Just a drawing...

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2010)

I'm not normally a huge fan of fantasy, or of animation; but I'm prepared to make an exception for 'Princess Mononoke'. And not just because it's absolutely beautiful; but more because it has a level of moral ambiguity not normally seen in either of its two genres. The story features a protagonist who spends most of the story watching events he can't control; a town inhabited by vigorous ex-prostitutes, lepers, and useless men, led by a fearless warrior queen but whose future depends on environmental destruction; awesome, but vengeful and frequently misguided gods; a girl raised by wolves who hates humans; and various squabbling animals. Even the villain of the piece (and this is surely an obvious parable for own own world) is less a figure of evil but rather a buccaneering adventurer who puts his own self interest above the greater good. At first, watching a version dubbed into English, I was put off by the non-Japanese voices; but in time, I fell into the world portrayed anyway. And when, near the end, with their fates hanging in the balance, the hero puts his arm around the heroine, I found it strangely moving in a way that I didn't expect to feel about what is, after all, just a drawing.