Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
★★★ — Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
The Medicine Seller, one of anime's most enduringly enigmatic figures, makes his second appearance on the big screen in Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II, The Ashes of Rage, released in 2025. The character originates from the 2007 television series Mononoke, a spin-off of the anthology Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, and has long held a dedicated following thanks to his peculiar blend of detached calm and supernatural purpose. He travels feudal Japan, hunting down malevolent spirits called mononoke, but only after uncovering the truth of their form, origin, and reason for existing. It is a premise rooted in Japanese folklore and ghost tradition, and one that has always leaned hard into mood and ritual rather than action-driven plotting. This second chapter continues in that vein, setting its story in the harem of an Edo-period household, where family rivalry, jealousy, and buried resentment conspire to birth a spirit born of rage. For anyone familiar with classical Japanese ghost stories, the setting and emotional terrain will feel recognisable territory (you might think of The Ghost of Yotsuya, another Japanese film in which domestic resentment and spiritual horror become inseparable).
The film comes from a collaboration between studios EOTA, Crew-cell, and Twin Engine, and runs a relatively lean 75 minutes. Co-directing duties are shared between Kenji Nakamura and Kiyotaka Suzuki. Nakamura is no stranger to this material: he helmed the first theatrical entry in this revived film series, Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain, and his visual sensibility has always been distinctive, favouring flattened perspective, bold graphic patterning, and a colour palette that owes as much to woodblock printing as to conventional animation. Whether or not the franchise as a whole is building toward something more ambitious remains an open question, but the aesthetic commitment, at least, has been consistent across both films. The production does not carry the weight of a prestige theatrical budget in the conventional sense, and that is partly by design: the handcrafted, almost illustrative quality of the animation is a deliberate artistic choice rather than a limitation.
The voice cast features several familiar names from Japanese animation. Hiroshi Kamiya returns as the Medicine Seller, a role he also holds in the television series, and listeners who know his work from other productions (he appears in Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu and its sequels, Nekketsu and Reiketsu) will recognise his ability to lend a character presence through restraint rather than volume. Alongside him are Cho, Daisuke Hosomi, Haruka Tomatsu, and Kenyu Horiuchi, filling out the ensemble of harem residents and household figures whose grievances and secrets drive the narrative forward. The tagline, a single word, "Unforgivable", gives you a reasonable indication of the emotional register the film is pitching for.
Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage doubles down on what makes the Mononoke franchise visually singular: lush, hand-crafted animation that merges traditional Japanese art with surreal, almost hallucinatory design. Every scene feels like a living scroll (rich in pattern, texture, and symbolic colour) while the rain-slicked streets and shadow-draped interiors create a mood that's equal parts elegant and eerie. If you're watching for the art direction alone, this film delivers in spades. The voice acting remains strong, with the Medicine Seller's calm, cryptic delivery anchoring the chaos around him, and the supporting cast bringing emotional texture to otherwise archetypal roles. The sound design and score continue to excel, using silence, traditional instruments, and ambient noise to build tension without relying on dialogue. Atmosphere is unquestionably the film's greatest asset, it's immersive, stylised, and utterly distinctive. But beyond the visuals, The Ashes of Rage offers little that feels new or deeply engaging. The story, like its predecessor, unfolds as a series of loosely connected vignettes heavy on mood but light on narrative momentum or character development. Themes of grief, vengeance, and spiritual unrest are hinted at but rarely explored with depth or clarity. It's not bad, just familiar, and ultimately forgettable once the credits roll. Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II is more good than bad. A beautifully crafted, well-acted mood piece that honours the franchise's aesthetic legacy. But without a story that truly resonates or surprises, it remains a stylish curio rather than an essential watch. Worth seeing for the art, but don't expect to be moved.
I'll admit that going in I was hoping the shift to a new setting might give the story a bit more room to breathe and develop, but if anything it confirmed that the franchise, for now, is more interested in atmosphere as an end in itself than in using that atmosphere to say something. That is not necessarily a fatal flaw, and for a certain kind of viewer on a quiet evening, there is real pleasure in just letting it wash over you. But I keep coming back to the feeling that there is a genuinely great film somewhere inside this material, one that takes the visual ambition and matches it with a story that earns the emotions it is gesturing at. For now, Chapter II is polished but unremarkable as drama, however beautiful it may be to look at. Roll on Chapter III, and here's hoping it finds something to say.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2025 | Watched: 2026-05-16
Trailer
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Stream: Netflix · Netflix Standard with Ads
Physical: Amazon US
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Kenji Nakamura: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024)
More with Hiroshi Kamiya: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Kizumonogatari Part 3: Reiketsu (2017) · Kizumonogatari Part 2: Nekketsu (2016) · Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu (2016)
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959) · Street Fighter (1994)
More from the 2020s: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · The Long Walk (2025) · Americana (2023) · Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Americana (2023)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Carnival of Souls (1962)
