The Morose Mononokean

不機嫌なモノノケ庵 (Fukigen na Mononokean)

9.0(1)

OtakuDen

7.4(57,992)

MAL Score

Ranked #2496

Popularity #1865

Comedy
Supernatural
Mythology

Episodes: 13
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Jun 28, 2016 to Sep 20, 2016
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Hanae Ashiya’s first days of high school are derailed when he ends up stuck in the infirmary, weakened by a baffling ailment that only worsens. The culprit turns out to be a mysterious, fluffy creature that latched onto him after he found it just before the school year began—and as Ashiya’s condition deteriorates, the creature keeps growing.

With nowhere else to turn, he calls an exorcist advertised as someone who can drive out youkai, only to be led to the Mononokean, a teahouse that suddenly appears beside the infirmary. There, the reserved Haruitsuki Abeno agrees to help, then promptly presents an exorcist’s bill Ashiya can’t pay. To work off the debt, Ashiya is drafted as an employee—an arrangement made even more awkward by the fact that Abeno is one of his classmates. Together, they deal with an array of peculiar and sometimes dangerous youkai, guiding them back to the Underworld.

Otaku Consensus

The Morose Mononokean earned a solid-but-specialist reception, reflected in its 7.43 MAL average and 72/100 AniList score: fans respond most to Akira Iwanaga’s gentle episodic direction, the Ashiya-Abeno double act, and the way Takao Yoshioka’s series composition keeps each youkai encounter compact rather than overcomplicated. Its most common limitation is also its identity: the show stays modest, low-stakes, and formula-driven, so viewers expecting a darker exorcist action series or major escalation may find Pierrot Plus’s adaptation too soft-edged.

Why You Should Watch

Watch The Morose Mononokean if you want youkai folklore treated as workplace comedy and emotional housekeeping rather than battle-shounen spectacle. It scratches a lighter version of the Natsume’s Book of Friends itch, with the buddy-comedy friction of something closer to early Noragami, but without the same dramatic heaviness or action emphasis. The appeal is in the rhythm: 13 episodes of compact supernatural cases, an odd-couple lead dynamic powered by Yuuki Kaji and Tomoaki Maeno, and a tone that lets mythological creatures be funny, needy, strange, or melancholy without turning every encounter into a crisis. It is best for viewers who like episodic supernatural anime, cute male-lead chemistry, and folklore texture more than elaborate power systems.

Key Characters

H
Hanae Ashiya(VA: Yuuki Kaji)
Ashiya gives the series its anxious, reactive comic energy, functioning as the audience’s overwhelmed entry point into a youkai job he is spectacularly unprepared to handle.
H
Haruitsuki Abeno(VA: Tomoaki Maeno)
Abeno is the deadpan counterweight fans latch onto: severe, businesslike, and socially prickly in a way that turns routine supernatural errands into character comedy.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The series is structurally episodic, matching AniList’s 84% episodic tag: its pleasures come from discrete youkai cases rather than a heavy serialized plot engine.
2
Pierrot Plus gives the adaptation a clean, TV-comedy presentation that favors readable expressions, mascot-like creature designs, and character timing over flashy exorcism set pieces.
3
Yasuharu Takanashi’s music is a notable fit for the material, leaning into supernatural atmosphere and light comic beats rather than treating the premise like action horror.
4
The genre balance is unusually gentle for an exorcism anime: AniList tags Youkai at 90% but Exorcism at only 20%, which accurately signals folklore encounters over combat-driven purification.
5
The lead pairing is central to the show’s fan appeal, and the casting reinforces it: Yuuki Kaji and Tomoaki Maeno not only voice Ashiya and Abeno but are also credited for the ending theme performance.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: The anime ran for 13 episodes from June 28 to September 20, 2016, making it a single-cour summer 2016 supernatural comedy.
Fun fact 2: Kiri Wazawa is credited as the original creator, while the anime production was handled by Pierrot Plus with Akira Iwanaga directing.
Fun fact 3: Takao Yoshioka handled series composition, a key role for an episodic adaptation because it determines how individual youkai cases are arranged across the cour.
Fun fact 4: The opening theme was performed by The Super Ball, while the ending theme performance is credited to Tomoaki Maeno and Yuuki Kaji.
Fun fact 5: Its database footprint shows a loyal mid-tier audience rather than a breakout phenomenon: MAL lists it at 7.43 from 57,815 votes, with rank #2472 and popularity #1855, while AniList records 555 favourites.