Remember the survivors from the Bake Neko arc? Guess what…one of them is back. It seems that this time our favorite medicine seller is now fighting on the high seas. Poor Kayo is just along for another ride, just her luck…you sure know how pick them lady.

Well I must say that ship has a very small crew. If I recall correctly you need many more sailors if you want to get your rigging done right and enough people on deck through out the voyage. Seeing as there is only one crewman, it is a miracle that the ship can operate.

Now the strange part about this arc is that there seems to be a mortal force at work here as some one had to have put that magnet there to throw off navigation. I personally suspect the Monk or the Samurai as the bard seems a bit too nutty to think of such a scheme. The merchant and his crew had no need to use deception as they ran the ship. Kayo-san doesn’t seem too eager to go through that again and what use does the Medicine Seller have for trickery?

It was a famous story and guess what we want a sequel.

Since this is arc is titled Umibozu the main antagonist should logically be an umibozu. However both the medicine seller and the bard believed it to have been a ghost ship at first. The Medicine Seller already suspects that something is odd as his weapon has not yet reacted to his guess. Umibozu are supposed to be large and this one most certainly is large. What I found strange though was the fish with a human leg…

The other weird freakish creatures were of whatever it was that descended from the skies, so why is this one unique? I think that there is more to the Monk than meets the eye, his eager assistant indicates that some monk on monk action is going on. It is no secret that back in the day even monks could be corrupt. Perhaps the monk now has to confront a ghost from his sordid past? Perhaps the vengeful spirit of an ex-lover is out for blood? Umibozu were assumed to have spawned from dead priests and other men of faith. The Samurai could be a candidate as he probably got those scars fight someone or he was really beaten up as a lad. As samurai back then were often exiled to monasteries perhaps there is some sort of family vendetta afoot? The very effeminate assistant might be more dangerous than we may give him credit for. He was crying about something, so maybe in revenge he is plotting his so called master’s demise. As for the Bard he is so inept and incompetent it would really be daft of him to try to show off his trade on a ship in the sea.

You should be a side kick? I agree the bard is so quirky I hope he makes a come back.

Sailing ships was not simple matter in the age of sail even when sailing in coastal waters. As far as I can tell the Samurai and perhaps the Monk might have something that they really regretted. The only way the merchant and his crew have any regretting to do would probably be something they did on a previous voyage or whatever deal they concluded to get the ship in the first place. Even the presence a pond and an aquarium on the merchantman would mean that there is a lot more maintenance required for the vessel.

The wall screens might hold some clues as to what will appear next. There was a running motif of pairs in the depictions of those animals while they were spreading around the ash. The ghost ships story was depicted on the wall screen probably indicated the presence of a ghost ship, so what about the other two? One of them was of a man and a mermaid with some dark creature in the fore ground, and as far as I know there was no Japanese equivalent to the story of the Little Mermaid. The last one shown was that of a girl, a shore side gathering, a monk, and two children. I think the last one has something to do with the real menace the Umibozu, but as to how all that relates to the monster I can only guess.

Assuming we are reading this right to left the monk was once a real shouta-con.

Well I have no idea where this is headed since this time there are more suspects to deal with. The Medicine Seller seems to look forward to it, as am I.

It seems that my wait for the conclusion was much shorter than anticipated. Suffice to say it was a rather surprising conclusion. I suspected that abortions were the source of the haunting, but I doubt many of us had this in mind…

First off that was a real nice recap in 48 seconds I wish they did this across the whole industry instead of having recap episodes.

So the blond gal’s name was Shino and she did in fact know the assassin personally. How personally is still subject to debate thought. She may have been a prostitute since Naosuke the Assassin called her as such. However she may have been a servant as well. Given that Shino claims to have been rejected by the master’s parents it sounds plausible. Nevertheless, I suspect that she was a prostitute since “master” is also brothel talk for customer. Since it is clear that her erstwhile lover did send Naosuke to kill, I really think that Shino was in fact a courtesan.

Let me guess Naosuke tried to kill her to get a refund.

