#Ri Kusuriuri

[eligobrrrrr]

Ri Kusuriuri my beloved

[dharmafox]

Side-by-sides I've made of the Sellers so far.

[user-null]

i'm giving up with the comic i wanted to do, i'm terrible at comics, i might just color this piece _(:3」∠)_

[dharmafox]

Dude (gender neutral), this is like asking for a quick summary of the meaning of the universe. 😛 It's vast, it's complex, it's extremely hard to pin down, and nobody will give you the same answer.

I'm assuming we're talking about the first Medicine Seller, the one from the series. Director Nakamura has established that the Medicine Seller in the movie has a different personality, and having tragically not seen the movie yet, I can't say much about him. He seems to be a little more sociable than the first Kusu and more actively protective of humans. And judging by the trailers, he's got a ton of physical energy.

The way I see the first Medicine Seller, he's detached but he's actually compassionate. There are little signs all over the series that he cares about people a lot more than he seems to. I think he maintains detachment, not because he doesn't care, but because he needs to be able to step back from people's problems and deal with them objectively in order to help them. He acts callous or like a hardass sometimes, like with Ochou, because it's the only way to get through to people and make them deal with their problems.

All that said, I do think he's carrying around some unprocessed anger for much of the series, and I think some of the distance he keeps from others is also due to that. This is especially evident in "Umi Bozu" where he's surrounded by several mostly pretty harmless people, and he seems to avoid everyone except Kayo.

He is responsive to Kayo though, and Kayo is a sweetheart (albeit a sweetheart who will, in so many words, tell someone they're full of crap if necessary). I think it's significant that he not only likes her but is willing (sometimes) to listen to her, even when she tells him he's full of crap. It shows what he finds important in people.

But he's straight up sadistic in "Nue," which takes me back to the repressed anger. For various reasons I think the guys in "Nue" become the prime targets of those feelings. But I think the anger goes hand-in-hand with the compassion, because the reason he's angry is that he's seen humans hurt each other a lot. Which probably also helps him be aggressive when it's needed to make them stop.

But (again), he's also incredibly patient when needed. He can very, very calmly ask people what's going on behind the mononoke, e.g. in "Zashiki Warashi" and the second "Bakeneko." He can wait until the right time comes to ask questions or take action (e.g. in "Umi Bozu"). Although I think there's anger in him, I don't think it's out of his control (well, not usually, anyway). Even in "Nue," I think he's acting with a kind of cold deliberation. He knows what he's doing and he knows why.

In short, I think he's very complicated. There's a lot going on with him that one has to be very attentive to and think a lot about. And of course, not everyone interprets him the same way. The question of who he really is has many and varied answers.

does anyone want to give me a bit of a rundown of kusuriuri’s personality(s)? just found out abt the lore drop and that makes it more complicated trying to figure this guy out 😭

[theblindhakune]

I'm so bad at doing character designs but I really wanna make my own Medicine Seller, one of the weaker 56. At least there's a clear template to them now that we have 2 reference points

[the-mononoke-facade]

One of these days I'm going to figure out when 瞳 (hitomi) is supposed to be referring to someone's eyes and when it's supposed to be referring to someone's pupils, because slitted/narrowed eyes and slitted pupils have two different connotations, did you narrow your eyes or do you have cat eyes? This is important information okay

[purplealmonds]

Do you think Kusuriuri has some kind of connection to Egyptian mythos?

This mostly pertains to Ri-Kusuriuri from the 2007 anime, but I found some influences in Kun-Kusuriuri from the 2024 movie as well.

Kohl makeup resembles the medicine seller's eyeliner. The lines extending from that eyeliner resemble the eyes of Ra and Horus representing the sun (Yang) and moon (Yin) respectively.

That's just scratching the surface. More thoughts below the cut!

In afterlife, the scale of Maat judges the state of one's heart. The tenbin, which tip towards the "heavy" souls of mononoke, operate on a similar mechanic.

The symbol on the tenbin's center also resembles Arabic, which is a spoken language in Egypt. Coincidentally, these glyphs also have a remarkable resemblance to the glyphs on Kun-Kusuriuri's ofuda.

Straight-up hieroglyphs on the exorcism sword's box, which in my opinion also gives me mummy box/case (the box that encases the sarcophagus) vibes.

Actually – I did a bit more digging, and it seems like pharaohs' sarcophagi are entombed in what I believe is called "nesting shrines".

The sword, adorned with precious jewels, is the innermost sarcophagus for the sword spirit . The talisman around the sword (especially in Kun's case) resembles mummy wrappings (I know the order is mixed up but bear with me here):

As mentioned before, the box is one of the outer "shrines" encasing the sarcophagus. And using that logic, the medicine box itself is the outermost "shrine".

[mokokone]

Hey! I have a question, I saw your list, and I saw Kun Kusuriuri. I thought it was Kon Kusuriuri, correct me if I'm wrong, it's just that I've been seeing people use Kon Kusuriuri. I'm just a bit confused 😅

What I heard. "Ri" and "Kun" are the names of their swords. The fandom affectionately uses them as names for the two Medicine Sellers, who don't actually have names to go by. "Kun" is also sometimes written as "Kon." Ri-Kusuriuri is the 2007 Medicine Seller so the fandom refers to him as "Mentor." Kon-Kusuriuri is 2024 Medicine Seller and is referred to as "Student".

Personally, I like to call them Raito (Light) and Kuroi (Dark), which is referring to their color schemes. But hey, that's just me.

[khoracat]

I think that this might be my most cursed edit to date. I went through and edited out the upturned corners of Ri Kusuriuri's upper lip marking in some Mononoke stills, and it amazes me how much of a difference they make!

[eligobrrrrr]

Ri Kusuriuri and Hyper

[dharmafox]

They're so cute and normal.

[user-null]

I actually decided to take some time to doodle them together, I needed that (⁠ ⁠；⁠∀⁠；⁠)

not explicit but the full one is on twitter

[powrbottomjoker]

cannot WAIT for Mononoke to get even a modicum bigger and suddenly the weird new fans hop in with their mile-long DNI lists to debate whether kon x ri or hyperkusu etc counts as problematic selfcest and why we don't enjoy Kusuriuri correctly because they kin him (guy they've known for 3.2 seconds) The Best out of everyone 🗿

[the-mononoke-facade]

Another point to Oni Kusu maybe being Ri Kusu, this insistence on "this is the way things are going to go/did go and I'm going to badger you with it until you capitulate" feels right out of Noppera-Bou

[dharmafox]