Episode 50 - Princess Mononoke (1997) (with Rayna Denison)

For the podcast’s half century, Chris and Alex tackle a tale of rising tensions between nature and culture, gods and humans, by looking at Studio Ghibli’s animated fantasy feature Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997). Joining us in this battle of tradition and modernity is anime scholar Dr. Rayna Denison, Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at UEA, and author and editor of a number of books, chapters and articles on Japanese animated cinema. These include Anime: A Critical Introduction (2015) and, more recently, an anthology of essays on Princess Mononoke (2018). Listen as they discuss the exchange between the supernatural and historical fantasy (including the film’s dialogue with jidai-geki period cinema); the framing of fantasy as a form of intrusive modernity to identify threats to the magic of nature made by industrialisation; the formal overlaps between director Hayao Miyazaki and filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu through their stylistic evocation of the environment; ferocious female representation and the depiction of gendered labour; Princess Mononoke’s relationship to traditions of narrative ‘thinning’ within fantasy storytelling; and how the film’s use of digital imagery (including its application of the ‘Toonshader’ software) can be used to understand Studio Ghibli’s ambivalent relationship to computer graphics during the 1990s. As mentioned in the episode introduction, please visit the recent Fantasy/Animation blog post that offers a significant range of resources that amplify non-White voices and celebrate the creative and scholarly achievements of people of colour. These sources support vital conversations around diversity and inclusion that we will continue to hold across the website, blog and podcast.