#series Kusu is a harder person because he HAS to be

[dharmafox]

Rewatching Ayakashi "Bakeneko" after seeing the movie, I realized something. It's not just the movie's Medicine Seller or mononoke or even character design that feels "softer" than in the series. It's the everything. It's the whole tone. It's the sense of humor, more light and playful than the grim humor of the series. It's the degree to which the characters are relatable, understandable, or even forgiveable. It's the gentleness of the emotions they express and the degree of sincerity with which they express them. It's in how even the most awful characters show that they were better people once and that those better people are still in there somewhere.

The movie looks on humanity with a much kinder eye. In the series, the focus was on acts of brutality, largely committed by men against women, and about the rage and violence they awakened and perpetuated. Even though the patriarchal structure of the shogunate is behind the situations of the women in the Ooku, the Karakasa is not driven by violence or vengeance. It kills horribly, but when its Regret is revealed, it's far more about grief than rage. Its Truth, Kitagawa, doesn't bear a grudge against anyone--she simply can't move on from what she lost. The Karakasa's Regret is a true Regret: a longing for what was thrown away, trapping those who created it in a never-ending search for their own hearts.

So Karakasa is kinder. It's a very different kind of story.