Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio formed in 1985 by animators and filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata Isao, as well as producer Suzuki Toshio. His art is characterized by reoccurring themes of conflict between nature and man. The narrative of Princess Mononoke revolves around a struggle between the forest gods and a mining enterprise. The natural world has the potential to be violent and vicious. It is a clash between the environment and mankind.
Daily Archives: May 17, 2022
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The clothes that the subjects in the Japanese scrolls were drawn with a lot of detail which can be seen in anime today. The clothes were also drawn with great texture up to the point where I can tell that they were wearing sokutai outfits that were worn by members of the Japanese imperial court. This level of detail and texture is what makes it possible to have anime shows solely based on food that looks better in the show than in real life. The way that the people in the Japanese scroll interact with the environment and the way that the background is drawn a little out of focus gives the scroll some depth that also shows up in anime as well.
The most well-known film from Studio Ghibli that represents the conflict between man and the natural world is Princess Mononoke. The story of Princess Mononoke is about how the peace between humans, animals, and gods would start to fall which resulted in conflict between the humans and gods. The main character, young Ashitaka, is infected and cursed by an animal attack. He is trying to seek a cure from the deer-like god Shishigami. In his travels, he sees humans devastating the earth, which results in causing anger among the wolf god Moro and his human companion Princess Mononoke. At the end of the film, Ashitaka breaks the curse and finally achieves peace between all. The film represents the Man vs Nature theme of how humanity would use its technology to destroy nature and thus the nature would punish humanity with its natural disasters.
