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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 completed Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke, 1997). Miyazaki's Nausicaä, 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 explore the meaning of humanity, destruction, and hope. When Miyazaki began writing Nausicaä in 1982, the story was simply based on a polarized view of humanity versus nature. As he continued to write the story throughout the 1980s, Miyazaki recognized the complexity of the theme and was inspired to take on a more ambiguous view of humanity. Upon the conclusion of Nausicaä, Miyazaki showed that a perfect coexistence between the man and nature is virtually impossible. Thirteen years after animating Nausicaä, Mononoke Hime proves to be the 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, when war raged between the Tatara (a town of working class people led by the 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 attempts to persuade 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 goal to give the disadvantaged a place in society. However, 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 the audience to make the judgment.
Although Mononoke Hime took three years to animate, the film essentially took thirteen years to evolve from Nausicaä. At best, Mononoke has been called "a powerful compilation of Miyazaki's world, a cumulative statement of his moral and filmic concern; at worst, [some 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 constant in all of his creations, as he has 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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