A thought about Mononoke: The Phantom in the rain

Hello everyone, how are you doing? I'm doing good. The weather here is getting colder, which is awesome because I love a massive fuzzy jersey. I recently watched Mononoke, The Phantom in the Rain. The movie is a horror and I haven't watched too much horror anime and now I think I'll seek out more. I can honestly say it's one of the most visually spectacular movies I've ever seen. It is a feast for the eyes, full of so much incredible detail. I'm not going to go over the plot in detail, so there won't be spoilers in this video. I want to talk about some of the aspects of this movie that really connected to me. So if you haven't watched Mononoke, hopefully this will make you want to. This movie is the first of a planned trilogy and the second one has already been released in Japan. To give a basic explanation of what a Mononoke is, it's a supernatural entity that is often vengeful or holding on to some kind of grudge. Some powerful negative emotion prohibited a spirit from finding peace and instead transforming into a manifestation of those intense negative emotions. I began watching this movie in Japanese and switched to English so I could really look at it. And I was delighted to hear the smooth tones of Crispin Freeman, who has been a voice in my head lately because I've been watching Naruto and he voices Itachi. He plays this very colorful and cool looking medicine man who is the only one who really knows what's going on with all this supernatural stuff. Also Alejandra Reynoso, who voices Saifa in Castlevania. She has such a rich and captivating voice. Both of them are very pleasing to the ear. The story begins with two young ladies, Asa and Kame, arriving at the Yoku for their first day of work. As I understand it, the Yoku is the residence of the women who serve the Shogun. This includes his concubines and daughters and the servants who take care of him and the Yoku itself. They participate in various ceremonies and take care of different tasks and serve the Shogun in whatever way is required. They also create connections between him and the people. Having a member of your family in the Yoku creates a political tie and the women of prominent families often hold a higher rank in the hierarchy of the Yoku. And let me tell you, hierarchy is very important in Yoku. There's some political stuff in this anime and while it is intriguing, it isn't what interested me most. Of course, the art style is what jumps out immediately. There's a creased paper effect overlaying everything and I adore the way it feels. The colours are bold and vibrant, the sets are decadent and intricate and sometimes it feels quite psychedelic, but in a horror way. 2,000 women live in the Yoku and only eight of them become concubines of the Shogun. And only a handful of the remaining 1,992 will be able to attain a position of authority and influence within the Yoku. So, most women are part of this mass that forms the Yoku. And the way they show this without explicitly saying anything is brilliant. Most of the women in the Yoku have no faces. Instead, they have this swirling mask thing. Only the women who are relevant to the story or hold a position of authority have actual faces. Most of the time the masks are black, but they change according to the general feeling. It's blue when they're paying attention and inert and green when they're jealous. I feel this is a great way of showing their loss of individuality and their own uniqueness. They're part of a whole. The male attendants have the same effect too, we just see it more amongst the women because the story takes place in the Yoku. There's a scene where a prominent man visiting the Yoku flirts with one of the women, making her feel special, but as soon as he steps away, the mask pops back up gay over her face. She felt special for a moment, but now is once again part of the mass. He plucked her out for an instant, but she returns once more. Asa is a brilliant young lady and is given great responsibility on her second day in the Yoku, which is unprecedented and makes her a target of jealousy, even by those of a higher rank than her. When the lady in charge of the Yoku, the administrator, delegates a task to Asa instead of one of her immediate subordinates, the lady is clearly wracked with jealousy and feelings of inadequacy and fear, and we see the mask flash over her face, like she's in danger of becoming just another faceless woman within the mass. There is this kind of contradiction. You must work hard and stand out so that you can be promoted within the Yoku, but you must also conform to all of the rules of the Yoku and blend in with everyone at the same time. Work hard, stand out, but don't stand out, be the same as everybody else, because the most important thing is the Yoku, not you as a person. You work towards the betterment of the Yoku. If you do a good job, you will climb in a rank, but always, always the Yoku first. Climbing this ladder is not