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 hirteen years after Hayao Miyazaki created Kaze
no Tani no Nausicaä (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, 1984),
Japan's greatest animation director finally made Mononoke Hime (Princess
Mononoke, 1997), his "sequel" to Nausicaä. As one of
the greatest directors/animators/manga writers Japan has ever produced,
Miyazaki has frequently been dubbed the "Walt Disney of Japan" (though
he probably dislikes the title himself). Miyazaki's Nausicaä of
the Valley of Wind, a film based on his epic manga series, was the
first animated feature produced by the team at Studio Ghibli. Unlike
the animated film, however, Miyazaki took twelve years to conclude
Nausicaä through seven manga volumes, whereas the animated version
only covers the first two novels. Mononoke Hime completes the unanimated
ending of the manga Nausicaä through a completely different story
that carries the same theme. Both Nausicaä and Mononoke are films
that explore the meaning of humanity, destruction, and hope. When Miyazaki
began writing Nausicaä in 1982, the story was based on a simple
black and white view of humanity/pollution versus nature. As he continued
to write the story throughout the 1980s, Miyazaki came to recognize
the complexity of this theme and was inspired to take on a more ambiguous
view of humanity. Upon the conclusion of Nausicaä, Miyazaki shows
that a perfect coexistence between the man and nature is virtually
impossible. Thirteen years after animating Nausicaä, Mononoke
Hime proves to be the thematic or spiritual sequel to Miyazaki's earlier
film.
Unlike the animated version of Nausicaä, Mononoke Hime does
not define who is "right" or "wrong" in a conflict
between man and nature. Mononoke takes place during the Muromachi
Era (1392-1573) in Japan, as war rages between the Tatara (a town
of working class people led by the cunning and fearless Lady Eboshi)
and the Animal Gods of the primal forests who worship the mysterious
Shishi-gami. A young man, Ashitaka, journeys Westward in hope to
purify himself for shedding the blood of a cursed Animal God (Tatari-gami),
but finds himself caught up in the events of the battle. Amidst the
chaos of war, Ashitaka encounters Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke/San),
a young girl who was abandoned as an infant by her parents and raised
in the wilderness by a female wolf god, Moro no Kimi. As the relationship
between Ashitaka and San deepens, the young warrior earns her trust
and tries to persuade the Princess Mononoke, who has vowed to fight
alongside the divine animals of the forest, to become "human" again.
By the end of the film, the two youths come to an understanding of
each other's worlds and strive to create a peaceful coexistence.
Miyazaki once mentioned that:
"We are not trying to solve [modern] global problems. There
cannot be a happy ending in the fight between raging gods and humans.
However, in the middle of the hatred and killings, there are things
worth living for. A wonderful meeting or a beautiful thing can exist."
In Mononoke, the Tatara developers are not portrayed as senseless
offenders of nature as they cut down trees to make steel. Their actions
are somewhat justified by their aim to give the disadvantaged a place
in society; yet, the Animal Gods of the forest have every right to
be angry. Miyazaki questions man's place in nature, but he does not
offer any answers: he wants his audience to make the judgment.
Although Mononoke Hime took three years to animate, the film essentially
took thirteen years to evolve from Miyazaki's Nausicaä. Of course,
almost two decades after the first success of Studio Ghibli, only
now is a wider audience beginning to recognize Miyazaki's works through
the Disney/Tokuma deal (giving Disney international rights to nine
animated titles from Ghibli, several of which were top box-office
hits in Japan). At best, Mononoke has been called "a powerful
compilation of Miyazaki's world, a cumulative statement of his moral
and filmic concern; at worst, [people have said] that the director
may be losing his originality in his old age." Although Mononoke
Hime proves to be more controversial and didactic than most of his
other works, Miyazaki's sense of optimism is something that remains
consistent in all of his creations, as he simply expressed:
"The world is profound, manifold and beautiful... Although
the world is beset with lots of seemingly intractable problems such
as population explosion and environmental disruptions, making it
difficult to entertain hope, it is nevertheless a wonderful thing
to live."
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