Princess Mononoke (DVD)

The film is the story of a young man, Ashitaka, who must leave his village to find the cure to a curse incurred on him as he fended off an attack by a demon. The curse manifests itself as an ever-growing purple mark that began on his forearm, but then slowly spreads to the rest of his body. On top of this, anger can cause the infected areas to increase in strength, enhancing Ashitaka’s fighting abilities. During his travels he eventually comes upon a large forest where a number of the animal spirits have decided to take their last stand against the humans who have been expanding into the animal realm in the name of progress, erecting a huge ironworks. Fighting along side these animals is a girl named Mononoke whom Ashitaka eventually joins to ward off the humans, but in a very roundabout way.

The production values of the film are very high. The artwork is by very good and carves its own niche, allowing it to standout from much of the competition. Being on the DVD format the image stays very clear with no artifacts to be seen during my viewing of the film. Audio too stays nice and crisp throughout.

Voice work is an aspect of Princess Mononoke that was a pleasant surprise. While I usually gravitate towards the subtitled audio tracks, but the English voice work is actually quite good. Then again there are a number of prominent, talented actors lending their voices to the film. On top of this Neil Gaiman handled the translation work and did a very good job of it. Unlike some films where the translation is very awkward, the translation here does a good job of staying coherent making the appropriate adjustments to help alleviate confusion over culture-specific issues that would otherwise go over the heads of Westerners.

Princess Mononoke is a film well worth any anime fan’s time. Between its high production values, engaging story there is little to complain about here. If you haven’t already, set aside some to checkout this film.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash