Week 5 Questions

5.What genre or genres is Princess Mononoke? How does it relate to its ‘prequel,’ Nausicaā?

Princess Mononoke is made up of various genres. First of all, It is an animation that puts voice, dynamism and background sound into static media such as cartoons and pictures. Also, scenes where animals and humans talk and the fact that animals appear as gods show genre of fantasy. We can also see the genre of adventure in Ashitaka journey to the West Village to stop the curse that eats away his life, and we can find action genres through fierce battles between humans and gods.

“Mononoke is intended as a sequel to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (1984) which depicts a post-apocalyptic world composed of expanding dead-zones”(Mountfort,2020). In Nausicaa, the narrative dividing the relationship between man and nature into a dichotomy of good and evil has drawn much criticism. So the director has come to think again about the relationship between man and nature. Later, he publishes Princess Mononoke to address this simplification with the more sophisticated treatment of the theme. His newly defined relationship between man and nature is that neither is absolute good nor evil and that both sides should be slightly better off in contradictory relationships.

“As far as the relationship between the natural environment and human technology is concerned, in particular, this is alternately addressed in a utopian vein emphasizing prospects of peace and regeneration, and in a pragmatic mode that accepts the inevitability of technology even in scenarios of relative harmony between humankind and nature”(Cavallaro,2015). When humans develop technology, the destruction of the environment is inevitable, and real human happiness cannot be achieved unless the technology is developed to protect nature perfectly. It is the contradiction they have. Acknowledging this contradictory relationship, the director emphasizes the constant effort to help each other move to a better state.

References

Cavallaro, D. (2015). The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. McFarland.

Mountfort. (2020.). Pop Genres_Anime 1_Akira [PPT]. Aut: Blackboard.