Really surprising that you were once a Rick James look-alike.

The Madame of the Inn was talking from experience on how naive Shino was. It’s no big secret that back in the day marriage was for producing heirs and men of the age went to the brothel to experience something short of actual love. At least that is what the Japanese literature professor told me when I pointed out how worthless and faithless Japanese men were in this age. This was probably true for the merchant, landowning, and warrior classes, but not the peasants were usually too busy trying to eke out a living. Now the fact that Tokuji was party to all this was surprising. He seemed a bit too dull and easily surprised to be dangerous. So I miss judged him by quite a bit. Then again if he had absolutely nothing to do with it, then he probably would have been more of a bystander anyways as the zashiki-warashi did cling to him as well.

The Madame did make the room as an offering to the dead children that she helped abort and those she deliberately aborted. Her sincerity about it is, however, rather suspect. Even if she did keep the room empty as intended for the most part she never expresses much else in terms of regret. Her younger self though much better looking, definitely oozed of creepiness. Now I am not sure how they performed abortions back in the day, but dang… Doing it the way butchers use a chopping block or a smith uses an anvil,which was unexpected. I thought there was a more painless way to do it, in contrast to a forced miscarriage. I know that there was something like crude surgical techniques brought over by some of the few Europeans, but it was not much better since whiskey = anesthesia.

I must say though the way the staff pulled it off did not reduce any of the ensuing shock. While, they could have gone with a more gory representation I think that the absence of realism hammered home the point that this was dirty business. Had they gone with a realism route, I think I would have been much more distracted by the gore to really think about how merciless she was. She seemed to take some sort of sadistic glee when she did this. Maybe it was a coping mechanism, but still the way she tore up those rags, sent shivers down my spine.

On the one hand the Madame was right in that none of the courtesans could afford to be pregnant; hence it was just business and nothing personal. While normally I would denounce the common sex worker of medieval Japan (Japanese Lit had too many emo stories about loser two timing males), here I felt a bit sorry for them. I support a woman’s right to choose even if it means raising a kid in poverty. I may not like it, but it’s not my place to tell a woman that she cannot decide when she is ready for motherhood. I just don’t want to have to witness it and to a lesser extent subsidize it. It’s real hard to over look that fact that they did not use contraception and that they chose to stay in the brothel rather than run away. They have sex for a living; pregnancy should always be in the back of their minds. Part of me hopes that in the past that if they even allowed for brothel births that they would at least send the children to an orphanage, but I know that deep down this was the way they handled business. It was the most expedient way to solve the problem and more importantly the cheapest.

Sure you had no choice I man after all just look at these kids…

I am all for kids of color but this is ridiculous, its as if Skittles could have kids.

I find it hard to ignore the fact that the courtesans seemed to be having fun while mating, but they should have been aware of the cost. I would not rule out the possibility of any one of the Madame’s old workers having gone through this more than once, so how can they even laugh? Its down right wrong and I find it contemptible that they could be having fun while all this was going on. They had to have known they should have known, you can’t ignore the fact that there is a whole room dedicated to the sole purpose of ending pregnancy. Sure they may have been sold into slavery, but heck it is the obligation of every slave and prisoner of war to try and escape.

As for the regret I found the whole kid being grateful to be touching. However, in the end it made me feel like an ungrateful lout for having put my mum through so much growing up. The Madame may have felt regret for what she did because at some point she could no longer take it and tried to run a more honest business. She had the anger and bitterness, but I wonder if it did stem ultimately from hatred of herself. Given the brutal methods used I wonder how she could even look at herself in the morning, then again there were hardly any mirrors at all in the inn.

What now? Let me tell you what now. I’m gonna call a couple of hard-pipe-hittin’ niggas to go to work on the homes here with a pair o’ pliers and a blow torch. You hear me talking hillbilly boy? I aight through wit chu! Not by damn sight! I’m gonna get medieval on your ass!