about your personal fulfillment, it is about serving the Yoku. The senior women agonize over the potential of someone outshining them or taking their place, and are seen to throw tantrums when they are alone. They cannot bear to lose their position and be returned to the mass, and so every woman who stands out is a threat. Alternatively, or maybe in addition, sometimes when the mask flickers over the faces of the more influential women, particularly those who are not actively acting out against their subordinates, it's them simply remembering that their life isn't about them, and hundreds of women want to take their place. Them as individuals have to sacrifice, have to do anything to preserve the status of the Yoku, even if that means hurting the women who compose it, yet at the same time, it's their responsibility to take care of those women. And in that, there is a certain lack of self. You are valued for what you symbolize rather than who you are, and you have to dedicate your whole life to that symbol. You have no morals, no needs other than those given to you by this organization. And this whole idea or theme is what I connected to most in this anime, the pressure to both stand out and conform. Being part of the Yoku is about surrendering yourself to service of the Shogun, and the institution that is the Yoku. Your individuality is unimportant, and yet we all desire to be seen and valued for who we are. There are those who can do well in such a system, and find fulfillment in upholding it, and those who cannot. When a woman joins the Yoku, she must give up her most prized position, the thing she brought with her from home that means the most. She must throw this item into a well, and this is to symbolize a kind of shedding of self. As all the horror stuff is happening, as the women are being tormented by their own emotions, which are heightened by the influence of the Mononoke, these items appear in the frame. A ball, a kaleidoscope, a doll. We see flashes of the women throwing these items into the well, the things they sacrificed in order to put their own needs aside. Notably, Asa did not bring anything so valuable to her that she would be heartbroken to throw it away. In fact, she brought very few possessions with her. I believe this is why the administrator took a shine to her, and promoted her quickly. Kame throws away a hair clip from her grandmother, and is very sad to do it. She is deeply unsuited to being in the Yoku, and Asa tries so hard to help her stay, but it's really just not for her. And her direct superiors basically torture her because of it. I'm sure they are being influenced by the Mononoke, but they are still very cruel. They hate her for being so unconforming. She is so free and colourful, and such a reminder of all the things that they are not. The things they decided not to be. And for them, when she doesn't strive to live up to their expectations, when she doesn't finish her tasks, when she wakes up late, it's perceived as direct disrespect to those of them who have dedicated their entire lives, their entire being, to the Yoku. Lady Kitagawa is the former official scribe who disappeared mysteriously. She became the Mononoke, and it's my theory that the supernatural activity is triggered when Kame drops the comb into the well. Lady Kitagawa had to give up things too, and sacrifice in order to be good at her job. So the next time that someone does that, sacrifices something important to them, it like, triggers the events that follow. But that's just my theory. As a Mononoke, she kills some of the senior women by drying them out, turning the moisture in their bodies to rain, and leaving behind a dried out husk. Appropriate, don't you think? And the mask does eventually appear on Asa too. She starts off as a rather strong-willed person, who doesn't believe that she should have to surrender part of herself in order to integrate into the Yoku. But as the movie progresses, she realizes that she has to, and she does give up the thing that becomes the most important to her, so that she can better perform her duty with Yoku. The mask also appears as she continues to drink the water, and I'm not going to say what exactly is going on with the water, because that would be a spoiler, but basically the water is haunted, so as everybody is constantly drinking it, they're continuously taking in the Mononoke's feelings. The very cool-looking medicine man enters the Yoku to haunt the Mononoke, and when she first appears, he needs very specific conditions to be met in order to exercise her. In the last act of the movie, when all the conditions are met, he transforms, and I'm just gonna say my eyes got a little wider. So, that's gonna be it for me. If you like this video, please watch Mononoke, and also like and subscribe to the channel. If you've already watched Mononoke, let me know what you think in the comments. I hope that you have a great day, I hope that you have a great week. I'm Kayla, see you in the next one. Bye!