SeattleOtaku: Review - Princess Mononoke

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Mononoke Hime (or here in the US, Princess Mononoke) broke box-office records in Japan until it was barely beat out by Titanic. The script, written by Hayao Miyazaki and translated by Neil Gaiman (of Sandman fame, among others), has also been nominated for a 2001 Nebula Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

Hayao Miyazaki, who also created classics like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Castle of Cagliostro, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, and others, brings us another environmental saga. Like Nausicaä, which showed environmental revenge on Man's destruction of the forests and a science-created fire demon, Mononoke shows us more animal-gods and a forest spirit that brings out a bit of revenge himself.

The story follows Ashitaka, a prince who killed a boar-god in self defense of his tribe but was cursed in the process. In order to rid himself of the curse and find the source of the boar-god's original anger, he sets off on a journey to the forest. Along the way he meets "San", the girl raised by wolf-gods after a battle she fought against the leader of "Iron Town"; he also meets the people of Iron Town itself, the source of an iron bullet that wounded the boar-god.

Ashitaka rescues San from the guards of the town and eventually befriends her and the wolves (somewhat). They meet up with the rest of the angry boar-gods, and as the lead boar announces, "It will be a battle the humans will never forget".

Semi-Official news and images can be found in English at the fan site Nausicaa.Net. The true home for all Studio Ghibli work is (in Japanese) Studio Ghibli Homepage.

Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.

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