Week 6: Anime II

Finally, with reference to Cavallaro (2006), what distinguishes Mononoke technically as being – it is generally agreed – a great work of anime?


Princess Mononoke was a huge success both in its home country Japan and in the U.S. Although becoming more successful in the U.S over time, it still shows that it was a film that stood out from other Anime films and was able to capture the imagination of those of a completely different culture and background.

Princess Mononoke was a big budget film for Anime, costing $19.6 million all up. But it was clearly worth it from the success it brought. The reason why the film was such a big success was because of how authentic it was. Cavallaro explains, “Art directors Nizo Yamamoto, Naoya Tanaka, Yoji Takeshige, Satoshi Kuroga and Kazuo Oga explored thoroughly the mountain island of Yakushima, home to an exceptionally wide variety of arboreal species, as well as locales that allowed for the detailed observation of numerous light and water effects.”

“One of the principal reasons behind the film’s tremendous popularity in its homeland is undoubtedly Japan’s fascination with legend, mythology and folklore, and its population’s ongoing devotion to the earliest collections of traditional tales.” This is very evident in other Japanese Anime I have watched such as Pokemon. There is a clear fascination by the Japanese of traditional stories involving extravagant mythical creatures and admirable heroes.

Patrick Drazen maintains, “The compilation of written collections of folktales in Japan was a courtly pastime going as far back as the early twelfth century, and most of the major anthologies reprinted and read in Japan today date to between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries.”

Princess Mononoke is clearly not just any children’s film and has many aspects that can appeal to any type of audience. Grossing $3 million in the U.S it is clearly a distinguished great work of Anime.


Cavallaro, D. (2006). The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki. London: McFarland & Company.