The Morose Mononokean
Ashiya has spent the first seven days of high school stuck in the infirmary because of a youkai attaching itself to him. He ends up asking the owner of a small tea room called the "Mononokean" for help. This is a tale involving the very morose owner of Mononokean guiding the youkai that happened to wander into this world go to the next world.
Episodes
The Beginning
The day before he begins attending high school, Ashiya Hanae becomes possessed by a strange fuzzy yokai. Being possessed causes him to fall ill, and while spending the start of his high school life repeatedly making trips to the nurse's office, he comes across the contact information of the Mononokean, which specializes in exorcising yokai, and decides to call them. When Ashiya finally visits the Mononokean, he meets the morose master Abeno Haruitsuki.
The Ant
When Ashiya begins working part time at the Mononokean, the master Abeno impresses upon him that he should pretend not to see any yokai other than the Mononokean's clients. However, the kind-hearted Ashiya is unable to keep his word, and the yokai won't leave him alone. Based on their surprising strength and numbers, Abeno believes there must be a powerful demon serving as their leader.
Zenko
After making friends with his classmates Saga and Fushimi, Ashiya believes the high school life he dreamed of may finally be his. But before he has the chance to enjoy his new life, he's instructed to go to a certain temple alone to find and return a yokai's lost possession. At the temple, Ashiya meets a girl named Fujiwara Zenko, and it seems the lost possession in question has something to do with Zenko's father, the head priest...
The Underworld
When Ashiya hears that Abeno will be going to a pharmacist called the “Kiyakudo” in the Underworld, he asks to go with him. Though Abeno is reluctant to bring a human to the Underworld, he relents when the Mononokean suggests that Ashiya accompany him. Concerned for Ashiya, Abeno forbids him to travel in the Underworld alone, but Ashiya finds himself unable to keep his word again...
The Legislative Lake
The Legislator, one of three influential figures of the Underworld, issues a rule that Abeno must bring Ashiya to see him. Unable to defy the Legislator's rules, Abeno is forced to pay a visit to him with Ashiya in tow. As Abeno hired Ashiya without informing the Legislator, he now seeks to determine for himself if Ashiya is truly worthy of being an employee of the Mononokean. What will the Legislator conclude?
The Ring
Abeno is hired by a certain yokai to find a human woman's missing ring and return it to her. Unable to find the ring on his own, he gets Ashiya to help him look for it. During their search, Ashiya demonstrates a surprising talent. The ring is found, but when the time comes to return the ring to the woman, Ashiya and Abeno disagree over how they should return the lost ring to the woman
The Encounter
When Ashiya and Abeno see Zenko at school again, she asks them for help with a particular yokai. Zenko was bitten by a strange dog-like animal a few days prior. However, ordinary people can't see the bite mark, and Zenko, who was previously unable to see yokai, has begun seeing strange things. While listening to her story, a fox yokai suddenly appears behind Ashiya and Abeno. The yokai appears to recognize Abeno, but Abeno doesn't recognize him at all...
The Wait
Zenko arranges for Yahiko to help around the temple while he stays with her. Ashiya is relieved, but he soon runs into another yokai. The bird yokai Jomatsu is concerned for his heartbroken mistress Princess Anmo, who withdrew into an egg shell she made and hasn't come out for a long time. Jomatsu has been searching for the Mononokean so he can return to the Underworld with Princess Anmo still inside her egg.
The Marked Difference
When Abeno is hired to exorcise a yokai by a human, he unenthusiastically heads to the client's house with Ashiya and Fuzzy. The girl who hired him is unable to see yokai but is interested in the occult and seems very interested in their work. Abeno asks Ashiya to watch the door while he works so nobody bothers him, but the girl's mother, who doesn't believe in the supernatural, begins asking Ashiya some nosy questions.
The Fool
When Ashiya and Abeno smell a yokai on the potatoes Yahiko has been sneaking, they head to the farm where they were grown. There they encounter a yokai calling himself Nobou. Nobou has been attempting to leave the farm, but each time he does, he is enveloped in a strange smoke, forced to witness the events of his past, and returns to where he started. Nobou asked to be exorcised so he can leave the farm, but Abeno notices something about the situation.
The Purple Sun
A yokai worshipped as a kami by humans and known as Okina-sama to other yokai comes to the Mononokean with a request: to send the blind yokai Tomori back to the Underworld. After hearing Okina's story, Abeno and Ashiya immediately head to see Tomori. However, upon seeing how Tomori longs to once again see the sights of the Underworld, he tries to see what he can do before Tomori is returned to the Underworld...
