What genre or genres is Princess Mononoke? How does it relate to its ‘prequel,’ Nausicaā ?
It is the most remarkable result of Hayao Miyazaki’s macroscopic stories, and a work that perfectly represents his ideas. This is considered one of the best works in animation history. There are also dramatic elements of the main character’s internal conflict, mental growth, awakening to the world surrounding him, and the nature of adventure elements that venture as they leave west to solve their curses. It is an animation that contains various discourse under the big ecological theme of symbiosis between nature and human beings.

Nausicaa is the only person in the film, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, who can represent both human and natural positions. She strives for human survival, but on the other hand, she also struggles to tell the truth of nature and bring about coexistence. It was drawn in such an ideal way. In this regard, “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” withholds a strong comparison to “Princess Mononoke”. 

In “Princess Mononoke”, there is no one like Nausicaa, who is a perfect idealist that represents everyone’s position. Ashitaka is a human being who can communicate with animals, but as a result, he has failed to obtain consent from the villagers for his view of nature.

San is a person who grew up with wolves in nature but was not trusted by all the members of nature in “Princess Mononoke”. A herd of wild boars and their chief, Okkoto-nushi, represent the idea that San was not trusted. Unlike the nature of “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”, nature in “Princess Mononoke” is portrayed as something that can act exclusively at any time for survival.

Humans can’t unconditionally define themselves as absolute evils due to the construction of an ideal society that returns by destroying nature. This is a rare sight in the world of Nausicaa. Alternatively, the pattern of the ending is different. With Ashitaka’s efforts to somehow stop the fight, San becomes a little closer to humans, and Eboshi admits to her own mistakes and vows to make a better village. That’s why the problem-solving method, such as taking a slow step forward rather than solving the dramatic problems that Nausicaä’s sacrifice brings, was not only more realistic, but also ignited the possibility of continued development in the future.

1. What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Shoujo (romanised as shōjo) literally translates to English as “young woman.” A genre designed to aim itself at the female demographic which, “Unlike boys’ and men’s manga [known as shounen (or shōnen)], which tend to revolve around action or humor, shōjo manga are intensely personal in nature.” (Thorn, 2005.) Shoujo manga and anime usually cover subject genres like romance and slice of life within a realistic setting.

Now the line can be very thin in deciding which genre certain manga and anime fall into, as an example ‘My Hero Academia’ is about a young boy who is born enters a new school with his new “quirk” (which is the world’s term for a superpower). He meets other teens with their own unique quirks as they become a team to protect the innocent people of this world. Versus ‘Beyond the Boundary,’ which follows a high-school boy who is genetically half-demon and his encounters with a girl of a ‘cursed blood’ clan. Together, they battle the demons of their world and their personal problems.

‘My Hero Academia’ falls into the shounen line because the arcs focus more on the action battles and how the characters will escape unscathed. They have strong bonds with each other- focusing big on the strained relationship between Midori Crane and Katsuki Bakugo- and certain episodes will focus on their interactions with one another. However, the big draw in is the action. All of their quirks and how they play into the fights, how the animation will show them in all their glory.

Whereas, ‘Beyond the Boundary’ arcs focus more on the character’s relationships rather than the worldly risks. The biggest being the relationship between Akihito Kanbara and Mirai Kuriyama, and how the two naturally progress into a romantic relationship.

All in all, Shoujo stories are likely those from the romance genre focusing specifically on young love, such as From Me to You (Kimi ni Todoke), Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun), and Saint Tail (Kaitou Saint Tail). Or has a focus on female friendships, like Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium), and A Place Further Than The Universe (Sora yori mo Tooi Basho).

