Wikipedia
Mononoke may refer to:
- a kind of yōkai, a class of creatures in Japanese mythology
- Princess Mononoke, a 1997 Studio Ghibli film
- Mononoke (TV series), a 2007 Toei Animation series which is a spin-off from the 2006 series Ayakashi
is a Japanese animated television series produced by Toei Animation. A spin-off of 2006's horror anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, ''Mononoke '' follows the character of the medicine seller as he continues to face myriad supernatural perils. Mononoke takes place during the Edo Period Japan with the four class system, Samurai being the highest class and merchants (such as the medicine seller himself) being in the lowest class. Only Samurai were permitted to carry swords, which is why it comes as a shock to many of the characters that the medicine seller would be carrying a sword.
Produced by Toei Animation, the anime series was directed by Kenji Nakamura, written by Chiaki J. Konaka, Ikuko Takahashi, Michiko Yokote and Manabu Ishikawa. Takashi Hashimoto directed the animation and was the character designer, Takashi Kurahashi was the art director, its music was composed by Yasuharu Takanashi, and it was broadcast in Fuji Television's block Noitamina between July 2007 and September 2007, lasting 12 episodes. Siren Visual licensed it for Australasian region.
A manga adaptation of the original Bakeneko arc was published in Young Gangan between August 17, 2007 and August 1, 2008. The individual chapters were collected and released in two tankōbon (collected volumes) by Square Enix on January 25, 2008, and September 25, 2008. A second manga series started to be published on September 25, 2013 by Tokuma Shoten on its magazine Monthly Comic Zenon. The last chapter of it was serialized in Monthly Comic Zenon on November 25, 2014. The series was released into two volumes on July 19, 2014, and December 20, 2014 respectively.
Mononoke are vengeful spirits ( onryō), dead spirits ( shiryō), live spirits ( ikiryō), or spirits in Japanese classical literature and folk religion that were said to do things like possess individuals and make them suffer, cause disease, or even cause death. It is also a word sometimes used to refer to yōkai or henge ("changed beings").