The Morose Mononokean

Episode 11

The Morose Mononokean turns in one of its most emotionally consequential and devastating episodes this week, and it's not about a yokai-of-the-week. While we do meet a new one with a problem that needs to be fixed, the real drama comes not from her but our two protagonists. Mainly, it's about Ashiya, his relationship with Abeno, and his role as assistant to the Master of the Mononokean.

Abeno and Ashiya are recruited this time by a guy named Okino, a little yokai apparently worshiped by humans as a god. He looks like a garden gnome to me, but I guess to each their own. Okino is quick to establish that he's mainly here in service of his friend Tomori, a seal yokai who is functionally blind and needs help returning to the Underworld. Before that though, she wants to see the mundane world one last time.

She can do this by temporarily taking someone else's eyesight—specifically, a human's ability to see yokai. Ashiya, being the good-hearted soul that he is, offers to lend her his, as long as it will come back in a few days. She promises that he'll have it back in three days, and he agrees despite being immediately unnerved by the results, realizing too late that he won't be able to see Fuzzy and will be functionally useless to Abeno for the time being. Even more unfortunately for Ashiya, the three-day timeframe passes and his "sight" shows no signs of returning.

It says a lot about Ashiya that he would so quickly volunteer himself for this. On the plus side, it shows how altruistic he is, a trait that has helped him with yokai throughout the series. He's more empathetic and self-sacrificing than Abeno, which allows Ashiya to get through to the yokai that his more morose mentor cannot. On the less positive side of things, it also shows how brash Ashiya is—he's quick to rush into helping others without considering the consequences for himself. In this case, it almost seems like it might cost him his job. After five days have gone by and Ashiya still can't see yokai again, Abeno threatens to fire him, telling him he's going to start looking for replacements. Ashiya insists that he'll win his sight back and make Abeno grovel to accept him again, but it's clear he's distraught by this. It's a pretty harsh emotional turn for this series to take. It's clear to the audience that Ashiya will regain his abilities sooner or later—The Morose Mononokean is not the kind of show to end on such a cruel note—but Ashiya doesn't know this, and his pain is palpable through the screen.

The meat of this episode comes from how much Ashiya has changed in his goals since the earliest parts of the series. Originally, Ashiya was resentful of being roped into the job by his misfortune and abilities that he didn't even know he had until the start of the series. Now that he's lost them, he finally has a chance at the normal high school life he always wanted. This is made extremely obvious in the scene where Ashiya's high school friends encourage him to find a part-time job or even join a club. Ashiya realizes the high school life he hoped for is right there within his reach, if he can forget about the Mononokean and yokai, accept his fate, and reach out for a new life.

Luckily for us, Ashiya doesn't want that. He's forged meaningful relationships with the yokai and discovered a new vocation where he is truly skilled. Ashiya may not have all of Abeno's magical abilities (yet?) but he has a real knack for reaching out to troubled yokai, soothing them, and putting them in a mindset where they can be returned to the Underworld. He's even befriended some of them, like Fuzzy. Ashiya can't just leave that behind for his naïve fantasy of high school life, and now that it's seemingly out of his reach, he realizes just how much he enjoys and wants what he's lost. It's not an especially surprising character development, but it's relieving to see it all the same.

Speaking of Fuzzy, I wonder how this episode will affect Ashiya's relationship with the adorable puffball down the line. Will Fuzzy snub Ashiya when he regains his power for abandoning him to help another yokai? Fuzzy is a lot like a pet, and cats and dogs will do that when their favorite humans come back from a long vacation. It's clear the puffball is frustrated by not being able to contact his favorite human, and I wonder if we'll see his adorable face pouting more in the next two episodes.

There's also the question of how this affects Ashiya's relationship with Abeno. It's clear that Abeno is not quite ready to get rid of Ashiya; he goes to the Underworld to speak with the Legislator about something, and it's hard not to conclude that it's related to Ashiya's predicament. The next-episode preview reveals Tomori in the Underworld talking to somebody, perhaps Abeno, so maybe he goes to her and asks why Ashiya has not yet received his eyesight. When he visits his friends there, they ask after Ashiya, and it's clear that Abeno is not the same without his assistant. As with before, Abeno has a gruff and uncaring exterior, but deep down, he knows he needs Ashiya, at least to be able to pull off his missions successfully. There's also been a growing friendship between the two of them, even if it's a vitriolic one; it's hard to imagine even someone as morose as Abeno throwing that away so easily.

This problem will likely be resolved quickly to introduce some bigger source of drama for the series (or season) finale. There are two episodes left of The Morose Mononokean, so it's going to save the big guns for episodes 12 and 13, not 11. Still, it leaves us with one heck of a cliffhanger, and I don't think I've ever been this eager to get the next installment of the story. It also brings the background themes of Ashiya and Abeno's differing personalities, their relationship with each other, and with their jobs to the forefront, using conflict to draw them out. It's one of the best episodes of The Morose Mononokean yet, making me eager to see what the last two episodes have in store for a final conflict.

Rating: A

The Morose Mononokean is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.