Category: Book Club

When I took on this particular Book Club project, I underestimated how difficult it would be. It’s not hard in that the show itself is somehow impenetrable – I definitely have thoughts on it and it’s not like I’ve been going in cold to this viewing. I’ve had literally years to think about and interpret these stories. It’s a series that hits on a lot of tough subjects, though. The older I get the more I assume that I have guts of steel and can withstand the act of being made to experience or be reminded of upsetting things. I think to some extent that’s true, but there are still times when I’m caught off-guard. For various reasons this past couple of weeks have been rough for me. I won’t elaborate on it too much, but if you’ve been keeping up on United States news you probably have some idea. I only have a certain amount of energy to deal with that kind of material, and when I’m at my emotional limit I’m not inclined to then go watch a very intense anime series in addition to that.

That said, there are also times where I find that my emotions are likely to spill over, and focusing them on anime analysis is just what I need to turn my anger into power. It can be difficult to know where that balance is and sometimes I make mistakes – overdoing it when I should be resting, staying in bed when I should be up and fighting. It’s hard to know just when to do what and how best to honor my boundaries when I’ve also volunteered myself to speak out about difficult topics. Perhaps I’m not as experienced as I like to think I am. Whatever the case may be, I suppose the best thing I can do is to keep trying and learning and improving.

One thing that kind of stinks about writing in this format is that, no matter how much prep work you do and how long you consider what you want to say, sometimes you just come up with a better idea later on. I don’t know that I’ve outright regretted anything that I’ve posted (aside from using language and slang then that I wouldn’t use now), but there have been times I’ve struggled with trying to interpret something, only to have “the answer”™ drop into my lap days or weeks later. This happened to me last week when I was writing my post for “Umibouzu;” despite the fact that I’ve watched those episodes many times and had a decade to ponder their meaning, it wasn’t until the middle of last week that I had half a thought about them that actually made sense. I sure wish that lightning had struck me on Sunday when I was writing the post! I won’t go into too much detail here; I’ll probably end up just posting an aside or addendum this week as I have time. I don’t want to steal the thunder from this week’s set of episodes, after all. I did, however, want to mention the situation because I know I struggle with knowing when a piece of writing is “finished.” I might spend hours editing, re-editing, and picking away at something without it ever being entirely where I want it to be. Finally cutting myself off can be painful, and I suspect there are others out there with the same issues. I just wanted to let you know you’re absolutely not alone!

Doing an “anime book club” on a series that I adore so much has certainly opened up a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, it’s awesome to have the opportunity to watch something I love over again; as I’ve stated many times at this point, it’s not something I give myself a lot of time to do (it usually only happens if I manage to dupe my local anime club into watching some of the weird stuff that I like). On the other hand, I have this creeping fear that I’ll reach a point where I can’t manage to write anything that truly captures my feelings about the show. I have a difficult enough time already trying to make my writing convey the full nature of my thoughts, and that’s compounded by the fact that this is one of my favorite series and I want people to have the same love for it that I do. Sometimes it feels like there’s a weight on my shoulders, though of course this is burden I carry by choice!

This week’s story is told over the course of three episodes instead of two, so there’s a little bit more to take notes on and unpack. It also takes longer for the story to get to the root of its mononoke’s origin, though in my opinion this gives it some additional time to focus on setting and atmosphere. But I’ll leave my commentary for after the episode summaries.

So, this series of posts has been a long time coming. I’ve wanted to do a deep-dive on Mononoke for several years but never felt equipped to take it on. Part of that is because I like the anime series so much and really, really want to do it justice in the way I talk about it. I have some baggage about this series that I’ve mentioned in the past and won’t go into detail about right now (the short version is that I got ridiculed for liking it because I couldn’t properly articulate why it wasn’t just something that “looked cool”), but ultimately it only drove me to attach to the series even more. I suppose maybe I’m just petty like that (or I just really, really like great anime!).

It’s a series of several stories that are all interesting to me, and some of them I believe speak to me on a personal level in a way that’s unlike so many other anime (even anime I like a lot!). Many people believe that the original story, which we’ll be covering this week, is the “best” one; I’d have a difficult time arguing that as it’s self-contained and arguably unlike pretty much anything else that came before it (it’s also absolutely the best of the three stories in the anthology series from which it originated). Despite that, though, the series as a whole sets a standard that I feel few can match, as I hope you’ll eventually agree!