References:

Toku, M. (2005). Shojo manga: Girl power! Chico Statements Magazine. https://web.archive.org/web/20111010233300/www.csuchico.edu/pub/cs/spring_06/feature_03.html

Thorn, R. M. (2001). What are Shoujo manga? The Japan Quarterly. https://web.archive.org/web/20070219032133/matt-thorn.com/shoujo_manga/japan_quarterly/index.html

Scully, R. (2015). What is Shoujo? SourceFedNERD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-8jpZ2GEOs

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

It can be argued that Princess Mononoke (1997) combines two genres – fantasy and historical fiction. The film is set during the Muromachi era of Japan, which stretched from the 12^th to 14^th century, and was a time of the both great cultural and artistic growth for Japan, and the growth of industries such as agriculture and construction. This is made expressed in large part through the visual aesthetics of the film, such as in the design of the characters (especially characters of certain ‘classes’ such as the brothel women and the ainu) and the architecture of the buildings. From here, however, director Miyazaki divorces the film from it’s historical base and introduces aspects of fantasy, such as spirits and Japanese mythological figures, such as the shishigami (deer god) and kodama (forest spirits). Not only mythological figures, Miyazaki’s representations of them within Mononoke are unique in themselves, furthering the ‘fantasy’ element of Mononoke and creating, ‘an essentially personal mythology’. (Cavallaro, 2006, pp. 120-130)

In comparison, Nausicaa leans further into the ‘fantasy’ genre, lacking the specific historical base that Mononoke has, but with the two films sharing similar fantastical elements, particularly with regards to the creatures and animals the characters encounter, and their relations with them; a comparison could be made between Nausicaa, with her ability to communicate with animals, and San, who has been raised among the animals and treats them as her own family. However, the story of Nausicaa does draw partly from the character of the same name featured in Homer’s Greek epic the ‘Odyssey’ along with Japanese mythology featuring a girl who could speak to animals – another example (or early instance of, given the timelines of the two films) of Miyazaki creating his ‘personal mythology’ from pieces of real-world culture, similar to how he does within Mononoke.(Cavallaro, 2006, pp. 47-57)

While fantasy appears to be the main genre shared between the two texts, both also share similar themes that feature heavily enough in the films (and many of Miyazaki’s other works) that one could argue for them to be considered a genre of their own. ‘Ecofiction’ is a contemporary term for a genre (or ‘supergenre’) that covers texts in which nature or the environment play an integral role. (Dwyer, 2010, pp. 1-8) This rings true for both Mononoke and Nausicaa. Nausicaa takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting where the land has been made toxic through extreme pollution and is now overrun but giant, mutated insects. On the other hand, Mononoke focuses on the conflict between the industrialist Irontown and the various gods of the forest which the town is destroying and killing. Both films focus heavily on the relationship between man and the environment, and seem to have the aim of making the audience keenly aware of this relationship, through showing cycles of behaviour (as seen in Nausicaa, where war-mongering and industrialism of the ‘new’ society seems set about to bring the same destruction that the old did) and a distinct disconnect between human society and nature, often represented by spirits and gods (as seen in Mononoke, with the conflict between the people of Irontown and the forest spirits and, ultimately, the beheading of the deer god). (Morgan, 2015)

References

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers.

Dwyer, J. (2010). Where the Wild Books are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction. Reno: University of Nevada Press.

Morgan, G. (2015). Creatures in Crisis: Apocalyptic Environmental Visions in Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities 2 (3), 172-183.

Within this blog I will be discussing what exactly is ‘shōjo’ and how does it function in anime. I will be mentioning Princess Mononke, Sasameki Koto, and Slow Start.

As mentioned in the previous blog anime contains a multitude of genres specifically directed at an audience. ‘shōjo’ or Shoujo refers to target teenage female readers and viewers “the transitional stage between infancy and maturity, and its admixture of sexlessness and budding eroticism” (Cavallaro, 2006).

However, at the same time, Shojo manga and anime’s main appeal is the teenage female as Dani Cavallaro points out that Japanese males are a significant number among the shojo audience (Cavallaro, 2006). It is through this, once again, an individual realises the vast expanse of the anime and manga medium.

