Princess Mononoke

Before last year, I had never seen a Studio Ghibli movie, but I finally got around to seeing Princess Mononoke this week.

I quite liked it. Ashitaka made a good protagonist with the whole “cursed to wander the Earth” thing, and the demon-boars were downright creepy.

I have to admit I rolled my eyes a little when Irontown was introduced, since I expected the movie to get preachy at that point. I’m pleased to report that I was wrong. Lady Eboshi was an excellent antagonist for the movie, because she wasn’t entirely wrong, was she? She had built a thriving community for her town of lepers and former prostitutes, and thanks to her firearms, mankind wouldn’t be at the mercy of capricious nature spirits any longer. It’s all well and good to idealize Nature, but that overlooks that Nature is also red in tooth and claw.

I’m sure that the movie had some Japanese cultural subtexts that I missed entirely.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed it considerably, though Castle In The Sky is still my favorite of the Studio Ghibli movies that I’ve seen.

-JM