They really just keep making the designs more difficult. Guys give the animators a break. I imagine animating og was there to make animators feel sane.
Mononoke series' new Medicine Seller! Hello there Qian/Ken!
First of all: I love him already.
Second: we HAVE to talk about this outfit.
Let's go through this bit by bit, shall we?
(For simplicity's sake, I'll be referring to the sellers by their Japanese sword names, Ken, Kon, and Ri, and to the trigrams by their Chinese names, Qian, Kun, and Li.)
Firstly and most strikingly: the colours. We're leaning heavily on a yellow-gold colour scheme, with highlights of orange and a minty green and contrasting purple. Historically, in China the colour of heaven was yellow/gold, and in some eras only the emperor was allowed to wear this specific rich shade. Very fitting for the sword of Qian, representing heaven.
Secondly: the kimono and how he's wearing it. Ohhhh boy. So just like Ri and Kon, Ken is wearing a woman's kimono, though it's folded up slightly shorter than normal, presumably to make moving around easier when fighting, and to allow us to see those beautiful hakama, which we will come back to in a moment.
This kimono has furisode sleeves, and possibly some of the longest furisode we've seen outside of Ooku characters. These are typically reserved for unmarried women - interesting, because Qian is a deeply masculine trigram, arguably the MOST masculine, as it is three unbroken yang lines. Fittingly, Ken is wearing the kimono with one sleeve off, a style typically associated with samurai, ronin, and other physical fighters to allow for more movement.
His obi belt is also quite slim compared to how Kon and Ri wear theirs, and most notably, it seems to not have the massive bow knot at the back that the other two do. Hard to say more on it while we don't have a full turn around, but smaller and more subtle knots are, once again, a much more masculine way of tying an obi than we're used to seeing on sellers. The feminine vibe is still there with the himo (oh, and look, that's where he's keeping his mirror), but with it positioned further down and being a plain black, it's definitely more masc.
Hakama are a split-skirt type outfit similar to trousers, and perform a similar function - they were invented for horse riding, which makes sense, as the animal associated with the Qian trigram is the horse. While both genders wear them, they're much more common for men, especially if this is again set in a pre-Showa era time. Over all, the whole outfit is much more masculine than any we've seen before on a medicine seller, which is very interesting, and carries some implications for the Shingi of Qian too, as they tend to contrast with their sellers (just look at Kon's excessively loud and colourful outfit vs his shingi's very understated pure white kimono).
(Ri and Kon also wear trousers under their kimono, but they wear momohiki, or something close to it, cut close to the ankle and drawn up to allow for movement, much more common for working class people than hakama.)
This tight sleeve that ends in a ring on the finger is called a tekkou, and was typically worn by archers to protect the arms and chest from the bowstring, as they would typically disrobe one shoulder to fire in some instances. They can extend to the forearm, or all the way up to the chest. I don't have much to say about this one, but he is the first seller we've seen with one! I love how we can see some of his kumadori makeup peeking out, and speaking of which.
Interestingly, almost all of Ken's kumadori body paint is black, unlike Ri or Kon's which is predominantly red. We can also see a lot more of it. All the medicine sellers wear kumadori markings that echo those from kabuki theatre. They serve as a visual shorthand for what kind of character is being played. Red on white is explicitly youthful and heroic, with a sense of justice - very fitting for Kon's high energy character. Black paint, by contrast, is typically applied to villains and demons, particularly around the face and mouth.
(Oh my god look at his little fang while he's fixing his earring i LOVE him)
For his face, we see something quite interesting - unlike Ri or Kon, he has barely any lip paint, but what he DOES have is a little bit of green on the bottom lip and an extremely thin purple line on the top. Around the eyes we see another little highlight of green on the eyelid, and thick black around the lower lid. Green is often a marker of the supernatural or the undead in kabuki theatre, which fits well enough here. He's still got that red stripe on the nose that marks him as heroic, but the incorporation of black into more of his makeup would give any kabuki-knowledgeable people a cause to be wary - this guy's just as likely to hinder as help you.
The sword. This is one scary looking sword if I'm completely honest. Maybe it's the bulging eyes or the way the teeth are rendered, it upsettingly resembles a bird with teeth to me. Let's consider the others for a moment.
Compare and contrast, Kun and Li. The sword of Qian has a narrow but MUCH longer hilt. The blade looks proportionally longer too, or at least the sheath is. As a result I'm not entirely sure how Ken fits it in his travelling pack - though we haven't seen what his looks like yet, so perhaps he uses something different to Ri and Kon.
“Each of the three Medicine Sellers is the main character. Three new tales of the supernatural. Publication by Kadokawa Bunko confirmed. 🎉 Stay tuned for further updates!”
CV: Hironori Araki
Character Design: Kitsuneko Nagata
“𝙲𝙰𝚂𝚃 𝙲𝙾𝙼𝙼𝙴𝙽𝚃
║Medicine Seller Inui's Sword: Hironori Araki
￣V￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
I have been given the opportunity to serve as the ``Inui Medicine Seller.''
It was very meaningful for me to be able to play Inui's Medicine Seller in the same way that I played Ri's Medicine Seller and Kon's Medicine Seller on stage.In addition, the director and the entire company were able to discuss the voice recording process, so Inui's Medicine Seller was able to take off without a hitch.
I would appreciate it if you could look forward to the day when it will be delivered to you.”
NOTE: “Inui” seems to be a mistranslation for the Trigram name which is translated as ‘Ken’ in Japanese (also known as Ch’ien or Qian)
ANOTHER NOTE: The CV is apparently the person who played Kon and Ri in the stage plays!!!
“║ Director/General Director of the "Mononoke" Series
║ Kenji Nakamura
￣V￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣
We are pleased to unveil the third medicine seller, "Yin-Yang Bagua," wielding the Yang Sword, "Ken no Tsurugi"!
When he takes "form," he has a habit of baring one shoulder, and before the supernatural events begin, he has a carefree and talkative demeanor, but when a Mononoke appears, he transforms into a sharp and determined persona.
The demon-slaying sword is a vulture-motif sword with excellent foresight.
It is an entity that appeases and slashes away passions, and we hope you will remember the spirited "Sōzan" (funeral slash)! Please look forward to further updates!”
“"Monono Kai" new project starts!
The third drug seller is "Drug Seller Dry Sword"
▼There is a PV of new and old drug sales in the article
"Drug seller Dry Sword"
Role: Hironori Araki
Character design: Kitsuneko Nagata
Kenji Nakamura, the parent of the "Mononoke" series, commented, "Before the monster began, the atmosphere was vague and talkative, but when the Mononoke appeared, there was a two-sided nature that changed sharply." In addition, it has been decided to publish three completely new novels featuring three drug sellers, "Ri", "Kon" and "Qian".”
NOTE: “dry” in the “dry sword” might be a mistranslation of Ken/Ch’ien/Qian
Kitsuneko Nagata artwork!!!
“Following his roles as Ri and Kun, the medicine sellers in the "#Mononoke" stage series, Hironori Araki will now voice Ken, a new medicine seller.
New tales of the supernatural, each featuring one of the three medicine sellers as the protagonist, are scheduled to be published by Kadokawa Bunko.
Please look forward to them! 📖✨
(Staff)”
NOTE: It may be incorrect, but I believe this to be the case”Kadokawa Bunko” mentioned in the OG post. It’ll likely be a light novel! (Please please please give us an official English version to buy I am starting manifestation now)
EDIT: Forcing myself to bed now. Will update if applicable once I wake up 🫡
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