Toei’s Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain from director Kenji Nakamura is one of this year’s most visually stunning anime films, and it’s making its way to Netflix in just a few weeks.
Like the Mononoke series, Phantom in the Rain tells the tale of an unnamed merchant (Hiroshi Kamiya) who, in addition to selling medicines, specializes in exorcizing “mononoke” — malevolent spirits who terrorize the living. When the Medicine Seller arrives at the imperial palace, his senses tell him that a mononoke is lurking somewhere deep within the building’s innermost chambers.
As a man, the Medicine Seller is forbidden from stepping foot inside of the imperial harem of women like Asa (Tomoyo Kurosawa) and Kame (Aoi Yūki), who have gathered in…