Because while shojo can contain deeper more philosophical theories about the nature of life itself such as the anime Princess Mononoke, which attempts to depict humanities relationship with nature, and the difficulty of finding a balance between the two, as they battle each other the humans can be seen as honourable through the character Ashitaka who stands out as a human who wants to rebuild while at the same time as greedy seen through the depiction of jigo a character who would even blaspheme as he poses as a monk to gain an opportunity(Miyazaki, 1997). While nature can be majestic yet kind as we see Moro the wolf god who acts as an adoptive mother to the human San while at the same time not immune to corruption as seen through the boar god Nago (Miyazaki, 1997).

You can also find the kawaii sub-genre depicting female characters as cutely innocent and often shy in Slow Start the anime the main character Ichinose Hana is shy and along with other characters is cute, wears school uniforms, and just go about their day in a way that is cute (Hashimoto,2018). That’s the basis of the anime. No large growth no deeper meaning.

Still in the shojo subgenre one will also find shojo-ai a genre showing the “girls love” trope in which romance starts to form between female characters (Cheeky Kid, updated January 2018) like in the anime series Sasameki Koto or Whispered Words where main characters Sumika and Ushio evolve their longstanding friendship into a relationship (Suganuma, 2009). The audience watches the relationship evolve and imagines a world where two female characters love can be accepted in 2009 japan when in 2019 the OECD society at a glance still shows japan as having an overall low acceptance of LGBT people (OECD, 2019).

To bring this blog to a close shojo refers to young females in regards to anime and manga it refers to the target audience of young females and they do attempt to appeal to their audience however connected to the targeted young female is also a large group of male consumers. I believe one could probably conclude this can be both true because the shojo subgenre has many branching subgenres from it such as kawaii, shoujo-ai, and many more not mentioned in my blog.

References

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. in the anime art of hayao miyazaki (pp.5-13). London: McFarland & Company

Hashimoto, Y(dir). (2018). Slow start. Japan: Tokyo MX, GYT, GTV, BS11, TVA, KTV

McFarland & Company.Cheeky Kid (auth). (updated January 2018). A complete list of anime genres with explanations. Retrieved from https://reelrundown.com/animation/Anime-Genre-List

Miyazaki, H (dir). (1997). Princess Mononoke. Japan: Toho

OECD. (2019). Society at a glance 2019: how does japan compare?. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/japan/sag2019-japan-en.pdf

Suganuma, E (dir). (2009).  Whispered Words. Japan: TV Tokyo

What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Shojo is a genre of Anime or Manga that has a primary target audience of young girls with a focus on relationships romantic and personal, Shojo can also be taken in the literal meaning of girl or young girl.

The function of the ‘shojo’ in anime, one could say that they serve as a symbol of the changes that occur in modern society Naiper (2005) while depending on the genre of the anime they serve different purposes in context of the show or manga just like western comics writers such as Herge wrote the females in limited capacity in tin tin and used as nuisances with the only female character of real note being Madam Castafiore, The same could be said for anime Shojo and Josei anime and manga focus closely on females and they’re personal relationships while Ecchi anime using them more for erotic purposes where their main purpose is providing Fan Service. Ecchi can be found in most Shonen or Seinen anime as they have a primarly male audience.

Shojo anime normally traverses through a girls first love one that springs to mind is Maid Sama! a light hearted romantic comedy shojo anime that i have personally watched 2 or 3 times it is an anime where the FML(Female Lead) is the MC(Main Character) and she is the Student Council President at a recently co-ed male school and is trying to clean up the schools image to get more females to attend maintaining a strict attitude with the male students being coined as a demon while also on the contrary working part time as a maid waitress due to her families financial situation where the ML(Male Lead) then finds out while having a bad reputation at school and keeps it a secret to toy with her as they slowly fall in love. The purpose of Shojo is to provide a relatable but simplified version of a female that one could relate to while giving a back seat for the male characters which in some cases will not exist in any real capacity such as Madoka Magicka which explores a more Physiological side with an all female cast.

