Mononoke/Ayakashi
Ok so I just finished this series called Mononoke. It's a series of Japanese horror stories all centered around this medicine seller. The medicine seller will show up someplace, he will just be walking around in the background, and the main story line will follow the events surrounding the cast of people who will be tormented in this particular episode. After a while some really weird and FREAKY shit will start to happen and the medicine seller will show up and say "Oh it's a mononoke." Or "It's an Ayakashi." The medicine seller is one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen in an anime. Starting with his design. He is colorful...I mean REALLY colorful...but his contrast to the other characters is stark. I don't know exactly how to explain it...but his is both brighter and dimmer than the other characters in the series...I don't know how he manages to pull that off but he does. His character is really creepy and endearing at the same time. His makeup always makes it look like he is smiling but he never actually smiles throughout the series. He can kill mononoke and ayakashi, but there are rules. His sword that he carries around must know the form, the truth, and the regret of the mononoke before it can be unsheathed. For these things the medicine seller askes everyone involved, which will inevitably be the people trapped in whatever room they are in when the mononoke attacks, to tell him the truth. Of course no one actually tells the full truth, but it is scary what being faced with your own death will make you do. By the end everyone is pointing fingers at each other and telling half truths that make them look clean and everyone else guilty. Through all of these half truths you eventually get the whole story...and it is NEVER good...and almost everyone involved is guilty of some form of atrocity that lead to the mononoke being created (Mononoke and ayakashi are created from the negative emotions of humans who were killed that then either merged with an animal or object and took that form, or manifests itself in other more creative ways...but all are created from some form of atrocious act committed by someone else.) Now this is what makes the Medicine seller both creepy and endearing. As things are progressing you start to realize that he does not give two shits about a single person in this series. He couldn't care less if every person the mononoke attacks dies right there as long as he gets what he needs to kill the mononoke. Now at first you find it a little harsh, but then you hear the horrible secrets these people have kept! After that you pretty much just say "Oh fuck you!! I hope the Mononoke eats your ass!!" Then you can kind of see why the medicine seller doesn't care about anyone. How can you care about people who are so freaking BAD!! The line blurs a little later on in the series though. The supporting cast gets less and less TRULY evil and more in the moral gray area. The actual art for the series is AMAZING!! EVERYTHING has a complex and colorful pattern on it...and I mean everything! All the way down to the buttons on their shirts and the clouds in the sky. The whole series is done in texture so it's almost like the whole thing has been recorded on rice paper...very cool. None of the characters are meant to look particularly pretty...except the medicine seller...so you are left with a cast of some REALLY nasty looking people who get even uglier as their desperation and fear get stronger, it's almost like realism only completely unrealistic...if that even makes any sense. I will tell all of you who read this that this series is NOT for people who are easily disturbed...hell it's not for some people who are NOT easily disturbed...it is a FREAKING DISTURBING series!!! It is also really hard to find. But if you like ghost stories and are not going to be freaked out by some of the fucked up content...then I really think you should check it out.