Alternative Titles
Japanese: γ’γγζͺ
More titles
Information
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jul 13, 2007 to Sep 28, 2007
Broadcast:
Fridays at 00:45 (JST)
Source:
Original
Duration:
22 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Score:
8.411 (scored by 105824105,824 users)
Ranked:
#220 2
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#747
Members:
366,335
Favorites:
9,248
Available AtResources
Streaming Platforms
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Ranked #220Popularity #747Members 366,335 The "Medicine Seller" is a deadly and mysterious master of the occult who travels across feudal Japan in search of malevolent spirits called "mononoke" to slay. When he locates one of these spirits, he cannot simply kill it; he must first learn its Form, its Truth, and its Reason in order to wield the mighty Exorcism Sword and fight against it. He must begin his strange exorcisms with intense psychological analysis and careful investigative workβan extremely dangerous step, as he must first confront and learn about the mononoke before he even has the means to defeat it.
The Medicine Seller's journey leads him to an old-fashioned inn where Shino, a pregnant woman, has finally found a place to rest. The owner has reluctantly placed her in the last vacant room; however, as she settles in, it quickly becomes clear that the room is infested by a lethal band of mononoke, the Zashiki Warashi. With his hunter's intuition, the Medicine Seller begins his investigation to discover the Form, the Truth, and the Reason before the Zashiki Warashi can kill again.
[Written by MAL Rewrite] The main protagonist of the series, Kusuriuri, was first introduced in "Bakeneko," the final chapter of the Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror anthology series. Mononoke was originally broadcast during the NoitaminA programming block in Japan. | |
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MALxJapan -More than just anime-
| Characters & Voice Actors
Reviews
May 2, 2008
Wow, what a series. Mononoke is the spinoff/sequel of the Bakeneko arc (eps. 9-11) in Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror. This is not to be confused with the final arc in Mononoke, which ironically, is also called Bakeneko. Although the original Bakeneko tale was brilliant, Mononoke is just as enticing, beautiful and well written as its predecessor. This series lets its art tell the tales. It is not afraid to experiment and has its own distinct style. This is a truly wonderful series especially visually and thematically.
Story: This anime is broken into five different stories lasting about 2 to 3 episodes each. Every one of
...
these stories features a different supernatural spirit; many of them rooted from Japanese folklore. It is up to the Medicine Seller to uncover the Katachi (shape/form), Makoto (truth), and Kotowari (reason) of the spirit. Now, this sounds like your average, spirit-of-the-week sort of deal, doesn't it? But it isn’t. That's one aspect that makes this series so great. All the stories are unique and do not feel like a rehash of the same story as the previous. Even by the final arc, I was still shocked and entralled by its revelations. So yes, there are unexpected twists in every arc. Each tale also holds very thoughtful themes. You would expect a series about supernatural ghosts to be about the, well, dead spirits, but that's also not the case. Most of the stories are quite deep and to some degree disturbing. In fact, Mononoke is very thematically based on human nature, since it's the humans and their actions that transform the spirits into these vengeful mononoke.
Art: I’ll say it now. The art style may put off some people, especially based on first impressions. I thought the art was absolutely gorgeous, fitting, and unique. Mononoke uses an art style that resembles the Japanese "ukiyo-e", filled with vibrant and colorful backgrounds, textures and designs. Because of this two-dimensional, almost paper cut-out appearance, the anime uses a lot of camera movements and symbolism. This is why a few of the stories may need multiple viewings to get the full meaning of everything. In this way, I feel Mononoke uses its art to its full potential to present the story. I also loved how the style in each arc deviates just a bit so that each story distinguishes itself from the others.
Sound: Sound plays a very important role in this series. Because the art style somewhat limits what it can show on screen, sounds are used to reinforce that. It sets up the tense atmosphere, adding suspense and leaving you anticipating for more. The voice acting is very well done, especially hearing those screams of terror and shock. Other than that, I didn't really like the opening and ending songs. I actually liked the Ayakashi OP and ED better.
Character: There is only one reoccurring character in all the stories and that is the ever-so-awesome Medicine Seller! Yes, he is nameless and simply known as “Kururi-uri-san/sama/insert other honorific” or medicine seller. Although not much is known about him, I think it's very fitting since it adds to his mysterious nature. He does, though very subtly, develop. In all honesty though, I found it incredibly enjoyable watching him make deadpan comments while the other characters are freaking out over the weird happenings/hauntings. Lastly, the story-only-characters get a good deal of development despite each story being 2 to 3 episodes in length.
Enjoyment/Final notes: I finished the series in 2 days, meaning I watched about 6 episodes per day. So yeah… I enjoyed it a lot. And as mentioned earlier, some arcs may take a second or even third viewing to get everything. I know I will watch it again. It's such an excellent anime and was so worth the watch.
