No one is more surprised that there are now three Mononoke movies that people love Mononoke. Being a fan of Kenji Nakamura's visually stunning and narratively engrossing 2007 anime means constantly and carefully specifying, “No, no.” Princess Mononokefair Mononoke. It is this beautiful horror and mystery anime series. Have you seen it? – and be prepared for the answer “No.”
Mononoke has always been one of those cult miracles: beautiful, praised by those in the know, but finite in its relative obscurity, especially to English-speaking audiences. So, by the time I heard that Nakamura was making three new movies (the first of them, Mononoke the Movie: The Ghost in the Rainpremieres for Western audiences on Netflix on November 28. I was totally convinced.
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The ghost in the rain is everything I expected from the future adventures of Medicine Seller, the demon-slaying Poirot of the Edo period. The series' irresistible hook – Japanese ghost stories told in the format of a detective procedural – is back in excellent form, as is the television series' inimitable visual style, perfectly updated for modern animation techniques. But the movie is just almost everything I wanted from a Mononoke movie.
What I was really hoping for was an easy and available way to get Mononoke in front of more eyeballs. Unfortunately, The ghost in the rain it's not that. At least not yet.
The ghost in the rainas usual in MononokeThe episodic nature of, opens with a new set of characters. Asa and Kame are two new maidens who arrive at the emperor's Ōoku to spend their entire lives in his harem or at his service. Furthermore, as is usual in MononokeDue to its episodic nature, our hero, the mysterious demon hunter and mystery solver known only as Kusuriuri (literally, “medicine seller”), arrives and becomes interested in the Ōoku on the same day Asa and Kame are admitted.
Image: EOTA
The big news is that preparations are underway for a ceremony celebrating the birth of the emperor's new son, born to one of his favorite concubines, but no one will explain why that celebration was delayed several months in the first place. Between Asa and Kame's introduction to the strange rituals of the Ōoku and the tension between the visiting samurai researchers, the Ōoku matriarchs, and the medicine seller, there are many substantial mysteries to solve. Maybe also many.
The first thing someone notices Mononoke The series is its visual design: so colorful, detailed and textured that it borders on the psychedelic. What is less obvious to the naked eye is how closely contained each of MononokeThey are the mysteries and how skillfully Nakamura presents them visually.
Every episode of Mononoke It's as intriguing as the best puzzle adventure game, inviting close observation and rewarding repetition. The show offers clues in the form of shot compositions, symbolism and cuts. Nakamura heightens dramatic irony by providing the audience with information that the characters do not yet know, assuming the audience is looking close enough to catch it.
ghost in the rainhowever it breaks MononokeThe tradition of completely independent mystery arcs. While it resolves its central mystery, the story carefully introduces some characters and plot threads (a man who serves cursed water to maidens, hints of palace intrigue beyond the Ōoku) only to leave them dangling, oblivious to the solution to the mystery.
To a long-time fan, it seems clear that Nakamura is preparing the second and third games. Mononoke movies to come. But if you haven't experienced MononokeIn the highly autonomous format above, you'll think those dangling threads are messy. “Wait, what's with all those pictures we have of the guy with the ladle looking suspicious? Hey. Strange.”
Image: EOTA
I admit that even I wasn't sure until I noticed something, and this is the kind of thing I mean when I say that. Mononoke it wants your concentration at puzzle level. The film's closing credits play in a single animated loop of a camera rotating around a room with a large altar. Three ropes are hung from the altar, each one of a different color, but one of them is broken and hangs loose.
I remembered a moment in ghost in the rainThe climax, in which Nakamura cuts to a single shot of a rope breaking that appears to have nothing to do with the rest of the action. ohI thought, Each rope on the altar is related to one of the three Mononoke movies. Everyone is moving toward something that will happen, possibly in this room, when the third string breaks.
me too know That sounds like a leap, but it's exactly the kind of unarticulated, entirely visual foreshadowing that Nakamura has been a regular part of. Mononoke. ghost in the rain lives up to the bar set by the original anime series, with a creepy, toothy mystery featuring a suave protagonist, visuals so lush they sometimes border on overwhelming, and the deft blend of traditional and avant-garde animation to great effect. .
If you are already a fan of Mononoke, ghost in the rain It has everything you are looking for except easy entry for your newbie friends. However, if you're one of those newbies, I recommend waiting for all three movies to be available so we can see what the full picture looks like.
Mononoke Second Chapter: Hinezumi premieres in Japan in March 2025. Given the six-month gap between ghost in the rainDebuting in Japan and launching on Netflix, we probably won't see it in the US until late 2025. But that gives you plenty of time to catch up on the series first.