Tsao- Princess Mononoke

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Princess Mononoke is one of the movies that I liked more on the list of anime that we have watched in class. It is such a good portrayal of some problems that we have even in today's world in regard to nature v. technology. This movie reminded me a lot of Dr. Seuss's book and movie, The Lorax. The Lorax was a little creature that lived inside a tree, until the industrialization revolution took place and cut down all of his trees so that they could use it to make other goods with it. However, The Lorax did contain much hatred and vengeance since in that story, the industries and greedy businessmen naturally learned the consequences of taking down the forest at their own cost when their future fell at their own expense.

In Princess Mononoke, however, the message was sent across through the idea of Vengeance and Hatred. Hatred drives a lot of motivation, and at times can give people a power that they did not know they had inside of them. The Wolf clan and San hate Lady Eboshi (and all humans in general), The boars also hate humans, and humans hate between themselves when their interests are conflicted as seen with the citizens of Iron Town and the samurais. This hate will be a neverending cycle if nothing is changed, and even when one side is able to defeat the other side, this hatred will just keep spreading and haunting, like the curse on Ashitaka.

A point that I want to point out is the scene of the Boars all rushing into the war with one goal in mind: to kill the humans and win the war, on behalf of their forest. They were very rash in doing so and the comment of them heading into something without thinking of it, and not stopping until the end was made in the movie when San talks to her mother about going to help the boars (after realizing it was a trap). I feel that a connection can be made with the Japanese army, in the sense that they will fight to their death even if they know they may die, for their one loyal purpose. So this scene may be pointing out that aspect of Japanese culture

Yet another  wonderful work of art from Miyazaki, for all of his movies are very sentimental and portray a very strong message. San was raised in the forest, and loves her home and her family as if she was a wolf herself. This may rise in some identity issues, but one cannot blame her for having a hard time living with and as a human. On a side note, the forest spirit;s ability to take and grant life also shows an importance of balance in our system of nature. A good movie!