Anime Review: Mononoke Hime
Mononoke Hime
Imagine being a loving prince, the last prince of your people. One day, you kill a giant god turned demon and get a curse. What would you do? Would you let yourself die, or try to stop the curse? In this anime, Mononoke Hime, also known as Princess Mononoke, a young boy, named Ashitaka goes out to find what caused this curse. While he journeys, he finds two men knocked out near a river. He helps them, and then hears something I the distance. As he goes over quietly, he sees a girl, and 3 wolves. They don't like Ashitaka, and tell him to "GO AWAY!" After rescuing the men, he lives in "Irontown", and yes, they do make iron. He meets a Lady named Eboshi Gozen who tries to kill the forest. Later, Ashitaka learns that the girl was a Princess named Mononoke, but her real name is "San". Eboshi wants to find the Forest spirit, to kill it and take it's head, but what she does not know is that a war between humans, animals, and other humans is about to take place in one forest.
The artwork in this anime is amazing. The scene where Ashitaka is first riding on his yam, Yukkul, was the best shading I've seen in a while. Then when I first saw the demon, it looked like it came right from the Beatle's movie "Yellow Submarine". It was all "like psychedelic dude" The action scenes were above average. They must have been busier than Grand Central Station, making this film.
The music in this film wasn't classical, like you might expect from Evangelion (never mind, I just can't get over the fact that they used classical music for EVA). This music doesn't really have a genre. It's like the music you would find in .hack//sign. The background music always set the mood for the scene, whether it was a great samurai battle scene, or a peaceful scene. They really had a great composer.
Mononoke Hime, which was the top grossing film in Japan, gets an Excellent. If you haven't seen this yet, go out and rent or but it. You can also watch it on HBO, Starz, Encore, or the Action Channel. Just look at your local listings for it. These were the bast dubbings I've seen so far, and I hope you agree. Go see it! "THIS REVIEW IS NOT FOR SALE OR RENT!"