Diving Into How Production Elements Elevate Hayao Miyazaki’s "Princess Mononoke"

How Do Visual Elements Reinforce Meaning In "Princess Mononoke"?

By: Nina Borja

            Hayao Miyazaki’s film, Princess Mononoke, not only is praised for its thematic address for environmentalism but also its visual storytelling through the animation’s production elements and how it enhances Princess Mononoke’s meaning. 

             Miyazaki’s portrayal in several of the main characters tends to not fit the stereotypical box of hero or villain. This ideal is visually reinforced through Princess Mononoke’s camera planes. In fight scenes, specifically between San and Lady Eboshi, the audience sees both women depicted through upward angles. Regardless of whoever the audience sides with, both characters are shown to be strong, powerful, and convinced that their convictions are justified to win in the film’s fight scenes. It is also in many of these scenes where San and Lady Eboshi share an equal amount of close-up shots. 

            Seeing this type of horizontal plane associated with characters establishes the emotional closeness meant to further the attachments viewers create as the story advances. This strengthens the bond between the audience and the film. Audiences comprehend the full picture of what is happening without getting distracted with too much detail, compared to if these fight scenes were filmed as long shots. 

            Turning to spatial mobility, Princess Mononoke relies on lens motion, camera-head motion, and camera-based movement in order to take the audience through the mythical landscape which the film centers around. The scene where Prince Ashitaka finds the forest spirit for the first time, utilizes both the zoom and camera-head motion in order to reveal to the audience something that was not in the frame before. Panning is also put into place on the scene’s horizontal plane in order to enforce the setting and give context to the environmental theme.

      Overall, shot transitions and duration, or sequencing, play an interesting role in Princess Mononoke's visual environmental discussion. At the end of the film, Miyazaki includes dissolving transitions in order to show how the nature of the film’s setting has changed over time. To the audience, this suggests a nostalgic remembrance of how nature can contrast modern society in real life, which is the main point of the film.