Princess Mononoke

Studio Ghibli is a beloved anime studio with a large collection of publicly, critically acclaimed films. The director of many of the films, Hayao Miyazaki is considered a genius and the man who shaped up Ghibli to what it is.

I do not know why, but I have not explored the studio as much as I should have when I was child. I remember watching Spirited Away and being blown away at what a beautiful movie it is, for it's premise and execution it was handled fantastically.. and it is generally common that people consider Princess Mononoke to be its equal. So I decided to watch that movie for the first time a couple months ago.

Set within the Muromachi period of Japan, the main character, Prince Ashitaka, while trying to defend his village from a giant boar, once considered a “god” turned demon due to hatred, the event leaves his right arm infected with a curse. The only remaining option being to search for a possible cure. It is through his journey that he ends up stumbling into a conflict between certain humans and animals.

For a movie made in the 90s, the art quality holds up today, the animation is fluid, the colors and the atmosphere look great. Lots of great scenery shots and detail within the forest landscapes. The voice acting is relatively solid and the music is good, some beautiful piano OSTs.

The themes tackled are a mixture of respect towards nature, animal life and spiritual life. As the animals are considered ''gods'', guardians of the forests, and humans who are trying to gain more resources, lead them to conflict and blood shed. Conflict between man and nature, and no character is explicitly highlighted as good or evil.

To me as the viewer, the story was passably/reasonably executed, but nothing spectacular. No, I did not love this movie, neither do I consider it great.
I feel people are giving it a 9 or a 10 mainly because it is a considered, “a classic and critically acclaimed”.

My main complaint are that the characters are forgettable. I do not like the main characters, nor do I consider them GOOD characters. The only good character is Eboshi Gozen, considered the antagonist somewhat, her characterization I can consider good.

While Ashitaka is nothing more than a Gary Stu.. more than any other anime male protagonist I have seen. He is prince, experienced, wise, handsome, young, skilled, strong, caring and he is THE character anyone and everyone should listen to.

San despite being the character featured within all the posters, you know The ''Princess Mononoke'', was not very relevant. I was incredibly surprised how little relevancy to the plot she had. I joked about this with my friend that she is comparable to that of Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad, but I'm not sure even now if I am right or wrong about it. Both featured heavily in posters and trailers, only to end up becoming a lot less relevant than you would wish them to be.

Perhaps this movie just stuck with people more for the time it was released in, maybe if I watched it while growing up I would’ve had a different perspective on it, or developed a bias.

Do I think this film is massively overrated? Absolutely.
Is it bad? no, it’s a good movie for fuck sake.

Thankfully I was still able to enjoy the movie for what it was, and I do think it has a lot of quality aspects. Should you watch Princess Mononoke? Yes, I do think it is an interesting movie to watch, even if the characters are flat. Just try to have an honest opinion for yourself.