Mononoke: O Filme - O Fantasma na Chuva

Call me superstitious for enjoying the detailed animation of the movie (oh wait, you can't. It's so detailed it's impossible to be counted as vain) but the movie had my heart in a chokehold. They took the very specific aesthetic and storytelling of mononoke and somehow, somehow, not only did they not mess it up, but they also improved upon it!

I can safely say that for me at least, the storyflow of the movie was a lot more comprehensible than the anime. But I also should probably rewatch the anime a few dozen times before I get a right to talk about it like that, so...

now, visual storytelling aside, as for the story itself, I have to say that I loved both the plot and the place it took place in. Even though the idea of a medicine seller and a "women/servants of the emperor" castle is, at this point, nothing new (lookng at you, apothecary diaries, Jewel in the palace, etc) with Mononoke's special touch and more importantly, it's ever present deep message in losing oneself, that is seen in every single 'mononoke' that gets exorcised (be it in the ayakashi horror tales, Mononoke (tv) or this movie) I find the setting to be exactly on point.

Short of it is this: this movie lived up to everything I wanted as a diehard 'Kusuriuri-san no' fan. It had high quality animation, high level of details, a worthy plot for a mononoke mystery, and just enough screentime of the nameless main character that it didn't compromise the story itself.

I'd have to say though, some opinions might be subject to change compared to what will be revealed in the next movie. The ending slapped a cliffhanger on the Medicine Seller's own story in the last 2 minutes and I certainly hope that more will be shown, and it will be shown soon. Or else I might just call that thrill-baiting...

Really don't understand the high reviews on this. Scenes and angles changes every 2 seconds. Gives you no time to admire any good art if any. Watching this will give you eyes seizure. Can't tell if it is night or day or where or what. Just super colorful and confusing. Will leave you feeling frustrated. Sometimes less is actually more.

The visuals are mind-bending and overwhelming in a positive way but the story is deeply intriguing as well, exploring the themes of self preservation and awareness, and the identity of women. My mouth was hanging open for a good ten minutes during the climax of the movie. Superb animation that looks way ahead of its time, like a celebration Japanese art from the year 2080. Worth a second watch to really uncover all the rich visual details including the stylistic references and homage to ukiyo-e paintings, as well as the hidden meanings behind the storyline. It felt like taking a magic carpet ride through a Japanese painting.

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.