Week 6

What is the underlying thematic of Princess Mononoke?
How does it ‘defamiliarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?
(i think two questions are related to each other quite close, so i answered these as one question)

Before I read Napier`s article, the definition of traditional Japanese culture took my mind, but Napier has displayed an excellent work, analyzing the Anime Princess Mononoke which shapes our point of view while I see things about the nature and human society and the female condition in Japan.
In the texts, I think there are the underlying thematic that haunting on the reader’s mind, the changes in identity for the Japanese audience, which can also be seen as subversion and defamiliarization, in which the myth of the feminine as long suffering and supportive and the myth of the Japanese as living in harmony with nature, often expressed through a union of the feminine with the natural. Also, the film defamiliarize conventional notions of the Japanese history through Miyazaki’s decision to set the film during the fourteenth century Muromachi period and his subsequent subversion of conventional expectations concerning the time is about. To make a detailed analysis about this change, we have to come to the story itself.

The defamiliarization first lies in the history subversion. The story begins with such backgrounds, “Long ago, this country was covered by deep forests in which, from ancient times, there lived the gods.” This gives our audience a sense of myth. One day, the forests’ pristine interior is ravaged by the sudden grating movement of tree falling, caused by the boar ghosts. After attacking human, the young lord Ashitaka was embodied by the ghost. So he started to find the solutions. One the road, he encountered Shishigami forest and the Tatara, where the boar ghosts were produced. Also the factory produced guns, which is a subversion of history rather than swords, playing a major part in this supposedly medieval setting. This kind of action resembles to the classic Paradise Lost, in which Satan’s troops use cannon to fight against the god. Therefore, the important battles were not between samurai or even between samurai and peasants, but between the beasts and the forests. In this sense, the battle is a symbol of the Japanese modern society, alarming that people are in danger while fighting against each other, a loss of identity.

Another undermining of traditional conventions is that Tatara is not governed by a man but by a woman, Lady Eboshi, who has constructed Tatara as a utopian refuge for outcast women and people with incurable illnesses like leprosy. She is pitted not only against the forest creatures but against another female human, San, who is the possessed princess of the title. In this sense, female plays a fairly important role in the film, which is quite diversified from the tradition. In traditional Japan, female is always suppressed by the male mainly in the mind. They are an appendix to a man, serving her husband for a life and such tradition has lasted for a thousand years. The film subverts the tradition with the woman warrior or princess leading the head to fight and even can be the savior.


Finally, with reference to Cavallaro (2006), what distinguishes Mononoke technically as being – it is generally agreed – a great work of anime?

In Cavallaro’s article, he analyzes the film from a full- ranged vision of content, spirit and technique. In the contents, he believes that the success of the film is the film’s tremendous popularity in its homeland, which is undoubtedly Japan’s fascination with legend, mythology and folklore, and its population’s ongoing devotion to the earliest collections of traditional tales. Also, he believes that destiny in the film means evoking a sense of release, freedom or levity- fight. Besides, the work is for him a masterpiece with amount of personal myth and a complex interwoven plot attracting audiences. The characters refreshment in the film is successful for they have embodied the kinds of spirit of human.
In the sense of spirit, the film is increasingly new and overwhelming phenomena that mark nature’s awakening or the alternation of light and darkness. Also, the film is an entrance to both eastern and western cultures with the accepted approach of display.
Finally, relying on the high- tech improvement cooperated with the software giant Microsoft, Studio Ghibli’s CGI Department and the film combines 3D Rendering, morphing, particles, digital composition, texture mapping, and the digital painting. All these techniques are used for a splendid display for the audiences in vision. Above all, Cavallaro acknowledged the success of the film on this basis.

Reference List:

Cavallaro, D. (2006). The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. (pp. 120-130). London: McFarland & Company.

Cavallaro, D. (2006b). Frame of Reference. In The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki (pp. 15-28). London: McFarland & Company. [From Week 5 Critical Reader.]

Napier, S. (2005). The anime: from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.