Fun fact, I watched every one of these Ghibli movies subbed, since I saw them after a shift and our theater showed the dubbed versions earlier that the subbed versions. Honestly, I don't think it makes a significant difference, especially when it comes to Ghibli. Don't come at me anime nerds. My point is I made sure to watch the dub for Mononoke. Why? Because it was adapted by Neil Fuckin' Gaiman (pretty sure that's his middle name, complete with apostrophe) who just so happens to be my favorite writer of all time. So this movie has got to be good!
What's The Movie About?
A prince of a hidden village gets cursed, exiled, and forces his way into a conflict between two human factions and the gods of the land. Can he heal his curse, make peace between the humans and gods, as well as get together with the hot wolf girl?
What I Like.
Broken record time, the animation is fucking gorgeous. This time around I was really impressed with the fighting animation. The speed an choreography was a sight to behold I tell ya. It was also shockingly violent, which I dug the hell out of. Kinda made me wonder why there was a bunch of families in the audience, I guess anime parents don't care if their kids get traumatized. I also really dug the score. I usually don't go for instrumental pieces but it felt like every twenty minutes I was marveling at the orchestra. The story was pretty cool, but the world building was what really impressed me. It, like Spirited Away, was clearly based on Shintoism. But unlike Spirited Away I never felt like I was missing information about the world building because I didn't know much about the religion. I really liked the characterization of the different tribes of animals/forest spirits. And speaking of characters, Miyazaki writes some pretty damn good female characters doesn't he? Well, to be accurate, he write good characters regardless of gender, but I really liked the Lady of Iron Town despite her being an antagonist. And speaking of the antagonists, I really like how complex the human characters were. The monk was a scumbag yet I still got worried when it seemed like he was gonna die. When the people of Iron Town were fighting the wolves I legit didn't want either side to lose. That fight ended super fucking cool as well, the lead walking out of there was raw as hell. There were some raw as hell lines as well. The line "I'm going to show you how to kill a god. A god of life and death. The trick is not to fear them." makes me want an RPG about mortals killing gods, which is about the highest compliment I can give something. Also I wanna ride an elk.
What I Don't Like.
I feel like just saying this is going to get me looks like when San first sees Ashitaka, but I have a couple problems with this movie.
One, the message is kinda shaky. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that promoting pacifism and environmentalism is a bad thing, it's just that, to me, the gods seems completely justified in their actions. The humans are not only killing each other, but completely overstepping their bounds, destroying spirits with their consumption. All the gods want is to stop their ravaging of the land. They also tried to rebuild, but the humans wouldn't let them, that's what was driving the Apes into wanting to take up arms. Maybe doing that would get them cursed, but also the curse came from the bullets the humans made so it seems like the spirits didn't have a real choice here.
Two, and I know this makes me sound like a miserable bastard, but I wish the movie ended more nihilistically. Like, I know all the gods died, but not a single named human did. The movie should've ended with the Forest God dying in peace, and then the valley is just forever fucked. You kill the spirit of the land and nothing grows there anymore. Sorry, but you fucked up! It felt like the movie was going in a more tragic direction as well, but instead all the pretty flowers came back and everyone's like "We can rebuild!" And the two leads are together even though they should've definitely done a self-sacrifice. Speaking of that...
Three, the romance between the prince and princess is completely unnecessary. Like if you cut it out entirely the movie would have been just as good, if not better. It's really rushed and really just seems to be there to have the lead chase wolf girl for a bit, but it makes equally as much sense if he thought she knew how to get to the Forest God. Or if he was just curious about why she was siding with the wolves. Oh yeah, I guess the power of their love saved their lives at the end but that was so eyerolling my retinas twisted. I feel like Miyazaki either doesn't know how or doesn't really like writing romances. (And before you go, "What about Howl's?", according to most sources Sophie and Howl's relationship seems to be completely lifted off the page of the novel, so I have a feeling he didn't actually write that part.)
Final Summation.
Princess Mononoke is great. Obviously. Watch it. I don't have anything else to say, but since I have your attention down here, I'm gonna give you all a little bonus.
All Ghibli Movies I've Seen So Far Ranked
Real quick from worst to best:
6th: Ponyo-It's not really fair, but I'm putting Ponyo at the lowest because the last time I watched it I was like 10, and I don't remember much about it. I do remember liking it, but according to most sources 10 is like the perfect age to enjoy Ponyo. If I ever do that Ghibli marathon I'm constantly thinking about, I'll rewatch it.
5th: My Neighbor Totoro-Totoro hits me right in the nostalgia, when I rewatched it I was all curled up in my chair smiling ear to ear. But honestly, it's a "stuff just kinda happens" plot. There's not really anything wrong with that, it just suffers comparing it to more complete narratives.
4th: Spirited Away-Me putting this here is just drawing a target on my back for white people who unironically own katanas, but counterpoint: Bite me. It's good, just not goddamn mandatory viewing.
3rd: Princess Mononoke-Urgh I had a hard time between choosing between my second and third favorite Ghibli movie, but the deciding factor was creativity. Mononoke is pretty imaginative, but not compared to...
2nd: The Boy and the Heron-I liked this movie when I saw it, but after this Ghibli Month at work I like it a whole lot more. It took some time to figure out what the hell the story was supposed to be about, but I honestly think it occupying my mind for several weeks is a boon.
And 1st: Howl's Movie Castle-No duh. Look, the plot of Howl's isn't as good as the majority of this list, but Howl's has one advantage over every other movie on this list. That is that it fucks. I'm not referring to how I want Howl to fuck me, or that it's the only Ghibli movie I've seen so far with a romance that is worth anything. (I don't know if I made that clear in my review, but I really liked the romance in the movie.) I mean that it has way more personality than these other movies. The the titular character, Howl's Movie Castle has a charm and pluck that carries it over it's flaws and into my heart. Also it's goddamn sexy.
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