Dec 5

Dec 5 Kenji Nakamura's "MONONOKE THE MOVIE: THE PHANTOM IN THE RAIN"

Animated, Anime, Another Time & Place, Fantasy, Netflix, Surreal, Weird

This is a tough one to describe. Words that come to mind are surreal, inscrutable, fanciful, and phantasmagoric.

An emperor’s harem in old Japan is infected by a demon called a “Mononoke.” An itinerant “medicine seller” devoted to rooting out such demons arrives at the palace at the same time that two new recruits show up to join the army of women already inside. The pair’s trials and tribulations of learning the ropes of life inside are intersperesed with increasingly annoying—and dangerous— attacks by the spirit/demon/mononoke.

What sets this anime apart is the spectacular imagery and artwork on display. It’s a combination of the delicate, the abstract, and classical Japanese designs. “Colorful” is too mild a word to describe the animation; a more appropriate word would probably be “psychedelic.” I’ve included below some images in a gallery to give you some idea of what you’re in for.