So, this series of posts has been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to do a deep-dive on Mononoke for several years but never felt equipped to take it on. Part of that is because I like the anime series so much and really, really want to do it justice in the way I talk about it. I have some baggage about this series that I’ve mentioned in the past and won’t go into detail about right now (the short version is that I got ridiculed for liking it because I couldn’t properly articulate why it wasn’t just something that “looked cool”), but ultimately it only drove me to attach to the series even more. I suppose maybe I’m just petty like that (or I just really, really like great anime!).
It’s a series of several stories that are all interesting to me, and some of them I believe speak to me on a personal level in a way that’s unlike so many other anime (even anime I like a lot!). Many people believe that the original story, which we’ll be covering this week, is the “best” one; I’d have a difficult time arguing that as it’s self-contained and arguably unlike pretty much anything else that came before it (it’s also absolutely the best of the three stories in the anthology series from which it originated). Despite that, though, the series as a whole sets a standard that I feel few can match, as I hope you’ll eventually agree!
Going through this process once again has reminded me of just how much interesting anime there is out there to watch, and how little free time there is to follow everything that I would like to follow. When you haven’t sampled a little of everything, it’s much easier to look from outside and decide that this show or that show doesn’t really look that interesting. Watching it, though, causes you to invest yourself sometimes, if even just a little bit. Of course, being invested doesn’t always mean that the investment is going to pay off; in the words of Kenny Rogers, sometimes you have to “know when to walk away, and know when to run.”
In this entry, I’ll be checking out some more of Island, Phantom in the Twilight, Planet With, and Angel of Death. If nothing else, this definitely gives us a taste of many genres!
Unfortunately the first book club entry for Mononoke is going to be delayed (well, is already delayed), probably just until this coming Sunday the 26th. I have just a few personal things going on that interrupted my workflow and I thought it best to wait a week rather than attempt a mid-week post (that, and I have other things I’m planning to put up instead and I don’t want to crowd this space too much). I hope this gives you the extra time (and motivation) you might need to check out the “Bakeneko” story arc from Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales!
It’s been a long journey making my way through the Summer anime season already, but the party’s not over! Getting a taste of so many anime has really only whet my appetite for some of them. Sometimes the first episode was so good that I’m dying to see more. Sometimes I’m somewhat intrigued and need some more information to make a final decision. And sometimes I feel like there might be a train-wreck brewing, and I need to sate my curiosity in some way. Whatever the reason is, I’ve put together a list of series I wouldn’t mind watching some more of, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts about them over a few different posts (one post would just be unwieldy). You can expect about four series per follow-up, in no particular order. It should go without saying, but below are spoilers for all the series covered (Mr. Tonegawa, Hanebado!, Harukana Receive, and Cells at Work!).
Now that all the available first-run anime has been taken care of, I thought I might do a compilation post of all the sequels and miscellaneous short anime available this season (at least those which can be had legally at the time of this writing). Some of these are sequels I’ve been anticipating quite a bit, and some of them are sequels of series that I’m not familiar with – there isn’t anything that’s a short that’s not also a sequel, and it appears that there wasn’t really any “stuff” (what I call anime made for kids that won’t hold much interest for most adult viewers) to speak of this time. I know my providing commentary on something I have little context for will be controversial to some readers, but I plan to approach it from the angle of whether I would want to go back and watch the previous episodes or not. Apologies to anyone who feels that I’m misrepresenting any series here; I imagine I’m not the only person in history who’s approached longer-running anime this way, though.
It goes without saying, but there are likely spoilers for every series written about here; if you’re not caught up on your favorites, you’re likely better off waiting until you have time to get up to speed. Also, I skipped Overlord III because it seemed more like a split-cour continuation rather than a true sequel… and I watched about three minutes of it and had no idea what was going on!
