoke attacking and/or escaping. Additionally, the Umi-Bozu arc is set on a boat and the Bakeneko arc in a train carriage.
 * Cute Little Fangs: The Medicine Peddler, very subtly.
 * Dark Skinned Blond: The Medicine Peddler turns into this after unsheathing his sword.
 * Dead All Along:.
 * Deadpan Snarker: The Medicine Peddler is shown to possess brutally dry wit, especially when it concerns people who annoy him or get in his way (like the samurai in the Bakeneko story from the Ayakashi series).
 * Deliberately Monochrome: Much of the Nue arc; the backgrounds are all like this and only certain important aspects of characters are coloured. However the Medicine Peddler is in full colour, and after he takes down the mononoke the rest of the colour returns, though it's a little hard to tell if that's real or not.
 * Deranged Animation: Oh yes.
 * Dramatic Pause: The... Medicine... Peddler... loves... this trope.
 * Dramatic Wind: The Medicine Peddler seems to be affected by this even when he's inside. Plus it's sparkly.
 * Drone of Dread: Generally when something creepy is about to happen.
 * Dull Surprise: The unflappable Medicine Peddler. If he's wearing this expression, expect all the other characters to be completely freaking out.
 * Early Installment Weirdness/Characterization Marches On: In Ayakashi's Bakeneko arc, the Medicine Peddler is less stoic and more overtly snarky than he is in this series, where he is eternally unruffled and limits his snark to the slightest of knowing smirks regarding the events around him.
 * Editorial Synaesthesia: Artistically utilized in the Nue arc.
 * Empathic Weapon: The demon sword, which seems to have a mind of its own and even speaks or screams occasionally ("TOKIHANAAATSU").
 * Everyone Calls Him Medicine Peddler: Well, what else are you going to call him?
 * Faceless Masses: Done very stylishly. In Zashiki-Warashi they have flowers on their faces, and Bakeneko uses fashion mannequins.
 * Facial Markings: And they change when he draws his sword.
 * Fan Nickname: The Medicine Peddler's other half -- which is never explicitly named in the series -- has gained the nickname "Hyper" in Japan (presumably short for "Hyper Mode").
 * Fetus Terrible: In the Zashiki-Warashi arc.
 * And an illusionary one in the Umi-Bozu arc.
 * Flying Dutchman / Walking the Earth: The Medicine Peddler's purpose is to wander the earth eternally, exorcising Mononoke; but it's quite difficult to figure out whether he does this out of choice or whether he has been forced to do so and is taking it really well.
 * In fact, the series ends with an arc set in the 1920s, whereas the other arcs take place during slightly different time periods from before the Meiji restoration.
 * Genre Savvy: The Medicine Peddler -- incredibly so.
 * Ghostly Goals: The bakeneko.
 * Go Out With a Smile: The zashiki-warashi.
 * Grey and Grey Morality: The entire series has this as its basis.
 * Groundhog Day Loop:
 * Henohenomoheji: In a Crowning Moment of Awesome for the Medicine Peddler in the Noppera-Bo arc.
 * Hikaru Midorikawa: As the Man in the Fox Mask.
 * Houko Kuwashima: As Chou.
 * I Know Your True Name: The mononoke's "katachi" (which can mean 'name' or 'form') is one of three factors that must be known to the Medicine Peddler before he can draw the Sword of Exorcism.
 * Implausible Hair Color: The Medicine Peddler, Genkei (even though his sister has black hair like any other Japanese), the pregnant woman from the Zashiki-Warashi arc...not to mention some characters who look like they're of African descent, complete with afros to match.
 * Inexplicably Awesome: Kusuriuri. We have no idea who he is, where he comes from or how he got his powers, only that he kicks mononoke butt for a living and looks fabulous while doing it.
 * It Can't Be Helped: In the first episode, the elderly innkeeper gets tired of arguing with the pregnant foreigner over how there's no room in the inn. She just gives up, says it can't be helped, and lets her sleep in the abandoned room in the attic.
 * Jump Cut: Used deliberately and frequently, the better to increase viewer confusion.
 * Kabuki Sounds: Used to punctuate the eye catches and endings.
