Mononoke On My Mind

Pencil sketches of two kodama in the right most box, and Yakul in the left box. From the movie Princess Mononoke.

Hawk and I had a date night and went to the theaters to watch Princess Mononoke.

Seeing this in IMAX 4k was shocking. I had no idea the movie could look this good. But thinking about it now, I think the last time I saw it was on a CRT TV. Literally one of the ones teachers roll out into a classroom. Because that's literally how I watched it the first time.

Our Italian teacher in 4th grade, who could never keep the classroom quiet, needed to grade papers. So she pulled out the CRT and played us Princess Mononoke. In Italian subtitles. A genius move. I had not learned enough Italian to really understand anything that was going on. But me and the entire class were kind of in shock. No one said anything. It really was like nothing I had seen before. I remember thinking, "The world will never look this beautiful." (For those of you wondering if I was always dramatic, here's your fucking proof).

I will say that while Mononoke is visually stunning, as a story it's a little lacking. Not bad, but kind of clunky with a sudden ending. Ashikata is the main character, but also a device for the real main characters to have their story. Which I was* totally* fine with. But it made the movie kind of funny at points where it was like, well now Ashitaka has to travel again so that the plot develops. A great excuse to look at a ton of scenery, though. The artists were FLEXING ON US with this movie.

A really fun memory watching it again brought back was early talk of Breath of The Wild. Seeing Link for the first time in blue, surrounded by nature in a green I had only really seen once before. A Ghibli movie. The Princess Mononoke inspiration was CLEAR and WELCOME. Rewatching it last night brought to mind how fun it was talking with friends about BoTW and "what it meant for gaming." (I have always been like this, I'm sorry). Over all I might re-watch this movie more often now. It makes me feel like making more art of my own.

Rod_Shark

P.S. Movies are SO FUCKING LOUD THESE DAYS??? Hawk and I both thought to buy earplugs before the movie. We got the foam ones. WOW, what a great decision. I felt the sound in my CHEST, but my ears were totally fine. A comfortable volume. Insanity.