Post Tramadol: depression. Just so as we all know.

After coming off the Tramadol high, worse than readjusting to the pain (although my shoulder is a whole lot better, so that's good) has been readjusting to my mood. I forget, sometimes, that my baseline is pretty fucking low. It's hard to forget right now.

I feel like shit. It's a wasetland inside my head. I'm sleeping endlessly. I can't stop thinking about how, just a few days ago, I was cheerful for hours on end. Well, this is fun.

Anime Review: Mononoke from Toei Animation and Kenji Nakamura

Mononoke
Toei Animation, Kenji Nakamura, 2007
12 episodes
In Japan's Edo period, a medicine seller travels the city and countryside to peddle his wares—but in his journeys he encounters a number of supernatural events caused by spirits called mononoke. By discovering the identity, history, and motivation of these mononoke, the Medicine Seller can destroy them. Mononoke's plots are murder mysteries with mythological bents, and its art is vividly colorful and highly stylized. Despite its brevity the series manages to offer an mysterious protagonist, a number of intelligent and confrontational stories, and a truly unforgettable art style. So, while it has its flaws, Mononoke is an unequivocal success—if the style and themes appeal to the viewer. I recommend it.

Mononoke is a bold experiment of style and story, all the more desirable in that it's also a success. The art resembles traditional Japanese art. Its exaggerated character art and plentiful still-frames can be disorientating and may turn away some viewers, but they function to highlight emotion and action and to mimic traditional art. But at its core Mononoke's visual masterpiece is color: sometimes in bold riot, sometimes in dramatic accents, always remarkable and perfectly at home in the series's unique style, the colors are unforgettable and add plentiful drama and depth to the stories. Those stories are a combination of murder mystery, Japanese mythology, and drama, providing satisfying plot alongside surprising emotional depth and horror as the Medicine Seller's investigations of the mononoke reveal the darkness and desires within the human heart.

The show's episodes are only thirty minutes, but with two to three episodes per story arc there's plenty of time to go in depth with each one. It's a fine balance between complex plots and an adequate number of them, but the series achieves it; each arc is fascinating, but there are enough that the mere 12 episodes still provides satisfying variety. The downside to the story arc format is that the arcs vary in quality. For the most part they only get better, such that the series grows increasingly magical, disturbing, and well-wrought throughout—except for the final arc, which takes place in a more modern era (approximately the 1920s) and may be the weakest of the series. The arc's themes are still strong, and the modern setting turn the Medicine Seller into a timeless, universal figure, but both plot and setting clash against the show's traditional art style. Even if this contrast is intentional, it's a little too disconcerting, and so the series ends on a low note. But even with this weakness, Mononoke is exceptional. If the style appeals to you, I highly recommend it. It's a combination of visual delights and meaningful story, and there's nothing like it out there—a statement which has perhaps never been so true as it is for this bold, successful experiment.