 * Kansai Regional Accent: The characters from the Nue arc speak with a Kyoto dialect, since the story is set around the old capital.
 * Karmic Death: It's either this or nothing!
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: The anime was licensed for North American release at one point, but its licensee went bankrupt. As a result, the series is in a limbo that has yet to be resolved.
 * Large Ham: The minstrel and the minstrel-like fish demon who appeared in the Umi-Bozu arc. To be fair, the latter was voiced by Norio Wakamoto.
 * ~Let's Get Dangerous~: What happens whenever the Medicine Peddler appears on the scene.
 * Literal Split Personality: Or something along those lines. It's implied that the Medicine Peddler's normal and demon-slaying personas are two separate entities who switch places as necessary, and at one point the normal persona passes the demon-slayer a mirror to shield himself with.
 * Living Memory: The mononoke.
 * Long Haired Pretty Boy: The Medicine Peddler's normal form is the 'shoulder-length hair' sub-type, while his mononoke-slaying alter-ego has much longer hair.
 * Luminescent Blush: Standard female reaction to the Medicine Peddler's appearance.
 * Malaproper: The Medicine Peddler ends up mangling a Japanese idiom (or to be exact, mixing two idioms together) regarding fish, in the Noppera-Bo arc.
 * Marked Change: When the Medicine Peddler switches into Mononoke-slayer mode.
 * Mask Power: The Fox-Man in the Noppera-Bo arc, though it's implied that Masks also play an important symbolic role throughout the arc.
 * Mind Screw: And how!
 * Mukokuseki: Mostly averted, with the obvious exception of the Medicine Peddler. However, Shino and Genkei both have blond hair and blue eyes; Genkei's pass without comment, but the innkeeper's servant seems shocked to see Shino's hair color after she removes her head scarf, suggesting that she might really be a foreigner. There's also the fact that said inn is run by two black people...
 * Musical Assassin: With a shamisen!
 * My Beloved Smother: Chou's mother from the Noppera-bou arc.
 * Mysterious Past: No-one really knows anything about the Medicine Peddler; his past, origins, intentions, motivation for slaying mononoke, true personality and species all remain an enigma throughout.
 * Noblewomans Laugh: Princess Ruri in the Nue arc.
 * No Name Given: "Kusuriuri-san" it will have to be.
 * Not So Stoic: Sasaki Hyouei in the Umi-Bozu arc normally speaks in a quiet Creepy Monotone, but completely loses his shit when trying to attack something
 * Obake / Youkai
 * Obnoxious in Laws: Taken Up to Eleven in the Noppera-bo arc.
 * Older Than They Look / Really Seven Hundred Years Old: It's implied the main character has been around a long time. Even in the Bakeneko arc, set about 200 years later than the others, he still retains his youthful looks.
 * Omniscient Morality License: The Medicine Peddler even says that his job is just to defeat the Mononoke, and he has no obligation to save the people involved. Given the series' Grey and Grey Morality this makes sense.
 * One Mononoke Per Arc
 * Panty Shot: A particularly disturbing example in the Bakeneko arc, as Setsuko's underwear are clearly visible while
 * Paper Talisman: Kusuriuri uses these frequently and he has a TON of them in his sleeves.
 * Pointy Ears / Unusual Ears: The Medicine Peddler, which makes him look vaguely elf-like.
 * Power Limiter: The Sword of Exorcism can't be drawn until the Medicine Peddler solves the mystery. (See Rule Of Three below.)
 * Psychological Horror
 * The Rashomon: Absolutely no one tells the truth the first time they're asked for their story. A lot of the time they pay for it, too.
 * Red String of Fate: A variation involving a red cloth between and unborn child and their parents. A much more traditional example appears in the OP, with a red string tied to the pinky finger.
 * Reincarnation: Implied. The mononoke in the final arc (episodes 10-12) is a bakeneko, and the characters seem to be reincarnations of the people from the original Ayakashi arc (where the enemy was a bakeneko). Funny the little coincidences, eh?
 * Rule of Three: The Medicine Peddler needs the Mononoke's Shape, Truth, and Reason in order to purify it.
