For The Past 2 Days, The Mononoke Teams Decision To Recast The Medicine Seller Has Been Living Rent Free

For the past 2 days, the Mononoke team’s decision to recast the Medicine Seller has been living rent free in my head. And today I come to offer another perspective.

Because of the way animation in general does not allow for much appearance of the creators, much of the public credit and acknowledgement go to the only slither of humanity that can be seen or rather … heard. People equate their favorite characters with the providers of their voices. Kaji Yuki is literally Eren Jaeger. Dante Basco is literally Zuko. And Sakurai Takahiro is literally Shirokuma, Osomatsu, Makishima, Rohan, Kusuriuri, etc. Except this is a very reductive view because in truth, the voice actor does not, at all, play any part in the actual creation of a character or vision. They are the missing piece of a puzzle, but the other 99 pieces, the base, the frame, they’re the works of the writers, the designers, artists, animators, and directors. The voice actor simply HELPS bring that vision to life per directed, they are not creators.

In light of the recast decision, I have seen outcries saying that without Sakurai Takahiro, the Medicine Seller is no longer the Medicine Seller, which is a sentiment I can understand. I, too, have deep attachments to the characters voiced by him, and thus, indirectly, to his voice. But while his voice is perfect for such calm, mysterious, almost mystical character, consider this. Would you want a main character of a story that intentionally explores the lived reality of women in history (both pain and gain) through a humanizing lens, whose affiliation is neutral but with subtle acknowledgement and empathy for the victims of each crime (who are mostly women), to be voiced by a man who has, for a very long time, deceived and taken advantage of the women in his life? The compatibility between Sakurai Takahiro and the Medicine Seller is purely superficial, they stand for complete opposite things. And the team, while fully know the risks they are taking, sided with their creation.

With that decision, their creative interest is fully protected. By recasting the Medicine Seller, they are asserting their rightful claim to the credits of creating both the character, AND the series. THEY are the mysterious lines spoken in several intakes of breath, THEY are the glamorous kimono, THEY are the cheeky and mischievous actions that also imply a sense of misanthropy. The Medicine Seller is NOT, and never has been, Sakurai Takahiro. Secondly, with such cruel actions as his reputation, it is difficult for any production to continue working with Sakurai Takahiro, especially in a lead role where he would no doubt be involved in many promotional materials and inevitably be linked with its name. Hence, it is likely that, without any drastic action, upon finishing this movie, the Mononoke team, too, might close its door and try to move on. But by detaching him from the name, they are now able to look forward into the future and continue to conceptualize the universe that we all love and crave, without the weight of such an impactful and disrespectful scandal, that directly contradicts their stance, on their mind.

In all, with the single brave decision to recast one of the most recognizable traits of their central character, the Mononoke team has protected their character, their work, their creation. It is truly commendable.

SAY IT LOUDER!!!

In all seriousness, I hope the women involved in the scandal get to remain anonymous and receive the support they require. And I hope that none of the reputation of any production he’s involved in take a dive. Each work is the creativity and effort of many many people. Let’s not trash them because one guy decided to be a dick. In regards to Mononoke, I will look forward to it whether they recast him or not. Sakurai Takahiro may be a huge jerk but he truly has a talent and his voice is indisputably perfect for Kusuriuri - a character I have a very personal attachment to. On the other hand, if they do decide to recast him, I wish the new guy the very best and it will not change my decision.

I will watch the new Mononoke movie with all the excitement and love I feel for this series all these years. Because it’s a series with so much depth both narratively and historically. It holds so much work and wisdom of so many talented people that I refuse to let one person ruin it.

If the Medicine Seller saw how Takahiro Sakurai treats women, he'd feed him to a bakeneko.

Does anybody have the transcript of the original German lyrics of the ORIGINAL Schwarzer Prinz? The one in 1992? 🥹 Cuz I can’t seem to find it anywhere. The only one I found is the one used in the Viennese Revival which is already changed …

Oh man I can’t wait to talk about Kitsch in the next Elisabeth video 🤣

Kitsch and it's importance in the design of Elisabeth

Why does the staging and approach in the recent German-language productions fail where the original and 1st revival succeeded? It all has to do with a concept I lovingly like to call "self-aware kitschiness" (and which I would like to explore further in my professional work later on).