Napier, S. J. (2005). Anime from Akira to Howl’s moving castle: Experiencing contemporary Japanese animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

7. In what ways might Akira, Nausicaā and Mononoke be considered prescient?

Akira, Nausicaä and Mononoke are all considered anime classics with a darker themes and important messages, but how are they prescient? Well, in one way or another they all predict the future of humanity.
Let’s start with Akira. This dystopian science fiction masterpiece first saw the light of day as a manga in 1982, Akira is created by Katsuhiro Otomo who later made the movie with the same name. Akira was first shown on the big screen in 1988 and is still a popular and important movie (Schley, n.d). Akira has been a source for inspiration for movies, TV series, music videos and fashion designers (Chu, 2018).
In Akira we see how humanity destroys itself with technology (Anderson, 2019), we see the long-lasting effect of nuclear destruction and all its consequences. The world of Akira is a world of conflict, from small disputes between friends to police violence and people protesting in the streets. The authorities are quick to fire their weapons and terrorists swift to blow things up (Carlin, 2018). The conflicts between the police and people protesting in the street is still the reality we face today.
“World of Akira foretells Olympics’ demise” is the headline of an article written by Etienne Balmer (2020). Balmer writs about how the 2019 world of Akira foretold that the Olympics would be cancelled when hosted by Japan. Although this is an interesting thought, the article reads:
So is “Akira” a prophecy of the future?
Morikawa believes it is more like a “reinterpretation of the recent past (post-war Japan), projected onto a fictional near future”… These included the 1964 Olympics, when Japan re-announced itself to the world from the rubble of World War II, as well as the student revolutions of 1968, the authoritarian governments of the time and the frantic redevelopment of Tokyo (Balmer, 2020).
The Olympics in Akira may be the government trying to regain their glory, much like today where Japan wanted to show that they had recovered after being hit by natural disasters and a nuclear meltdown. Another interesting thing that Balmer (2020) points out is that in the manga you can see a news headline reading “The World Health Organization criticises the measures taken against the pandemic.” Which at the moment hits pretty close to home with the Covid-19 virus roaming the earth. Matthieu Pinon dismisses this as an aesthetic and something that adds to the atmosphere in the world Akira is set in (Balmer, 2020).
Nausicaä is one of Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpieces, it hit the screen in 1984 and is described as a “epic science fantasy adventure film” though Anderson (2019) calls the film a “post-apocalyptic package”. The story in Nausicaä takes place 1000 years after humankind almost destroyed the planet, and to be fair the planet is still at the brink of destruction (Anderson, 2019).
Mononoke is also a film by Hayao Miyazaki and although it’s made in 1997 it can be viewed as a prequel to Nausicaä. Mononoke evolves around the same themes as Nausicaä, we see humans VS nature, destruction, pollution and war and the biggest difference would be the time the movies are set in. Erica Russell (2017) writes that Mononoke is more important today than ever before, that the film tells us to protect the environment and shows how the human ego can destroy the world with war, pollution, deforestation, climate change and so on.
I think we can look at all three movies as warnings about how humans are balancing on a thin line between saving and killing the planet. Akira shows us how war, technology and ‘messing around with nature’ can be our downfall. Mononoke shows us how we can fix things, take care of nature and live in harmony while Nausicaä shows us what could happened if we don’t take heed and listen to the warning in the first two.

