Week 6
What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke?
Love and violence is the eternal theme of Japanese films. Miyazaki’s film is no exception. Princess Mononoke was released in 1997; it is a very representative anime of Miyazaki. In Princess Mononoke, we can find the theme of love and violence. However, the love and violence in Princess Mononoke shows the deeply setting of thought. The main story of Princess Mononoke is about the fight between human being and animals. The contradiction between human and nature is the main clue of the whole story. The wanton exploitation of human being brings serious harm to the forest. They destroyed the ecological balance, and bring the irreparable damage to each other. Except human and nature, another contradiction is between survival and death. The leader of the Iron Town, Lady Eboshi, she destroys the forest in order to protect her people and build a good town. Actually, she did that for the survival of her people. However, and the same time, the animal and plant in the forest has died.
Another point of this film is the revenge of the animal and forest. The film saying human destroy the nature and the nature will fight back.
According to Napier, how does this anime problematise traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race?
In this film, there is just one main male character, Ashitaka. No doubt, he is a hero in this film. However, as Napier (2005) cited, “there are three important female characters in the film: Eboshi, the leader of Tatara; San, the human girl who has joined wild nature; and Moro, San’s adoptive wolf mother.” (p. 238). These female characters make the film more successful. As Napier (2005) identified cuteness is an important part of contemporary Japanese culture. Therefore, Miyazaki created female characters to show brave and violence, it makes these three characters more remarkable.
Ashitaka is Emilshi prince actually. A different race to Eboshi, however he still helps them. The revenge of the nature is regardless of race.
Reference
Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Interesting responses - you mention that "These female characters make the film more successful" it would be useful if you had followed up this good point in more detail. Also while your first response correctly identifies the thematics of PM - it wouldinteresting to include a discussion of what the literature int he critical reader states as well - and integrate this with your own excellent response.
ReplyDeleteI found your comments really interesting and totally agree with you about females making this anime more successful.i think these days females are sometimes leading the way when it comes to taking resposibility for the planet and perhaps this has somthing to do with their caring nurturing side and wanting to know that their offspring will have good future which of course can only come about if the planet on which they live is also healthy.
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