Mononoke – 12 [Goblin Cat, Finale] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to the finale of Mononoke, and the close of another season of Throwback Thursday. This week Mononoke pulls a strong finish, I ask you some questions, and we start a poll for the next run. Let’s get into it!

First up, the poll I mentioned for the next Throwback Thursday will be at the bottom of the post. Please check it out! If you want to suggest a series to go on the poll, just leave a comment and it will get added next time. Now, onto the episode. For me this really worked as a finale. Both narratively and visually. Narratively, Mononoke left a lot of the ending open ended. Normally this would be a sequel signal, but we all know Mononoke isn’t getting that. Here though it implies that there is more story, both before and after, the series. Which ties in well to its episodic nature. Visually as well, this week was just less cluttered than the last. The whole thing was more grounded in the murder mystery, and it paid off I think.

Before I gush though, it’s not as if Mononoke was perfect this week. I think there was a lot of narrative ambiguity this week. While that fits the series, it makes for a confusing finale in a few ways. To be specific, a lot of the time I couldn’t tell who was speaking, saying what or acting a specific way. There was a lot of inconsistencies in regards to certain characters throughout the episode. Now, to be fair, a lot of this was most likely on purpose. With the Bake Neko playing with and changing Ichikawa’s memories, or presenting them to get her revenge. There are a lot of hints to this throughout such as the characters changing between mannequins and actual people. Whatever the purpose behind it though, in practice it often made for confusing sequences.

Moving on from that, let’s talk about the actual episode contents. Last week it appeared as if everyone had died, seemingly brought back as zombies. Oddly enough though, this episode ends with most of them actually still alive. Whether that is because the Medicine Seller saved them or the Bake Neko spared them I don’t know. However it seems that only the most obviously guilty were actually killed. With the whole sequence on the train being to find out who directly contributed to Ichikawa’s death. Those being the Mayor and surprisingly enough the Journalist. However Mononoke wasn’t exactly clear on this I feel. As if not for the post-credits sequence, there would be nothing to indicate they actually survived. It would instead just seem like a very sudden hard cut into the credits, which really surprised me at first.

Getting back to the Journalist, his turnabout was actually very unexpected to me. Throughout the episode we see a supposed different side to him. One that paints him as sexistm dismissive of Ichikawa, jealous and in the pocket of the Mayor. All of this makes sense in a vacuum. However I can’t easily reconcile it with the man we saw at the start of the arc. As he came on the train, supposedly, to catch the Mayor out and prove Ichikawa’s murder. Mononoke makes it clear of course that he could be lying. Afterall the Mayor humors his questions even if the Detective doesn’t want him to. However, throughout the episode it feels like we are seeing two separate characters/representations of him. And I don’t think that interpretation quite connects the two. To me, its more like the Bake Neko isn’t purely a victim here, but taking out rage.

I mentioned it earlier, but it sort of leads me to believe that the Bake Neko did it on purpose. Messing with Ichikawa’s memories so as to paint the Journalist in a worse light. However that has issues with the Medicine Sellers “Shape, Truth and Reason” schtick. He requires the truth of Ichikawa’s death to open the sword. Perhaps it only needs to be a metaphorical truth, “She was murdered by the Mayors orders, not a suicide”, rather than a literal one. But neither of those really gel with any of my interpretations of what has happened in the episode. This is what I meant be ambiguous at the start of this post. Mononoke seems like it could be interpreted in a myriad of ways, all of them making sense based on who you believe. Maybe that’s the point? This arc is a

So all in all, how was this final week of Mononoke? On the surface level, I enjoyed it. There were a lot of strong visuals, the presentation was spot on and the pacing was great. Its just when I try to look at it deeper that I start to come away confused from the whole thing. To me, that’s an indication of a sub-par finale. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, I feel it fits Mononoke as a series perfectly. Not the ambiguous narrative, that’s an issue, but rather the sort of structure of it all. Making it clear that the Medicine Seller’s job isn’t done, and won’t ever be done so long as Mononoke exist. And with how the series has set it up, Mononoke will exist so long as humanity does. So it’s a perpetual sort of loop. It gave me a lot to think about.

There you have it, another series down. You can find the poll for the next series here. Meanwhile I also want to raise another question, that of when we start writing the next series, you can find that here. I ask this because as it is, Throwback Thursday lands squarely in the middle of each season. For some that’s nice, its consistent coverage regardless of seasonal time slots and such. However it means it doesn’t really line up much. Meanwhile for me, I know I shall be taking at least a 2 week break as I write up the final review for the series. One that should hopefully come out next week. As my loyal readers though, I want to put it to you, as all options work for me. Line it up with next season? Keep up the pace we have? Or wait for the holidays? Up to you.