It still makes me cry.

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2010)

In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit, for those were the days of gods and of demons.
About 9 years ago, I saw this film for the first time in my life.
My mind was pounded very harshly. With my only experience with manga or animé having been Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon, yes. It was definitely different. What struck me most about this was the sincere tone in which they handled the entire film. No exaggerated humour, no pop culture references.
We open with a brief narration, after which we see a young prince of the Emishi tribe, Ashitaka, defend his village against a former boar turned demon.
His arm receives a terrible curse, and he is to travel to the West to there see, with eyes unclouded by hatred, what caused this beast, that cursed him, to go mad.
Riding his red elk, on the way he meets many figures among which being a monk named Jigo, a ruler named Eboshi who harvests iron for the sake of melting it into bullets so as to be able to expand her territory, and a mysterious girl who has sided with the wolves of that same territory.
Each of these parties clash against one another often, while Ashitaka only wishes to stop the fighting, as demonstrated in a beautiful scene where he brutally interrupts a battle in the middle of an entire crowd.
He seems to figure his own need to cure his own curse is irrelevant compared to the sake of ridding the present society of its own diseases.
I feel no need to disclose any further details. Do yourself a favour. Watch this film. Watch it again. And again. Do it in an endless loop, if you will. I can almost guarantee it is highly unlikely that this one would ever get old.
It could seem like an environmental message in disguise, but don't you dare fool yourself! It's truly much deeper than just that.
It has never failed to make me cry. And I suspect it will always succeed at just that.