@purplealmonds / purplealmonds.tumblr.com
This mostly pertains to Ri-Kusuriuri from the 2007 anime, but I found some influences in Kun-Kusuriuri from the 2024 movie as well.
Kohl makeup resembles the medicine seller's eyeliner. The lines extending from that eyeliner resemble the eyes of Ra and Horus representing the sun (Yang) and moon (Yin) respectively.
That's just scratching the surface. More thoughts below the cut!
Burdened with a growing suspicion that Kitagawa is some sort of ghost.
I would love to hear your thoughts
That is my hunch as well! Unlike the other women in the ooku who have earth or plant based names (Kame aside), Kitagawa, which translates to "North River", is the only one who has a purely water-based name. I wrote up a breakdown of all the name meanings over a month ago here!
If Kitagawa is already completely one with the water, a.k.a. the Karakasa, there is good reason to believe that she is already dead. I believe that in the movie synopsis they talk about kind of yet-to-be-described 'tragedy' that happened right before Kame and Asa were hired.
More thoughts beneath the cut. It's my thoughts based on released trailers, but potential spoiler warnings ahead.
Interesting that all the series callbacks we've seen so far have been to either "Bakeneko" #1 or "Zashiki Warashi."
I have a theory about this parallel– putting it below the cut because of movie, manga, and stageplay spoilers!
With these visuals above (paired with another more spoiler-y one below the cut), I think that this theory may have some more credence! Consider the parallels listed below!
Discussions of potential spoilers beneath the cut.
This time comparing the relationship between Fuki and everybody's favorite character, Tenshi – and that of Shingi and Nusu. (Yes, the color coding will matter here)
Though it requires a bit of set up. Discussions below the cut.
It yields rather fascinating insights on the women's relationships with one another! My thoughts are below the cut:
If, as I guessed here, the new lore means that the Medicine Sellers have absolute control over where they appear in time and space (excepting the past, as I think someone pointed out in the vid), then the Medicine Seller could have just teleported himself inside the Ōoku, and giving Sakashita a beatdown was completely unnecessary. He did that for fun.
I have thoughts about series kusu not having complete control over where he appears due to all of the grasping hand imagery of the opening
Yeah, I agree; I had second thoughts about using the word "absolute." I don't think they hop around by force of individual will so much as in accordance with some intricate cosmic dance that they're a part of. But I don't think their wills are entirely separate from that cosmic dance, either.
I made a word document of the Japanese transcript with removed timestamps (the numbers, it seems, really messes with translation coherency) then ran it through Google Translate with some interesting new insights!
All this garbled talk about "rods" finally translated to "magnetic fields" and "waves" - which I believe they say is what the concentric markings on Shingi's body are deliberately designed to resemble.
More thoughts under the cut!
Let's start with a simple observation:
As a matter of fact, the word for "dead" in Japanese is pronounced "shin" (死ん). There's the missing "n"! On can argue that Shingi, this divine ritual, can also be considered a death-related ritual since it involves the slaying of a mononoke. There's always a sadness involved in its killing, as a mononoke is birthed from intense suffering. I'm pretty sure that this phonetic similarity is not a coincidence, given how much care is put into naming the other characters in Mononoke Karakasa (see my analysis on Utayama and Mizorogi)
Now let's dive into more observations below the cut!
Transcript and Google auto translations of the doc, as well as my thoughts are below the cut. @sarahwatchesthings This might be an interesting one for you to sink your teeth into!
"Does the water taste delicious?"
Based on my theory that the names in Mononoke Karakasa have metaphorical meanings which may predict their respective plotlines and motivations, Let's break down his Mizorogi's full name character by character.
Discussions of potential spoilers under the cut.
The paper talisman's primary function is to detect and ward off mononoke. Kusuriuri and Hyper have the unique ability to telekinetically manipulate them. Let's break down that ability further.
Manually sticking them to surfaces one by one is rather tedious and I bet less initiated medicine sellers may need to resort to that tactic.
Buckle in, this is gonna be another long one. (I nearly maxed out the 30-image upload limit)
An addendum! As @rinofwater/ @the-mononoke-facade rightfullly pointed out, Hyper actually does remotely deploy his golden talisman in the first Bakeneko arc after Odajima pled with Kusuriuri to do something.
The paper talisman's primary function is to detect and ward off mononoke. Kusuriuri and Hyper have the unique ability to telekinetically manipulate them. Let's break down that ability further.
Manually sticking them to surfaces one by one is rather tedious and I bet less initiated medicine sellers may need to resort to that tactic.
Buckle in, this is gonna be another long one. (I nearly maxed out the 30-image upload limit)
Universally across all cultures, eyes are windows to the soul, yes?
Spoilers regarding to the analysis of new lore below the cut:
Update: created some infographics based on the above post so I could share it more easily on Twitter.
My enthusiasm for Mononoke is breaking confinement from Tumblr...
Lore spoilers beneath the cut.
In this above scene, Kusu himself says that this withered corpse is a mononoke's doing. What are the implications of this?
Potential spoilers and plot predictions below the cut!