The Separation
Abeno visits the Legislator to inform him that Ashiya is no longer working for the Mononokean. As Abeno rarely comes to visit without his presence being requested, the curious Legislator asks why, but when he hears what Abeno has to say...? Meanwhile, Ashiya stops by the Kiyakudo when he hears from Shizuku, where he runs into the yokai Big Boss Scree, a yokai he previously exorcised, and his children. When they hear that Ashiya is in trouble...?
The End
Reunited with the yokai he and Ashiya exorcised together, Abeno realizes the Mononokean still needs Ashiya. Abeno suddenly misses him, and with the help of the yokai, he decides to give his idea a try. Meanwhile, Ashiya wonders if the reason Abeno has been absent from school so much is because he's busy exorcising yokai and decides to check out the shrine in the mountains Yahiko mentioned.
About The Morose Mononokean
- Cast
- Tomoaki Maeno, Yuki Kaji, Ayahi Takagaki, Yoko Hikasa, Junichi Suwabe, Chinami Hashimoto
- Genres
- Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Content rating
- NR
- Original language
- Japanese
- Production countries
- Japan
- Status
- Ended
More Like This
Witch Watch
2025 · Series
A diligent teen winds up living with his spunky childhood friend, a trainee witch, to protect her from a dire prophecy. But can they survive high school?
Kekkaishi
2006 · Series
Yoshimori Sumimura is a 14-year-old student at Karasumori School. Following in the tradition that's come down through the generations, he is the twenty-second Kekkaishi of the Sumimura clan. But he’s constantly fighting with his rival, Tokine Yukimura—his childhood friend and also a Kekkaishi—about who is the rightful heir to the magical barrier arts. Protecting people from danger while growing stronger himself, Yoshimori will battle the forces of evil again tonight!
Call of the Night
2022 · Series
Ko's new companion, Nazuna, could offer him dark gifts and a vampire's immortality. But there are conditions that Ko must meet before he can sink his teeth into vampirism, and he'll discover just how far he's willing to go to satisfy his desires.
The Dangers in My Heart
2023 · Series
Kyotaro Ichikawa, a boy barely clinging to the bottom rung of his school's social ladder, secretly believes he’s the tortured lead in some psychological thriller. He spends his days dreaming up ways to disrupt his classmates' peaceful lives and pining after Anna Yamada, the class idol. But Kyotaro's not nearly the troubled teen he pretends to be…and it turns out Anna's a bit odd herself!
Farming Life in Another World
2023 · Series
After Hiraku dies of a serious illness, God brings him back to life, gives his health and youth back, and sends him to a fantasy world of his choice. In order to enjoy his second shot, God bestows upon him the almighty farming tool! Watch as Hiraku digs, chops, and ploughs in another world in this laidback farming fantasy!
Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie
2022 · Series
Shikimori seems like the perfect girlfriend: cute, fun to be around, sweet when she wants to be… but she has a cool dark side that comes out under the right circumstances. And her boyfriend Izumi loves to be around when that happens!
The "Hentai" Prince and the Stony Cat
2013 · Series
Yōto Yokodera is a schoolboy who is unable to express his true feelings freely. After hearing about the wish-granting Stony Cat, he decides to try and make an offering to lose his facade, only to meet Tsukiko who wishes instead to be more discreet with her feelings to become more adultlike. Who'd have thought the rumors of the wish-granting Stony Cat turns out to be true; transferring the facade that Yōto wishes to lose into a classmate who needs it more and making it difficult for Tsukiko to show even the slightest of emotions on her face. Being on the same boat, they both search for ways to remedy the situation.
xxxHOLiC
2006 · Series
Kimihiro Watanuki is a high school student plagued by ayakashi spirits, both of which are invisible to everyone else but him. The series begins when Watanuki stumbles, seemingly by chance, into a shop that grants wishes. The shop is owned by Yūko Ichihara, a mysterious witch of many names and esoteric renown. For a price, she offers to grant Watanuki's wish to be rid of the spirits. The price, according to Yūko, must be of equal value; so, as payment, he must become Yūko's temporary, part-time cook and housekeeper.
InuYasha
2000 · Series
Kagome Higurashi is a modern day young girl who lives with her family by the old Higure shrine. Unbeknownst to Kagome, she is the reincarnation of priestess Kikyo and posseses the "Jewel of Four Souls" (the Shikon jewel). One ill-fated day, Kagome locates an ancient well near her home and is abruptly transported through the well and into a feudal Japan, inhabited by demons. There, she encounters Inuyasha, son of a powerful demon father and a human mother, who is pinned to a tree by an enchanted arrow.