EpisodeSummary: Muhyo, a diminutive child-like individual, and Roji, his put-upon assistant, work in supernatural law. Muhyo is a famous executor who punishes spirits for encroaching on the lives of human beings, his looks and foul temperament belying a savvy expertise. Roji is an apprentice hoping to learn the trade from the very best. One afternoon a young student named Rie approaches the professionals to seek help. There’s a ghost haunting one of the platforms at the local train station, and Rie believes herself to be responsible for its existence. She was very close with her friend Taeko since they were both outsiders at school. When Rie joined the volleyball team she began to disconnect from Taeko, and their last meeting ended when Taeko fell backwards onto the tracks and was killed. Now her ghost is unable to let go of the human world and has been grabbing other passengers by the ankles, searching for Rie. Muhyo agrees to take the case. After nightfall, the three travel to the train platform and wait out the ghost, which doesn’t take very long. As suspected, the creature is an amalgamation of many ghostly grudges with Taeko’s death being the catalyzing factor that’s drawn them together. Muhyo calls upon Hades himself to capture the monster and draw it to Hell. It’s only Rie’s insistence on holding Taeko’s hand that allows Taeko passage into a kinder afterlife. With Taeko now at peace, Rie can live her life normally again.
I’ve been writing on and off about anime for over ten years at this point and have been enjoying a relatively fruitful run the last couple of months. It’s taken a long time for me to get back to this productivity level because I’ve been through some personal ups and downs and some major changes over that time period. I know first-hand how difficult it is to focus on side projects like this when everything else in one’s life feels out of control. Getting back into writing regularly just feels right to me, though; it’s a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings about something I love in a way that occasionally reaches other people (it’s definitely preferable to sitting at home and talking about anime to no one in particular).
There are a lot of guides out there that cover the ways in which one can be a successful blogger and make a side career (or actual career!) from their writing (I recommend starting with The Otaku Journalist). Because of the uncertainty inherent to that prospect I’ve never considered that to be an option for me since I appreciate stability and consistency over all things. However, I have intuitively happened-upon a few things over the years that have helped me out as a blogging hobbyist and I thought I might pass them along to any readers who are interested in following a similar path. These are in no particular order, and many of the items have as much to do with general online interaction as they do with blogging specifically (and likely stem from a specific incident or interaction I’ve had).
In an antique shop in Kyoto’s Teramachi Sanjō shopping district, high school girl Aoi Mashiro unexpectedly runs into Kiyotaka Yagashira, the son of the shop’s owner, and ends up working part-time at the shop. Kiyotaka is called the “Holmes at Teramachi Sanjō,” and he and Aoi solve odd cases brought to them by various clients. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: Aoi Mashiro is in need of an antique appraisal, and the antique shop she finds is staffed by one of the best in the business, though she doesn’t realize it initially. Kiyotaka Yagashira is known as a bit of a Sherlock Holmes (“Holmes” is a pun on the characters that make up his name) who has an intuitive knack for sniffing out counterfeit items, uncovering the histories of genuine ones, and knowing just what his clients are looking for. He deduces soon enough that the art scrolls Aoi is trying to sell don’t really belong to her, but that she seems like a good person and her situation must be desperate for her to be taking such extreme measures. Though he won’t buy the scrolls he does offer to appraise them, and they turn out to be quite valuable. One of them even has a history that causes Aoi to think twice about spending her money the way she intends. “Holmes” offers instead to give her a job so she can earn the money she needs, though by that point she may no longer feel it necessary to spend it.
Yuuto Suoh gets more than he bargained for when he joins his childhood friend Mitsuki Shimoya in testing out an urban legend. When he uses his phone to take a picture of himself with the local shrine’s divine mirror, he is whisked off into another world – one heavily steeped in the lore of the old Norse myths. Using his knowledge gained from school and from his solar-powered smartphone, he has the chance to bring the Wolf Clan, the same people who cared for him, to prominence, all while earning the adoration of a group of magic-wielding warrior maidens known as the Einherjar. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: It’s been two years since Yuuto was accidentally whisked away to an unknown bronze age society, but in that time he’s managed to become the leader and patriarch of a powerful clan. His goal isn’t exactly to gain control of the entire land, though that might be the unintended consequence; he wants to bring about peace to its various warring groups so that he can then concentrate on finding a way back to his native time and place. Luckily Yuuto still has the use of his smartphone, as it gives him access to military tactics and other knowledge he’s able to utilize to gain an advantage over almost any adversary. His most recent victory is over the Horn Clan, and the leader chooses to become his “sister,” a term for a subservient position beneath the patriarch. Soon after their alliance is solidified, another group makes moves to attack the Horn Clan’s homeland. Though the ink is barely dry on their alliance, Yuuto chooses to honor it by sending his armies to aid his new subjects.
