Twin Engine has released a special trailer for Gekijōban Mononoke Dai-San-Shō: Hebigami — officially Mononoke the Movie: Chapter 3: Snake God — and yes, this one looks properly unsettling.
The third film in the Mononoke movie trilogy is set to open in Japan on May 29, with the new trailer stitching together moments from the first two films alongside fresh footage from Chapter 3. The main sell here is very Mononoke: stylish horror, palace politics, spiritual mystery, and a supernatural threat that cannot just be hacked down like a normal monster.
For Malaysian and SEA anime fans, this is one to keep on the radar because Mononoke has always been a bit different from the usual mainstream anime movie pipeline. It is not chasing shonen hype or idol sparkle. This franchise is more about mood, colour, folklore, and psychological dread — the kind of anime you recommend to that one friend who says they want “something actually unique, bro.”
What Chapter 3 is about
The story continues after the earlier incidents involving the Karakasa umbrella and the Fire Rat. The inner palace, or Ooku, seems to have settled down, but the Medicine Seller — voiced again by Hiroshi Kamiya — still feels that something is wrong.
At the centre of the new film is Empress Sachiko, voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki. She gives birth to a long-awaited baby boy, but the joy does not last, as she dies soon after. Her pain, regret, and anger begin to twist into something darker, while the palace itself starts showing signs of a deeper curse.
The mystery gets nastier from there. Strange tremors shake the Ooku. Triangular scales fall. Something massive crawls through the shadows. Then a maid is killed in a brutal supernatural incident, forcing the Medicine Seller to confront a giant snake-shaped Mononoke known as the Snake God.
As always, the Medicine Seller cannot simply pull out his demon-slaying sword and settle things quickly. To defeat the Mononoke, he must first identify its Form, Truth, and Reason. That rule is basically the soul of Mononoke: every monster has a story, and the horror only makes sense once the buried human ugliness is exposed.
This time, the roots of the Snake God appear to go back 150 years, tied to the hidden history behind the birth of the Ooku itself. So expect palace secrets, generational resentment, and probably a lot of visual symbolism for anime theory YouTubers to makan for weeks.
Staff, music, and where the trilogy stands
Kenji Nakamura, who returned for the second film, is back as general director. Tomoaki Koshida directs Chapter 3 at Studio Kafka and EOTA. Aina The End performs the theme song, titled “No Epilogue.” She also handled songs for the previous films, so the trilogy has a nice musical continuity going on.
The first movie, Mononoke The Movie: Phantom in the Rain, opened in Japan in July 2024 and is available on Netflix. It also won the Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation for best animated feature at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. The second film, Chapter 2: The Ashes of Rage, opened in Japan in March 2025.
For anyone new to the franchise, Mononoke began as a 2007 TV anime with 12 episodes. It spun out from Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, specifically the “Bakeneko” arc featuring the Medicine Seller. The original TV anime was directed by Kenji Nakamura at Toei Animation, with character designs by Takashi Hashimoto and music by Yasuharu Takanashi.
No SEA theatrical or streaming release details for Chapter 3 have been announced in the provided info yet. But since Netflix is already streaming the first film, Malaysian fans should definitely watch that space. If the full trilogy eventually lands there, this could become one of the best horror-anime binge picks for fans who want something more artsy and creepy than the usual seasonal fare.
Source: Anime News Network