A while back, I watched and wrote about a series titled Mononoke. It was the tale of a nameless medicine seller who traveled through the land and time to hunt and destroy demons called mononokes. I had forgotten about that series when I began watching Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain.

Phantom in the Rain is not a sequel or a prequel. It is just another adventure of our medicine seller, so if you have not seen the series, you can still follow this story – barely.

Asa and Kane are two young girls who enter the Ooku; that is the shogun’s harem, intending to serve. They become friends, although the two are totally different. After that, things get muddled.

Preparations are made for the celebratory ceremony for when the head courtesan gives birth to the shogun’s child. Unfortunately, a mononoke reveals itself upsetting the plans. That’s when our medicine seller springs into action.

The artwork is astounding. As in the series, it is not done in the manga style. The animation is better than the series, as expected. Though for some reason, it is poor in the beginning, but then gradually gets better. The climax is certainly eye candy.

But the movie suffers with the narrative style. In the series, the plot moved too slowly. In the movie, the pace is much faster, but the story is jumbled. It starts off with the politics of the Ooku by throwing characters at us. When the medicine seller finally makes his move, we get a confusing back and forth between the main story and various subplots. I was able to follow the narrative, but I certainly lost a few details along the way. By the end, who was doing what is not made clear.

Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom of the Rain is better than the series, but not to the point where I would recommend it.