A Great Anime Film And A View Of The Environment.

Rating: 10/10 (4 December 2015)

Princess Mononoke is a 1997 animated film by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli. The word Mononoke is a Japanese word for specter or spirit. The film was received positively by critics and won 4 awards in Japan. A central theme of the movie is the environment and humanity's fear of the unknown. Industrialization is also a key factor as iron town wants to expand mining for iron into the forest. The forest gods do not agree with this and that is how the whole conflict starts. The story revolves around a boy Ashitaka who became cursed by a demon and must rid his curse or die. He travels to the west in search of the forest god to lift his curse. Meanwhile a group of villagers are traveling home and are attacked by the wolf clan. Ashitaka meets the wolf clan along the way and befriends them. Princess Mononoke is the adoptive daughter of the wolf god. He travels to iron town events transpire and the humans and beasts battle for the forest. Ashitaka and San (Princess Mononoke) must save the beasts and humans or suffer the destruction of both.
Ashitaka has an understanding of the unknown and knows he must rid the curse he has. The people living around the forest and in iron town, are afraid of the beasts and what they don't know lurks in the forest. How they try and overcome this issue is with guns, burning down the forest, waging war with the forest animals, and killing the forest gods. They don't try and problem solve how they can fix it, they just start shooting the place up. This could be carried over into today as people don't try and solve their problems by working with others and go in head on. Wars and other problematic events occur today because of that unwillingness. Today we have people who care too much and some who don't care about the environment. The issues that Princess Mononoke discusses are still relevant today. The taking of land to expand an empire has been around for a long time. Today we have cities expanding and taking up natural land. San is an example of someone who cares about the environment and will do anything to maintain the peace of the forest and the forest gods. In order to protect the forest San goes to the iron city to kill the leader so they will stop destroying the land. She fails to kill the leader and this drives the conquest to destroy the forest to increase. Ashitaka knows that the forest is a vital part in the ecosystem. He tries to help San save the forest and stop the bloodshed. While in the iron city he takes a bullet and "dies" to save San. San takes him to the forest god to heal him. The forest god sees the potential within Ashitaka and brings him back to life. Ashitaka then goes to reason with both parties to save the city. A monk and the leader of the iron city follow Ashitaka back into the forest and kill the forest god. This makes a deadly goo that kills what it touches. The monk takes the head of the forest god. The god forms into a being and takes aim to reclaim his head. Ashitaka then stops the monk and gives the head back to the god. This brings balance to the world and restores the land to a healthy state. Him and San go separate ways to restore what once was.
Ashitaka is the example of what people need to do today to protect what is important to them. By going on his journey he shows a motivation to protect what he cares about. He goes willingly knowing that he will not see his family again but that they will be safe. He later learns to care for the forest and does what he can to protect it. He is a strong example of if you care about something you will do anything to protect it. This is a strong character trait throughout the anime genre.