Final Review: Princess Mononoke

For my final review, I am going to review one of my favorite animated movies (if not my absolute favorite movies). Princess Mononoke is a movie from Studio Ghibli, the studio that made Best Animated Picture winner Spirited Away and many other acclaimed animated movies.

Plot Synopsis: After being infected by a demon that attacked his village, Prince Ashitaka journeys west to find a war being fought between man and nature.

I really don’t know where to start when talking about this movie. Princess Mononoke stands apart from other movies made by Studio Ghibli in so many ways. While most Studio Ghibli movies are small in scale and try to tell slice of life style stories, Mononoke tells an epic tale about nature and humanity’s struggle. The film starts out small, yet exciting when a possessed giant boar attacks Ashitaka’s village. Even after felling the beast, Ashitaka is banished for being touched by its demonic tendrils. Already within the first 15 minutes of the movie, so many emotions are being expressed. Ashitaka’s kin don’t want him to leave because he is the last of their line, but all are honor-bond to follow their cultural rules. I won’t go through an entire summary of the movie, but this first small section of the movie perfectly established the tone of the movie and dignified sadness of Ashitaka’s character.

One of the best parts of this movie is the soundtrack. Certain scenes are set aside just for the beautiful soundtrack and hand-drawn animation to perfectly work together. The music is peaceful and epic at the same time, expertly displaying Ashitaka’s journey, the realm of the forest god, and the forest’s rebirth.

Although earning a PG-13 rating for showing some animated decapitations, this movie is mature for more than just violence. As I mentioned previously, this movie is all about man vs nature, but with more of a gray area than other environmental works. The main antagonist in this movie is Lady Eboshi, a woman in charge of a town that produces iron on the edge of the forest (appropriately called “Iron Town. In order to mine and make iron, Lady Eboshi has her men destroy parts of the forest. While many other antagonists who control industry are simply villainized in environmental works, Eboshi is not so simple. Eboshi is humanized in  very natural and believable ways: she hires impoverished brothel women to work in her iron forges and cares for lepers, people abandoned by society, in her secret garden.

Opposite of Eboshi would be the titular character, Princess Mononoke (who is also called San in the movie, to save time, I guess). San is a girl who was raised by the wolves of the forest that seeks the death of Eboshi and the destruction of Iron Town. One character in the movie says something along the lines of “when the forest god dies, Princess Mononoke will become human”, so San is seen solely as instrument of the forest (in Japanese, Mononoke are vengeful spirits, so San is the vengeful spirit of the forest). Ashitaka helps San, but also protects the people of Iron Town, attempting to bridge the gap and end conflict between man and nature. Without spoiling too much, the end of the movie culminates in a massive, almost apocalyptic event that truly shows nature’s power.

I’ll end my review here as to not spoil too many things about this film. Getting parts of this movie spoiled is not a big deal, but the only true way to understand how good this movie is is to watch it. 10/10

Note: In my opinion, watching in either Japanese or English produces the same overall enjoyment, so don’t worry about sub or dub 🙂