 * Scenery Porn: Oh hell, is there ever! The scenery is so rich, detailed and colourful it's like going on a (very beautiful) acid trip.
 * Ship Tease: Carrying over from the original Bakeneko story, Kayo gets some with the Medicine Peddler - while she's obviously attracted and he treats her more kindly than he does others, he still finds time to tease her (and the viewers).
 * Silly Me Gesture: The Medicine Peddler in the 9th episode with plenty of sarcasm, when he 'realizes' that he's given poisonous oleander to one of the characters.
 * Situational Sword
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Very much on the cynical end.
 * Smoking Is Cool: The main character definitely gets points for smoking a pipe at the end of the Noppera-Bo arc.
 * Spell My Name With an S: Officially, it's Mo No No Ke.
 * Stepford Smiler: Chou from the Noppera-Bo arc.
 * The Stinger: Right when you think you've more or less got an arc figured out, its stinger will show up and confuses you to hell and back.
 * The Stoic: The Medicine Peddler's emotional range is, at best, "somewhat bemused" and "fighting a Mononoke". He showed much more emotion in the original Ayakashi arc.
 * Story Arc: Five -- Zashiki-Warashi, Umi-Bozu, Noppera-Bo, Nue, and Bakeneko. However, aside from featuring the Medicine Peddler, they're unrelated.
 * Surreal Horror
 * Takahiro Sakurai: The Medicine Peddler's seiyuu.
 * Theme Naming: All the tracks on the OST are written in katakana and end in "怪" (ke/ge), just like "Mononoke".
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The radio plays the instrumental mix of the opening theme in Setsuko's room while she's writing in the Bakeneko arc.
 * This Is Unforgivable: The Bakeneko's only first-hand dialogue.
 * Time Skip: The Bakeneko arc takes place in the 1920s while the rest appears to be set in the Edo Period, but the Medicine Peddler himself hasn't changed at all (besides having some new jewelery). There are arguably small hints in each arc that time skips forward about 50 years in between each of them.
 * Tomato in The Mirror:
 * Transformation Sequence: The most AWESOME one ever animated. And it gets mixed up a ton, too. Never, ever boring; always super pretty.
 * Twelve Episode Anime
 * Unmoving Plaid: Further emphasizes the generally odd art style.
 * Unreliable Narrator: Everyone.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Again, the Medicine Peddler, who amongst other things is blond and blue-eyed.
 * Particularly in the Bakeneko arc, when in addition to being a guy with pointy ears and red markings all over his face in the middle of a Japanese cast, he's also dressed a good 100 years out of date. (Even in the other arcs, his manner of dress is pretty bizarre even for the time, mixing male and female styles liberally.)
 * It also uses aristocratic materials and styles, despite his humble profession; something that nobody ever comments on. But in the Bakeneko arc he at least explains that people who seek folk remedies expect their seller to look exotic.
 * His clothing design and style actually seems very familiar to the traditional wear of the Ainu, an indigenous Japanese race. Some of his facial markings also appear akin to the Ainu.
 * "Well Done, Daughter" Woman: Chou and her domineering mother have this kind of relationship.
 * White Haired Pretty Boy: The Medicine Peddler's other form, who in a way manages to be even more attractive than his normal one. Except for the black teeth, at least.
 * Those may be justified; there was a historical custom in Japan during the Edo era called ohaguro (link goes to the Other Wiki) in which the teeth were ornamentally coloured black. Mostly done by women, but men did colour their teeth on occasion. (In fact, teeth that were lacquered black were seen as quite attractive.) There's even conventions that combine ohaguro and noh mask-like makeup...
 * Workaholic: It's even implied in episode 4 that should the Medicine Peddler be unable to exorcise a mononoke (or conversely, should all mononoke cease to exist) he'd disappear from this world. So it's quite difficult to figure out whether he's truly devoted to his duty or whether he has no other choice -- though going by his frequent displays of enthusiasm and interest in the mononoke and their histories, he seems to be genuinely fond of 'work'.
 * World of Symbolism: Pretty much the only way to make sense of the series...especially the Noppera-Bo Arc.
 * Yukana: Kayo's seiyuu.