But first of all: what can be understood under the word kitsch? When we think of kitsch, we immediately see a lot of color, ornamentation, "outdated" styles, mild historical influence and the subtext of a distaste and an avoidance for the object we descripe as "kitsch". It's eclectic, but not in a good way in the subtext. But, when we take on kitsch as a designer, we can find out that it has amazing story telling potential and value if used well.

The original was opulent and outlandish, but it was aware of the irony the settings provide. The set is composed of purposefully used kitschy stylistic elements, be it in the historic or modern direction. On that stage, in the span of over 2 hours, we see unnaturally colorful neon lights meet historic settings and items and costumes of historical styles are covered in lamé and sequins. The show revels in it's outside opulence while showing the mirror on our present day outlook on the subject at hand. After all, when an average person is told to visualize something from the time of Elisabeth's life, they immediately think of the luxury, the shimmering gilding of the Hofburg and Schonbrunn, the Winterhalter portrait and the Romy Schneider movies. All, arguably, very sugar-coated and harmlessly romanticized.

But, as we all know, Elisabeth das musical is in the first place and deep down NOT a romance. Sure, the relationship of Elisabeth with Der Tod could be from some angles and interpretations be viewed as love, but this is first and foremost the story of a woman too complex for her antiquated world fighting her internal struggles and trying to find her place in a society that doesn't understand her.

The central theme of the show's context is personal freedom, but the secondary theme is the aforementioned kitsch, which has hidden away all the difficulties, all the hardships, wrongs and bad decisions in favor of something palatable for the general public in order to sell well. But, by kitsch being such an intergal part in the design, we as an audience can see through the artifice, see just how it works and it's up to us to do nothing and accept it, laugh at it or condemn it.

The show in it's original form wasn't afraid to critique itself and it's characters while nodding along with the viewer. In the end, it is Lucheni who tells this story and in his words, he spares no one, even though there are hints of him purposefully warping the story in his favor. This is the trial to pardon his soul after all. Yet, as soon as we see Lucheni realize there is no reason to not tell the harsh truth, since there is no reason to excuse his crime, the kitsch and opulence disappear in tune of the reprise of the song of the same name. We only see harsh dark sets on rather realistic backdrops, illuminated by starkly white lights. It's cold, but distinctly real. From that point on, it's as if we awake into an entirely new world, which has replaced the world as we knew it so far, much like what the characters on stage might have experienced after Rodolf's death and with the decline of the monarchy. It's only a natural progression the story and it's characters make.

That's why when the show started to lean into "historically more realistic" visuals (starting with the 2001 Essen production, which was the first to use the Yan Tax costume designs and not the ones by Reinhard Heinrich + started using more concrete, less artistically stylized sets), it started to lose it's depth. Don't get me wrong, the Essen production did look good, but it didn't have quite as much contextual punch to it. The visuals were appealing, but they missed that kitschy edge, that made the original staging such a storytelling tour-de-force on a visual level alone. Now, from the outside, the show looked more like a stage adaptation of the Romy Schneider movies. Nice to look at, but not offering as much food for thought as the original.

And then came the era of the productions scaling down on their sets, with the 2nd revival at first seemingly mostly doing the remaining 1st revival sets (since there are promo pictures of them in the new costumes and the old sets), but they phased them out in favor of this harsh backdrop, LCD screens and a turntable. All the remaining set pieces are minimally detailed, cold and unfeeling, which seems to me like a major visual clash with them keeping on using the romaticised historical Yan Tax costumes (except for Der Tod, but I think I already talked enough about that). And at that, it feels empty and flat. Both figuratively and visually.

TLDR: For a production of Elisabeth to work design wise, you need for it to be kitschy in a self-aware way, otherwise it won't work as well.

Y’all I was gonna say maybe Midorikawa Hikaru could be a good contender for Kusuriuri. Then I remembered he literally voiced The Man in the Fox Mask.

The lore deepens

Kittyboy Rudolf is free serotonin 💖

Happy Lunar New Year!!!!!

Here's Der Tod in áo tấc (a Vietnamese traditional costume) and catboy(catman?) Rudolf because it's the year of the cat instead of rabbit in Vietnam