Before I dive too deeply into anything, below you can find links to past weeks’ discussions of Kino’s Journey. As always, feel free to leave a comment on the posts or just enjoy them (hopefully!) as part of your own experience with the series.
It’s late evening on a steamy Summer night in the upper Midwest, but as usual I’m safely inside and doing what I love best – sharing my thoughts about great anime. I spent the week thinking about how to close off the voyage we’ve taken over the past several weeks with Kino’s Journey, and realized that I didn’t have a good handle on how I wanted to sum-up the series. To inspire myself, I went looking for other reviews of the show at some of my favorite anime websites, which was probably not the best idea; there are times when I really like an anime series, only to realize that my feelings towards it are grossly out of step with the general consensus. A lot of the time this doesn’t bother me, but there are other times where the general reaction is so negative that my lack of confidence as a writer and a reviewer leads me to believe that my passion is somehow incorrect.
A few years ago I had a similar experience. I was writing weekly reviews of a series called The Perfect Insider, a series that I’ve reaffirmed my love for over multiple subsequent viewings but which I was obviously watching for the first time at that point. What I liked about the series was its philosophical handling of human nature through three characters who represented different points on a spectrum. I also thought its handling of a character whose genius far outweighed her social and emotional intelligence was curiously good; to assume someone with adult-like intelligence as an adult with life experience is a mistake and a crime, and I believe the consequences of that were put on full display in the series in a way that I’d describe as painful, poignant, and beautiful. Anyway, I spent eleven weeks ignoring other reviews and summaries to maintain my own focus, and when I was done writing I rushed out to read these other reviews only to discover that the show had very little love elsewhere on the internet. This was (and is still) immature on my part, but when I read these reviews I didn’t see a difference in opinion; what I saw was a criticism of myself through others’ revilement of a thing I really liked. I identified with what the series was saying and felt like other people didn’t understand it the way that I did, and therefore didn’t care to understand the person that I was (even though the realist in me knows that none of them know me personally or care).
Looking at it now I can see the effects of this sort of personal identification with fictional universes has manifested in truly toxic behavior on the part of large groups of people (*cough*TheLastJedi*cough*). While I wholeheartedly believe that my deeply personal identification with a tale of mental illness and sexual abuse is different in nature from people being angry that Luke Skywalker made bad life choices and women and people of color get to be heroes now, I do feel that geek fandom in general fosters an environment where passions are personal and disagreement equals an attack. My point is really that it’s difficult to disengage when people whose opinions you read and respect don’t share your same feelings.
Most opinions about new Kino I can understand because the original was so incredibly beloved, especially with fans around my same age and fandom experience level. While I didn’t have the language back then to speak more competently about gender as I do now (and I’m still always trying to improve!), what I remember thinking about Kino as a character was that they were a girl for whom gender never seemed to define them, if that makes sense. As someone for whom gender has always been an obvious defining trait (and who spent years and years downplaying and vilifying femininity before getting a clue), I was inspired by Kino’s non-adherence to gender norms. I did a panel at CONvergence many years ago (waaaay back in 2012, wow!) about heroines in anime, and I listed Kino as my favorite for similar reasons. What I learned through reading about the show recently was that 2003 Kino was important to a lot of gender non-conforming and transgender folks, and both Kino’s portrayal in the 2017 series, as well as some of Crunchyroll’s sloppier translation choices in regards to the character, came across as harmful. I can’t really argue against that; while my experience with the show was different, my life experiences are also different.