Sources:

Anderson, K. (2019, March 8). Miyazaki’s NAUSICAÄ is the Best Anime We Never Talk About. Nerdist.com.
https://nerdist.com/article/nausicaa-miyazaki-35th-anniversary/

Balmer, E. (2020, March 28). World of Akira foretells Olympics’ demise. Asia Times.
https://asiatimes.com/2020/03/world-of-akira-foretells-olympics-demise/

Carlin, M. (2018, August 29). The Future Is Now: “Akira” at Thirty. Mubi.com.
https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/the-future-is-now-akira-at-thirty

Chu, H. (2018, July 14). Why the pioneering Japanese anime ‘Akira’ is still relevant 30 years later. The Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/why-the-pioneering-japanese-anime-akira-remains-relevant-30-years-later/2018/07/12/b7577c74-813f-11e8-b851-5319c08f7cee_story.html

Russel, E. (2017, July 12). Why Princess Mononoke is even more relevant 20 years later. Dazed Digital.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/36735/1/why-princess-mononoke-is-even-more-relevant-20-years-later

Schley, M. (n.d). ‘Akira’: Looking back at the future. The Japan Times.
https://features.japantimes.co.jp/akira-new/

Usher, T. (2016, September 22). How ‘Akira’ Has Influenced All Your Favourite TV, Film and Music. Vice.com
https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/kwk55w/how-akira-has-influenced-modern-culture

WEEK 5 ANIME  

1. What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime? 

The Japanese word shōjo (also spelt shoujo) means “little female” in English and generally refers to an age range from 12 to 13, subsequently adolescent girls between the transitional stage of childhood and adulthood (Cavallaro, 2006). Motherhood is regarded as adulthood and considered the defining characteristic in the traditional sense of identity for many Japanese woman.  

Manga (Japanese comic) and Anime (Japanese animation) are conventionally categorized in terms of their target audience age and gender. Shoujo refers to a specific type of genre targeted at adolescent young girls aged from 10 – 18 told through the viewpoint of a young girl on themes that would appeal to this demographic. Some of these themes are romance or first love, growing up, finding oneself, friendships, fantasy and magic. Many narratives are “dark”, dealing with violence, psychological disturbance and philosophical themes and many shoujo tend to battle some internal and/or external conflict.  

Notable traits of shoujo heroines are innocent, naive, shy, have an inferiority complex, a purity that brings out the goodness of others, stand up for friends and others, cope with loss, lighthearted, romantic and magical.  

A good example of shoujo is the timeless classic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984, by Hayao Miyazaki one of Japan’s most revered anime directors and co-founder of Studio Ghibli (Japanese Disney), (Mountfort 2020). The story is set after a world war 1,000 years ago that destroyed much of the Earth and the fast-spreading Toxic Jungle threatens the lives of the last humans. Nausicaa is a 16-year-old princess of the Valley of the Wind who works always for the good of all including animal welfare, the environment and human rights. She discovers that the jungle is detoxing itself and that people should not interfere with what nature is doing on its own. Some people don’t listen, so she sacrifices herself to help everyone else even the Ohmu, giant insects that guard the Toxic Jungle  It is prescient in foretelling the collapse of industrial civilization, the environment and scarcity of resources filled with strong anti-war, anti-pollution and eco messages. Nausicaa is depicted as very independent, strong-willed action heroine and acts as a kind of mediator between Man and Nature. (Mountfort, 2020). 

REFERENCES  

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction.In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp.11-13). London: 

McFarland & Company. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

Mountfort, P. (2020). Popular Genres_2020_Week5_Anime 2 [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

Napier, S. (2005). Anime and Local/Global Identity. In Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle (pp.15-34). Hampshire: Palgrave/Macmillan. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/ 

Week 5 – What is the ‘shōjo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Hayao Miyazaki, born January 5^th, 1941 in Tokyo, is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, screenwriter, author and manga artist. His work has acclaimed critical and popular success not just in Japan but in the western world and is thought to be one of the most influential animated filmmakers. His first major success in the film industry came when Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind) was released, a story about a reluctant female warrior on her journey through an ecologically ravaged world. Nausicaa is a type of “eco-fable” telling the story of the collapse of the industrial world, with a premonition type narrative. Its themes include anti-war and anti-pollution, taking a stand against the industrialization and war fueled tendencies of the 20^th century.

