Studio Ghibli Thoughts: Princess Mononoke
Hayao Miyazaki had a clear goal when making his fantasy epic Princess Mononoke , a goal he already arguably pursued with his first film under the Ghibli umbrella, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind . The goal was to portray the ongoing battle between human civilization and nature, and how this conflict between the ferocious “gods” of nature and humanity can never have a happy ending. While Nausicaa depicted this conflict at its latest stage, when humanity nearly destroyed itself in its destruction of the natural world, Princess Mononoke depicts the first steps when civilization started to conquer nature and the ancient gods ceased to exist. In typical Miyazaki fashion, this is not a preaching work, and it does not shy away from showing the complexities of all sides. Ahitaka, the hero of the movie (a male hero being a rarity for Miyazaki), is cursed by something that he and his community had no direct involvement with. As such, he reaches the forest at the center of the conflict as a ...