Netflix has released the main trailer and key art for the feature film, Mononoke the Movie: Chapter III – The Curse of the Serpent, the third and final chapter in the anime trilogy. It hits the streamer on September 29.
Mononoke started as a TV anime in the 2000s and follows the Medicine Seller, a traveler who exorcises the mononoke — specters that spawn from human passions and grudges. All three films are set in the Ōoku, the inner chambers where the Emperor’s wife and concubines live, and each one moves up its ranks. Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) follows a newly arrived maid; Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage (2025) centers on the Ochurou, the Ōoku’s elite concubines; and Chapter III turns to the Midaidokoro, the highest-ranking woman there.
In the latest film, Yukiko, the Emperor’s lawful wife, loses the male heir she has just borne and, in her grief, is drawn into a conspiracy inside the Ōoku. A mononoke in the shape of a great serpent — the snake god — follows, and the Medicine Seller cannot draw the Sacred Sword against it until he has uncovered its Shape, Truth and Reason.
Chapters I and II are now streaming; The Phantom in the Rain was one of the special screenings at the 7th Animation Is Film Festival in October 2024, and it was nominated for Film of the Year at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards.
Here’s the trailer:
Kenji Nakamura is chief director, with Tomoaki Koshida directing; Yasumi Atarashi wrote the screenplay. Kitsuneko Nagata designed the characters, and Yuichi Takahashi is animation character designer and chief animation director. Youichi Katoono is background art designer, with Akira Kuramoto and Yoko Saito directing the background art. Takashi Kurahashi supervises the art, Kunio Tsujita designs the color, and Yoichi Senzui is visual director.
Source: Netflix
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