“Colosseum” was one of the stories treated differently in either version of the anime.
I can also respect criticism of the stories that this version chose to adapt (I hear they were voted-on by fans, a method which will never be without its problems), or technical things like animation and direction. Those tend not to be my top concerns most of the time, but for fans who are interested in the craft of animation I imagine they’re very “front-and-center.” What I found saddening, though, were the amount of comments and reviews I came across that amounted to “this interpretation of the story is not like the previous interpretation, which I liked a lot, so this one is therefore inferior in every way.” Obviously the commentary wasn’t so lacking in nuance, but I did see a trend in how many folks compared this new series to the original one as a major angle of critique. I think we’re all sort of exhausted by the number of sequels, prequels, and re-boots being produced nowadays, but I can think of at least some examples where they’ve been used to make improvements or correct blatant wrongdoings of their predecessors, so they at least have some value whether we ourselves believe them to be necessary or not. They also don’t have to upend and replace our nostalgic memories of the originals (though they should at least make us question whether those originals were as worthy of praise as we may have thought at the time). I feel like this new version of Kino might become a formative experience for some newer fans and that the older version may not hold the same appeal to them for any number of reasons, so I hope that they aren’t discouraged.
I don’t want to spend my remaining time feeling sad about what other people thought about the series, though. What I’d rather do is talk about what I enjoyed because, in the end, those are the feelings that I’m going to take with me. Aside from the vibrancy of the colors and the depictions of nature throughout the show, which I thought were beautiful to look at, I think what I’ll take away from the experience of watching this series a second time is how deeply it allowed me to think about the social situations of the people living in the various countries Kino encounters. This is probably partly a result of the “deep-dive” format of Anime Book Club, but I feel like even weaker episodes (like episode 12, which I think we can agree was the lightest and silliest of the bunch) still provided some food for thought. Often times I found myself relating aspects of the episodes to current events, which isn’t always something I want out of my anime when I’m using it to escape the harsh realities of the 24 hour news cycle. But sometimes seeing an issue portrayed fictionally helps me to solidify my real-life opinions on it, and that’s something I find valuable.
Ultimately, I hope that no one found their time to be wasted even if the series didn’t resonate with them. And even if it was a waste of time, well, there’s tons more anime out there that you might like more, so head out on your own journey of discovery and see what you can find!
I spent a lot of time thinking about what series I wanted to focus on next. I considered going back to the previous poll and picking something else that got a lot of votes, but instead I’m going to be selfish and pick a favorite of mine that I’ve been wanting to re-watch for quite a while.
Mononoke is an anime anthology series that follows a mysterious Medicine Seller, an individual who identifies mononoke (vengeful spirits) and exorcises them. In order to do so, he must learn the mononoke’s form, the truth of its existence, and the fundamental regret which helped it come into being. Though the series skews towards the horror and supernatural genres, all of the stories have some basis in human emotional reality. What I’ve always liked about the series is that I feel that it speaks to many of my own truths as a woman.
The anime series is based on a three-episode story called Bakeneko, which was a part of another anthology series called Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. That series was released on DVD here many years ago. I own a copy but I believe it to be exceedingly difficult to find since it’s long out of print. I’d like to start with Bakeneko the first week; for those who aren’t comfortable obtaining the show through “questionable means,” perhaps I can work out a stream. I will say that it’s relatively easy to find floating around if you google it.
So, this series of posts has been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to do a deep-dive on Mononoke for several years but never felt equipped to take it on. Part of that is because I like the anime series so much and really, really want to do it justice in the way I talk about it. I have some baggage about this series that I’ve mentioned in the past and won’t go into detail about right now (the short version is that I got ridiculed for liking it because I couldn’t properly articulate why it wasn’t just something that “looked cool”), but ultimately it only drove me to attach to the series even more. I suppose maybe I’m just petty like that (or I just really, really like great anime!).