That’s medieval no tools, just your bare hands…

While this arc was not the three episode roller coaster that was Bake-Neko it wasn’t that bad. While the brothel may have been obvious the details were rather shocking even if done in a manner that without context seems benign. Overall it was far better than many starting arcs of most series this season. Hopefully more people will give this series a chance despite the radically different art style. The short story format is rather nice compared to having pointless fillers like some series without much bloodshed (Read: School Days).

The white chick declares that, “Zero is dead, but his cause lives on.” The black dude and Vulcan have nothing to say, but the old lady responds, “I would prefer it the other way around.” Sorry folks I got no better punchline…Zing! So after a most agonizing wait my flagship series has finally been adopted by some nice fansubbers. You know who you are and this Imperial Trooper loves you even more.

I won’t include a summary since I wish to force encourage people to watch it themselves. That being said the art style certainly is different. It gives it more of olde ancient scrap book look which is okay since this takes place in the Edo period. The standard format looks to be consisted of arcs roughly 2-3 episodes long which is not a bad thing if you like short stories that are loosely connected. That being said there are no fillers.

I know that most kids born are often adorable, but I must be honest that is one ugly fat kid.

The choice of color pallet was interesting since its much more garish that what I imagined feudal Japan to be since dyes were not cheap then and color paint was a luxury as far as I know. While the exterior looks perfectly normal the inside seems much more vast with the long flight of stairs. When the room spins it makes it look even bigger. I guess the whole huge space motif is going to figure in heavily as Bake Neko used the same technique to portray the rape room.

Shinsen Subs has added a nice little infomercial at the end which is very informative though I think that it should have been placed first. Not that I am complaining or anything.

Tough as nails assassins are cool.

Even their deaths are teh awesome.

This was a very nice build up to what should prove to be an interesting end. We learn that the mononoke is a zashiki-warashiki normally a spirit that brings good fortune to a house. However this is Sparta Mononoke and here spirits can and do kill. Since form is confirmed all that is left are the truth and the regret. Given how Bake Neko was pure win and awesome there should be a nice twist in store.

We know that the inn was not always and inn and given that the prominence of the red cloth as umbilical cords the spirit is either a child or a group of children. Given the decor the room where the exorcism takes place was birthing chamber. Now what I find strange are those faceless people in purple garb. Were they the fathers of those dead children? It’s very likely that the place was once a brothel and abortions were carried out there since pregnancy was probably a drain on resources.

Ghost busting the old school way.

The simplest conclusion is that the presence of a pregnant woman roused the zashiki-warashi into action as the inn must have supplanted the brothel for a long time. The owner of the inn shows us that the room was not often used if at all. It seems silly that she had an under utilized room if she wanted to maximize profit. What is not known however if the old woman actually performed abortion or had one herself. As it stands the only obvious one who can regret is the old lady since Tokuji (the black guy) could not have been there as long, and the pregnant woman just came in for the first time.

Unless of course she wants to have the kid this time as she may have aborted another child a while back. Hence why she is insistent on having this child despite the seemingly bleak future. I wonder if there is any significance to the attempted murder of the pregnant lady, as the family that wants her dead is ostensibly wealthy or of noble lineage, perhaps they killed one too many illegitimate children there? Tokuji knows that the room is and oddity if not out right cursed. Still I doubt that the haunting began during his tenure as bouncer, but one can never be sure.

These guys have got to be big wigs purple dye ain’t cheap in Edo Japan. Their presence is unsettling to say the least.

There must be more to the old lady than meets the eye since her spiel on raising the kid had many good points. She must have seem a lot more during her younger years the mystery is what could she have been privy to that we are not. I only have question at the end and cannot wait for the conclusion, I have no idea what the whole truth is or who precisely needs to regret. A series that leave me with more questions than answers must have something good going for it.

This may not be the run of the mill series, but Mononoke may prove to be the best series this summer since it is very unique and feels more like a creepy Ghibli anime than your average harem series. So far they have delivered the suspense that I was hoping for and its not likely they can ruin it. If nothing else it beats gnashing my teeth at how stupid the School Days cast is.

Lastly multi racial cast 4TW!