Princess Mononoke

What is the ‘shojo’ and how does it often function in anime?

Genre: Anime

Princess Mononoki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese Anime film director of Spirited away, Howl’s moving castle.

There are two powerful females in this film - Lady Eboshi  and Princess Mononoke herself.
This film has various factions in it which was eclipsed by other characters.

The word ‘anime’ is not only the short form of animation but it represents the cartoons that have originally developed by Japan.  When 'Princess Mononoke' arrived, it smashed the distinction, of high culture and low culture. Academics, people, children and everybody loved it. 

Before, there were disney cartoons which was famous for animation films, "Westerners raised on a culture of children's cartoons may find anime's global popularity suprising.
'Princess Mononoke'  was the popular film ever made in Japan. It was special because it didn't have Western culture in it like Walt Disney's animation films. Miyazaki himself wandered weather children would understand the film. He says, “I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney because they made so many uninteresting films. They became very conservative in the way they created them. It's too bad. I thought 2-D and 3-D could coexist happily.”    

It forms center of cultural resistance against the dominant American culture. Disney films are mainly designed for children. But Miyazaki made the film to capture adults so it has deepening of problematic themes and interests. 

 
A turning point of the story when something vital changes, either to the story or the reader's / the character perspective of the story. Man’s separation from nature.

He master/manipulated the audience as he directed.

Princess Mononoke is a little girl 'Shojo' who was raised by a wolf mother.‘Shojo’ (少女) is a Japanese word which represents little female. 

There is a crucial statement, “This is a story of the battle between humanity and the wild gods.” The movie became a turning point in the history.

Lady Eboshi is a strong female character, morally,  she is the representative of modern industrialism and future of a mankind. She made guns and destroy the forest but it is hard to call her a bad woman, because she is a character for empowering women. She could be the feminist representative.  At the ending, she try to re-build island town which makes it even better. Ashitaka (the hero and stead) joins her.  The ending is ambiguous and comprised. Lady Eboshi and Irontown

She is brave enough to shoot Forest God's Head.

He cannot marry her because she is a half-wolf and a human worlds are different. She would go back to the forest. There is no conventional happy ending in this film.

Focus of the film is raising the issue of a mankind and environment (for example, viewers can see the forest and animals in the beginning) is a fundamental theme. 

"But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself." Rachel Carson

The separation/destruction from environment. Still  is a issue even worse than when the film was made. A Gothic fiction novel such as Frankenstein demonstrate same kind of fear. The sudden growing of machines and civilization made the fear. Metaphors and symbols moved by spectacle. 

Reference

Princess Mononoke Trailer. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkWWWKKA8jY

Quote by Hayao Miyazaki: “I think 2-D animation disappeared from Disney b...”. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/19389-i-think-2-d-animation-disappeared-from-disney-because-they-made