9.6/10 easily rounded to a 10/10 for my list.
Reviewerβs Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Sep 22, 2019
Mononoke is generally thought of as one of the most artistic shows in the medium, if not the most artistic one out there, and it is hailed as a more artistic version of the famous Anime Mushishi, filled with bright yellow and orange colors in contrast to Mushishiβs dim grey and white foggy ones, and animation that comes off as surreal for most of the time. The problem here is that this Anime, although artistically achieved what it wanted to achieve in the long run, became one of the most nauseating experiences I have ever had with an Anime, if not the most nauseating experience
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I have had with a TV show period.
First of all, regarding the narrative, the storyline is formulaic, and that is a major problem. This series tried to follow in Mushishiβs footsteps: A lone man travels far throughout different lands in order to cure citizens from some diseases of sorts. The problem here is that once you watch the first episode, dislike it and decide that it is not for you, you are bound to dislike the rest of the series. If a series starts off bad and does not work to change the Anime from there on then that is not a good thing at all, since most of the Animeβs episodes are similar in tone, directing, story and audiovisuals. A problem here, faced by Mushishi as well, is that this Anime becomes rather monotonous and redundant throughout itβs short twelve episode run. We start off with the traveler who is a medicine seller, he sees trouble that is occurring and taking place, he rushes in to save the ones who are being infected and hurt by said creatures, and he saves the day. Rinse and repeat until you get the average runtime for a short Anime series. The problem here is not the storyline, not at all, the problem here lies in the fact that this same plot is repeated several times over until it becomes rather redundant and tiring to get through.
Another problem that this Anime suffers from is the fact that the artstyle, while being rather unique, is too bright for itβs own good. This in turn leads to a rather nauseating experience in the long run, and not a fun or pleasant one. At least Mushishiβs grim and grey color palette set the tone for the series successfully while not being insulting to the eyes. This on the other hand, is too much to bare and witness.
Overall, one wishes to critique many of the aspects of this show and analyze them, but the problem arises when there isnβt much to critique over. Mononoke is monotonous, slow, just like Mushishi, but now they decided to make it visually unpleasant to watch.
Reviewerβs Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
May 17, 2025
Not Recommended
Preliminary
(7/12 eps)
A psychological, mystery, and seinen show?
That's going to be great.
That was my first impression.
Fairly quickly I realized it's one of those "traveling protagonist" shows like "Katanagatari", "Majo no tabitabi" and to some extent "Ergo Proxy".
(all of which I really enjoyed)
A new place, a short story told in a few episodes. It can work really well.
Well, let's get straight into it.
I'm not gonna beat around the bush, I thought the story was told in an overly confusing style.
It's too busy pretending to be deep to give me context so I basically just sit there to watch some borderline-psychedelic events happen on the screen while puzzling it
...
together and wondering why I'm supposed to care in the first place.
The characters I saw for the short time there were on screen were all forgettable and the show didn't give me a single good reason to care about them at all. Which may be alright for side characters but I didn't even care about the protagonist, which for me is a big problem.
Then there's the visuals. The artstyle is kinda interesting, +1 for effort, but I wouldn't call it beautiful or anything like that. It's very nauseating to look at sometimes.
I believe I gave it a fair chance with 7 episodes, finishing 3 of 5 stories.
It just simply couldn't make me interested.
You can hate me for this but in my opinion this show is just overly pretentious, trying to appeal to elitists by trying to look "unique" and "deep", when it really isn't.
A show does not need to be praised for it's uniqueness and shouldn't be rated highly just because of it. Unique doesn't necessarily mean interesting or entertaining.
Well, don't take my word for it, watching a few episodes and seeing if it's for you or not can still pay off.
I've enjoyed quite a few shows that had a pretty low score and hated some with a very high score.
Anyway to me personally it was about as exciting as watching paint dry.
4/10
Reviewerβs Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
45 Entries Β· 20 Restacks
Poll: Mononoke Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )
zanmato666 - Oct 11, 2007 |
143 replies | by dionysostragedy »»
Mar 28, 10:08 AM |
Poll: Mononoke Episode 11 Discussion
gothicpsyche - Oct 29, 2007 |
37 replies | by addzthetic »»
Oct 19, 2025 1:10 PM |
Poll: Mononoke Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 )
Brand - Sep 5, 2007 |
85 replies | by LuxuriousHeart »»
Oct 18, 2025 1:11 AM |
Poll: Mononoke Episode 6 Discussion
ashura - Sep 5, 2007 |
49 replies | by LuxuriousHeart »»
Oct 18, 2025 12:49 AM |
Poll: Mononoke Episode 2 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )
zanmato666 - Aug 4, 2007 |
107 replies | by LuxuriousHeart »»
Oct 17, 2025 1:46 AM |
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