Connecting to Nausicaa, one of Miyazaki’s most other acclaimed works is Princess Mononoke, which is 1997 anime epic historical fantasy animated by Studio Ghibli. It is a period drama set in the late Muromachi period of Japan, with incorporated fantasy elements. The story follows a young female warrior; Ashitaki, and her involvement in the struggle between the supernatural guardians of the forest and the humans who consume its resources. Princess Mononoke is considered to be a prequel/sequel to Nausicaa in terms of thematic setting, and according to Miyazaki Princess Mononoke portrays the intended message in a more concise way.

One of the most important defining features of Miyazaki’s movies is the role of the shojo. Most of his stories are built around independent, strong willed female characters who possess a lot of agency and usually are only adolescents. These female characters take on the traditional male roles in storytelling and embody the qualities of a heroine, redefining the ideal of the hero’s journey. Example of the shojo in Nausicaa is Nausicaa herself, who is a young warrior who must defend her homeland, the Valley of the Wind, and has to exercise diplomacy between other kingdoms in order to avoid the outbreak of a full on war. She faces war, death, deforestation and environmental issues along with the uncertain fate of her people. In order to resolve these issues, she must use her diplomatic skills and rely on her scientific knowledge, something that up until that point wasn’t prominent for female characters. Another important point is that there is no romance involved in her story; Miyazaki allows for her to remain a strong female character who is oriented by their career, beliefs and leadership.

Because of how women are portrayed in Miyazaki’s storytelling, strong willed and in charge of their own fate, he is considered to be a feminist. His female characters are often in a position of power and engage with serious issues, along with possessing the tendency to save the ecosystem or the world. He has compared to Walt Disney in terms of being a prolific and celebrated animator, but the way female protagonists are represented is vastly different. While Disney created infamous princesses, whose existence revolved around meeting prince charming. According to Toshio Suzuki, the president of Studio Ghibli: “Miyazaki is a feminist, actually. He has this conviction that to be successful, companies have to make it possible for their female employees to succeed too. You can see this attitude in PRINCESS MONONOKE. All characters working the bellows in the iron works are women. Then there’s PORCO ROSSO. Porco’s plane is rebuilt entirely by women.”

References : Pyun, S. (2016) Miyazaki Movies: Proving Feminism Sells Since 1984 https://comicsverse.com/miyazaki-movie-feminism-sells/

Question 4: Looking at Napier and Cavallaro (2006), discuss how anime is culturally ‘located’ – in the East or West, or somewhere else?

In terms of narrative structure anime does not abide by the same structure as western narratives typically do. In a western made movie, the character(s) will typically go through three stages in their journey. They tend to start with introducing the character and outlining the predicament they are in. Following on from this the character will go through a series of complicated events, and then end with those series of complications coming to a head and being resolved (Cavallaro, 2006). Whereas anime tends to span over several years or over a much longer timeline than a western narrative. Anime tend to be minimal in the amount they introduce the characters and where we find them (Cavallaro, 2006). Miyazaki described it best when he said “I gave up on making a happy ending in the true sense a long time ago. I can go no further than the ending in which the lead character gets over one issue for the time being” (Cavallaro, 2006, p. 6). The intention that Eastern narratives have is different from westerners. Anime is often focused on a target audience, Japanese audiences find messages within anime familiar and somewhat relatable. According to Alessandro Bencivenni, this may be why Akira was not fully appreciated by western audiences. The combination of what may have been ignorance or just detachment from some themes within Akira, and then the lack of explanation within the movie may have confused or deterred Westerners from enjoying Akira and therefore further anime (Cavallaro, 2006). 

