Okay, so this is a movie to avoid unless you’re really, really bored. I was lured in by the attractive character-designs and nice-sounding title, but what I got was a horrible mess. This is just one of those movies which are completely screwed up by the scriptwriters.

For starters, the story plays in a world in which once an ancient civilization lived: the Wind People. Unfortunately, they died out at one point, when they were slaughtered by an evil empire. The main character just happened to be one of those Wind People, without any explanation whatsoever on how the heck he became someone of a race that was supposed to be extinct.

If this was the only flaw, there wouldn’t be much of a problem. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg. To sum up a few of the writers’ errors: they didn’t build up well enough, plot elements go unexplained, characters lack background, characters lack reason for their actions, entire scenes seem to be missing, characters act unnatural, there are continuity errors, the main character is a Gary Stu, there are heaps of Deus ex Machina throughout the movie, there’s a lack of realism, the entire setting isn’t developed well enough so it makes no sense, lady luck is in favour of our main character throughout the entire movie, the creators jump to the action way too quickly, and probably some more flaws I can’t remember. This should give you a fair impression of the overall quality.

About the good things: they’re hardly there, but there are a handful standalone moments in the movie that were sort-of amusing, like the kids’ times in jail, or a baker, preparing for battle. The graphics and music also aren’t too bad. Okay, they’re still nothing special, but by the standards of this movie, it’s nothing to complain about.

Overall, this movie is a bad one. It’s another one of those shounen-adventures gone wrong, and if you’re looking for one and a half hour to burn, then you should try a different movie. ^^; I hope the next movie will be a better one.

This episode sort-of ruined the sense of time I had with this series, when suddenly the hunt for Dallas Genoard was moved back to 1931, and Maiza appeared to already be immortal before he could have had any chance to meet Barnes. The previous episodes have done well to answer the necessary questions, only for this episode to ask a whole bunch of new ones. Maiza-san, for example, also shoots into the ceiling after being stabbed by Firo, as a means of welcome to his new family-member, he shoots in the air and suddenly hits Isaac. What the heck was that guy doing there?!

I’m also rather confused about the 1931-business. In the past episodes, we saw Eve visit the information-office in 1932. In this episode, we see the Runorata-family enter the information-office yet again, but in 1931. Miraculously, though Eve had already visited by then.

Jacuzzi also gets new development, but his past is still full of question-marks. First of all Nick was captured by the guys in black suits, who had no way of knowing what he did in the dining room. We also see a scene of what happened earlier that year, when Jacuzzi was hunted down by bounty-hunters/mafia-guys, and then suddenly saved by Nice and their other companion. Where all of them came from is still unknown. Jacuzzi also talks about how he doesn’t want to kill. Did he mean his comrades, or did his comrades prevent him from using some awful power to slaughter his assailants?

Also, the red-eyed figure we see outside the train. We get some heavy hints that it’s the green-capped woman, but we never see it confirmed. In this episode, we see it use its foggy hand to kill two guys in black suits.

Then Szilard, who raised the biggest question of this episode: he sucked up Barnes with his hand! I admit that I missed some of his explanations, though I doubt that he fully explained what happened there. Afterwards, Quates sends Ennis out to look for Firo, who seemed to be searching for her.

Meanwhile on the train, the guys in black suits return, and they take Nathalie Williams with them. Her daughter, Merry, is safe, hiding with Czeslaw. Isaac and Miria are active again, as they set out to rescue Jacuzzi and Nice (that could be interesting). I also wonder: why did the second conductor at the back of the train die? I mean, I know he killed the younger one, but why were his head and arm ripped off afterwards? In fact, why did he feel the need to kill in the first place?

I like what this series is doing, though. It first starts with an unexplainable mess, and it goes on, things get clearer and clearer. And just when you think you know what’s going on, they throw in a heap of more mysteries to confuse you. It’s a nice tactic, but I hope that everything will come together in the end.

After this episode, I’m going to take a small break to wait for the subs to catch up. It was a nice idea to try and watch this raw, but this is just one of these series that I want to fully understand. Unlike series as Toward the Terra or Seirei no Moribito, who have a continuous storyline, Mononoke deals with stories of 2 to 3 episodes, so every detail counts. I managed to understand this episode in the end, but I was too busy figuring out what happened to really enjoy the episode. ^^;

Still, this episode was really good. It seems that the woman didn’t really understand that she killed her entire family. The family she was married to kept abusing her, and her only glimpse outside was through a barred window. She was caught between her love for her mother, who was the one who married her to her new family, and her desire to be free and play. Her mother may have thought that she did a good thing for her child, by educating her well and taking good care of her, but she never let her do what she wanted. That indirectly caused Ochou to go berserk.

Hence the masks. She put up so many different faces in front of everybody, but she never really had the chance to show her actual face. Until, of course, she started killing. The man with the fox-mask is another one of these faces of hers. If I had to guess, then I’d say it’s the form of her ideal husband.

I’m not sure how many of you remember, but Tenpou Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi also featured an arc about masks. In there, the girl (I forgot her name, sorry) went berserk because she thought her evil masks showed her true face. Interestingly enough, the conclusion of that arc was that every mask was a part of her, and that there is not one true mask. This arc in Mononoke builds further upon that, and they show how things can go wrong, as Ochou didn’t even realize that she’s been putting up different faces.