Mononoke: O Filme - O Fantasma na Chuva

Fascinating textures and patterns. Sometimes a bit overwhelming. It is difficult to judge depth in some scenes due to the visual effects. As much as it can be appreciated, I found myself looking away at times due to pure overstimulation. The music is a fantastic mashup of traditional, natural Japanese vocals with eerie, techy synthetic sounds. A song by AiNA the END plays at the conclusion of the film and that is always a good thing. The story itself is nice, but not extremely well-rounded. A story of friendship, duty, and hierarchy. I found myself wishing to know the backstory of the two protagonists.

This was my introduction to this series. It works as a stand alone piece since quite a bit of the mysticism of the show isn't really explained, but left to be inferred, as well as because this film lacks connecting characters, sort of. The "medicine seller" is one of several, so the character in the film is, in some ways, a bit softer than the one in the animated series.

That being said, the way in which the story is told, and some of the more esoteric and symbolic elements were completely lost on me. I came in with an open mind, and began to pick things up throughout, but I probably would have benefitted from having something to compare it to.

It's an absolutely gorgeous piece draped in the guise of a Japanese play but I feel like the important minutia visible in every still would have given David Lynch pause. For sure something you'll need to watch two or three times at least.

In preparation for watching this film, I also watched the series, itself an offshoot of another anime that I had not seen. Watching the Mononoke series I was left with questions and uncertainties that I felt were due to be resolved in this film, released 15 years after the series was. No such luck.

Instead more questions, more obscure references, a more 3-D animation that felt less impactful than the series and a promise to continue the Mononoke tales in another upcoming movie. In short, I got less from it that I got from the original. That doesn't mean it wasn't an interesting, informative and beautiful animation film, it was just that I would have preferred a second season of the series, with the same attention to detail and less focus on the feature's length. In truth, this should not have been a movie at all.

Bottom line: the stories in this universe are interesting and very Japanese, they make me feel like I begin to understand more of their culture, but I fear the direction the productions are going is not the right one.

Since these other reviews seem to be written by AI or people who can't actually give a critical review I figured I'd chime in to write something useful.

I binged the original 2007 show on a whim a few years ago and since then it's been my absolute favorite anime. The show was stunning, strange and captivating.

But this movie seems to have lost most of what the series did back then. I suppose it'd be pretty difficult to replicate the show so many years later, which makes me wonder why they made the attempt.

It does not succeed in doing what the show did. The use of 3D stands out and looks bad. Instead of the exorcism of the mononoke being a out finding out the truth of the being and what put it there (a battle of wits and intruige) it instead becomes a literal battle which I felt that the show was never about. The Medicine Seller becomes someone who bounces around and does big action like it's a shounen anime.

What in the show was a visual spectacle has in the movie become visual frenzy, unpleasant and dissorienting to watch. You're given little to no time to take a scene in as angles change quickly or scenes change entirely in just a few seconds. Things aren't allowed to take time, to sink in and make you think. I struggle with where the characters are, why they are, who they are and so on.

This feels typical of what modern studios believe an anime movie "has to be". Action, movement, overly complicated and elaborate when it doesn't need to be. Perhaps studio meddling has been extensive on this production rather than the will and wishes of the director.

It's clear that a lot has been lost since 2007 and that modern influences has impacted this production too much to be as enjoyable as the show was.

I must also complain that the subtitles did not always accurately represent what was being said and at times even added to what was said in a way that actually changed the intent of some characters and the mood of a scene. That stuff annoys the heck out of me and is among the worst kind of "localization". It's probably because the subtitles align better with the English dub that way, which is pretty much why I really don't like watching English dubs of anything.

The story continues with the hunting down of the malevolent mononoke spirits, this time in the Edo Castle of the servant women quarters during the feudal Japanese period. With two young women who have just joined, embroiled in the haunting madness.

What transpires is a hypnotic and surreal animation with strong rainbow pastel colours of psychedelic wonderment. Very dreamlike and nightmarish images that will have you tripping, along with an editing rhythm that is disjointed and askew, just like being in a dream. All this enough to put you under the dangerous spell of the mononoke, where hopefully the Medicine Seller will come and save you...