In terms of geography, anime is huge in Japan. In 1988, it is estimated that 40% of studio releases were animated, and by 1999 that had increased to 50% (Napier, 2005). As well as on film, anime TV shows were a big proponent to what was on during all times of the day, from kid friendly anime in the morning, to more edgy teenage anime in the later part of the evening (Napier, 2005). This popularity however has not always been around, it was properly established post war, with significant films coming out such as Astro Boy in 1963. Simply put, the West just does not have this history and wealth of anime that Japan and other Eastern countries have. This may be because the West has Hollywood and Japanese anime has to battle for a place amongst the oncoming onslaught of American blockbusters (Napier, 2005). 

Despite the distinctness the West and the East can have around anime. A new theory has been posited. Maybe anime is borrowing elements of Westerners animation and film, and it seems that Westerners are being influenced by Japanese anime as well. For example, the Disney classic ‘The Lion King was seen to be heavily influenced by an anime called ‘Kimba the White Lion’. As well as Japanese animators and producers being influenced by Western culture and fashions (Napier, 2005).        

References 

Cavallaro, D. (2006). Introduction. In The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp. 5-13). McFarland & Company.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: From Akira to Howl’s moving castle. Palgrave Macmillan.              

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

Princess Mononoke (1997) is directed by Miyazaki as a Studio Ghibli production, for which the film was said to be a high grossing film of its time. The release of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) set a leap forward for Miyazaki in the animated film industry.

The presence of unconventional themes such as the coexistence of a natural order and humans in villages suggest a fantasy genre for Princess Mononoke (1997) (Mountfort, 2020). Miyazaki also attempted to undermine two prominent Japanese cultural myths in the film, those being the myth of feminine subserviency and the myth of nature and humans living in complete harmony (Napier, 2001). Miyazaki also attempts to confront the conventional notion of the plot setting by setting Princess Mononoke in the Muromachi period; this particular era was said to be a climacteric period in Japanese landscape, along with increasing literature and arts (Napier, 2001). However it can be seen that the fantasy theme involved mystical creatures such as the forest god and the soul-manifesting demon, and the constant environmental destruction that accrued from human counterparts (Napier, 2001; Mountfort, 2020). Feminine character portrayals are stronger, warrior-like, and are roles with their own, powerful voices. Such examples are San, who is a warrior girl brought up by wolves, and Lady Eboshi, who leads a homogenous village, but is evil as she seeks to eliminate the forest god (Napier, 2001; Mountfort, 2020). Miyazaki’s realm in Princess Mononoke challenges countless, conventional notions, its highlight being its protagonists are marginals of the conventional Japanese society (Napier, 2001). Women and nonhuman tribes are leading roles in the film, and ancient gods with close linkage to nature are brought to life (Napier, 2001).

Nausicaä’s themes are mainly eco-fable, collapse of a civilisation and environment. Themes of anti-warfare and anti-violence are direct messages posited, and the most notable character, that being an independent shōjo, which is the opposite of the shojo stereotype (Mountfort, 2020). The film deconstructs the stereotype of a weakened feminine character; the heroine of the film is a strong-willed saviour that is ready to sacrifice for the future of her people if not the world (Mountfort, 2020). Nausicaä portrays the divide between the good and the evil through criticism, but Princess Mononoke primarily addresses the issue in hand through various plots (Mountfort, 2020).Despite the differences in setting of the two films, Princess Mononoke can be seen as a thematic prequel of Nausicaä; the themes of fate of the world and people, waging warfare and individual character development are indicators of the film being a prequel of Nausicaä (Cavallaro, 2015).

Both productions by Miyazaki suggest the everlasting conflict of humans and nature; the existence of endless development in technology prove the inevitability of destruction and collapse of the two (Cavallaro, 2015). Miyazaki posited that his plots are crafted as subliminal messaging into young minds, suggesting to bridge the coexistence of two contrasting forces and find a way to cohabitate (Mountfort, 2020). Not only did the films inspire the young audience, they were successful with mature audiences as well.

References

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

Mountfort, P. (2020). Pop Genres_2020_Week5_Anime #2 [PowerPoint slides].https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/

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