I’m not sure what roastedpekingduck meant when he said that the creators ran out of budget for this episode. Sure, the build-up wasn’t as good as the first Bake Neko, but this episode provided a satisfying if not a bit predictable ending. It’s not the best episode of this series, I’ll admit, though I didn’t sense any lack of budget.
So, in the end, the reporter was the culprit, with the Mayor being the mastermind behind everything. The others were just bystanders. The waitress often hung out with the victim, so I think that the cat wanted her to know what happened. The boy and the woman were actual witnesses, and I think that they refused to talk about what they saw because it had a major impact on them. After all, if you just saw a human body getting crushed under a train, in all graphic violence, while being alone, there’s a very good chance that you just don’t want to talk about it.
Ah well, even though it turned into something entirely different from what I expected, Mononoke made excellent use of the Noitamina-timeslot. I still like the initiative, and it’s good to see that among the countless high-school-anime, there still are people who welcome change and different ideas for series. Its current series, Moyashimon, also sparks with freshness.]]>
Mononoke – 12
I have been lurking at your site for awhile and I enjoy reading your reviews, even if I don’t always agree.
Just one comment though:
The waitress often hung out with the victim, so I think that the cat wanted her to know what happened.
Well she was guilty too. She lied saying it was suicide so she can get in the paper since she wanted to be famous. That was why she was scratching her mouth in episode 11.
I guess in the end though the crimes of the milk boy, woman, and waitress were not as bad as the others and that is why they were spared.
Actually, the waitress barely knew Ichikawa, but thought she had seen her once. Desperate to get her name on the newspaper, she basically reported a bunch of lies. She was spared in the end along with the delivery boy and Sakai because they deeply regretted what they did, while Moria didn’t, as you saw when he chuckled when he thought that he had escaped.
While the story was more predictable than others, I felt it did a good job weaving together the lives of people who at first glance look completely unrelated. In a way, this episode summed up Mononoke quite well: everything is connected, and the separate actions of humans can often be the cause of what seems to be a straight forward problem.