Week 6

What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke? How does it ‘de-familiarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?

There is quite a number of underlying thematics of the Princess Mononoke narrative. These include power and governance. The struggle between the natural world and the synthetic one causes a great imbalance which is evident throughout the whole narrative. Both sides have their sights set on complete dominance of the whole entire area; including both the forest and the Tatara weapons factory. As Napier (2005) states with “undermining of traditional conventions, Tatara is not governed by a man but by a woman”, this is evidence of historical de-familiarisation. So contrary to events which took place in a male dominated historical setting, the two leaders of each opposing side of the main war were primarily female. Princess Mononoke who lead the forest creatures against Lady Eboshi from the opposing side; the human population who inhabited the Tatara village area.

Persistence was a strong theme in the film as every contributing character failed to give up upon the encounter of barriers. A perfect example was when Ashitaka was accidentally shot by one of the women in the crowd. Despite failed attempts to stop him, he managed to single-handedly push a heavy village open in order to rescue San from the Tatara villagers; despite knowing of his inevitable death which would follow.

Another important theme to consider is love, and the many forms it took in the narrative. Examples of this include the love between Princess Mononoke (aka San) and her wolf mother and the love they both have for the forest inhabitants. Included in this is the love Ashitaka develops for San. The love that Lady Eboshi has, which is not immediately obvious is that she “constructed Tatara as a utopian refuge for outcast women and people with incurable illnesses…” (Napier, 2005)

The environment was also a large focus of the story as it enabled audiences to see the destruction which resulted from the environment upgrades the likes of Lady Eboshi were aiming towards. Lady Eboshi was running a business, whereas San’s attempts were selfless acts towards saving her home and the natural order. A major de-familiarising feature includes Miyazaki’s “ability to blend the “real with the fantastic” (Napier, 2005). This takes place with “fantastic nonplaces characterized by vaguely European-style architecture and Western-looking characters” (Napier, 2005) which differs from the historical reality.

Napier, S. (2005). Anime: from Akira to Howl’s Moving Castle. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan