Doing an “anime book club” on a series that I adore so much has certainly opened up a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, it’s awesome to have the opportunity to watch something I love over again; as I’ve stated many times at this point, it’s not something I give myself a lot of time to do (it usually only happens if I manage to dupe my local anime club into watching some of the weird stuff that I like). On the other hand, I have this creeping fear that I’ll reach a point where I can’t manage to write anything that truly captures my feelings about the show. I have a difficult enough time already trying to make my writing convey the full nature of my thoughts, and that’s compounded by the fact that this is one of my favorite series and I want people to have the same love for it that I do. Sometimes it feels like there’s a weight on my shoulders, though of course this is burden I carry by choice!
This week’s story is told over the course of three episodes instead of two, so there’s a little bit more to take notes on and unpack. It also takes longer for the story to get to the root of its mononoke’s origin, though in my opinion this gives it some additional time to focus on setting and atmosphere. But I’ll leave my commentary for after the episode summaries.