Perfect 10 Simply Epic Possible Spoilers

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2003)

This is simply a brilliant film which displays many traits of great anime. The story is brilliant, the characters are conflicted and written with depth and the film has a real moral message. The characters are all human and because of this the film plays better than most films you will see at the local multiplex. It has all the confusions of the real world, where there is good and bad, but between that there are vast areas of grey.
Hollywood rarely has the guts to make a film which has so many issues running through and and where the area good and bad is so muddy. I also love this film for having such a strong spiritual side something which Oriental films are generally very good at and which they should be applauded for, but which other industries rarely touch.
There are many parallels with The Lord of the Rings, dare I say it, a young boy leaves a small almost unknown village to tackle a force of extreme spiritual and physical power of which he carries part of with him on his travels. As he makes his way he take's on many dangers and faces many conflicts with him and within himself. Both films also play out a battle between nature, the land, and the world of the future, industry which is coming in the film. It is more obvious in Princess Mononoke, but it is an obvious metaphor in LOTR as well.
If you didn't know Studio Ghibli who made this wonderful anime, ploughs all it's resources into every film it does. So much so that if one film was a failure the Studio would go bust, that shows real faith to put in a film, if other film industries and studio's put so much on line, then we would see a great shift towards quality rather than quantity. In my dreams.
And respect the original film if you have the chance, so just as it's best to watch Live Actions Films in Letterbox format so it's best to watch anime with subtitles in your chosen language with the audio on Japanese. This is how the director wished it to be seen. Watching the film with Gillian Anderson and Billy Bob Thornton, much as I respect them, dubbing it reduces the film to the style of a Pokemon cartoon which I abhor. Call me an anime snob, but it's true. Oh and firstly this kicks big ass piles of sand in Forrest Gump's face, that argument is such a non-starter. It deserves to be in the top 200. And two this beats anything the US can do animation wise hands down, no wonder. This has everything animation, and films, should be in spades and then some. Watch and believe.