Empirical vs. Normative in "Princess Mononoke"

 Princess Mononoke From the Perspective of Meaning-Making

By: Nina Borja

            A 1997 Japanese-animated feature, Princess Mononoke’s long-standing existence in the film industry allows audiences from several decades not only to view but also observe the visual animation from both an empirical and normative standpoint. Audience reviews taken from Rotten Tomatoes showcase a wide variety of objective statements and opinionated perspectives in which Princess Mononoke offered as a film.

            The PG-13 rated film was deemed a 93% on the website's Tomato-meter while Audience reviews rated the film as an overall 94%. Upon close examination, audiences tended to comment mostly on the film’s construction of visual storytelling and its overarching environmental themes.

            Commonalities among reviews often crossed with descriptions of the film’s ethereal character designs and the film’s thematic plotlines associated with environmental preservation, war, and industrialization.

            One Rotten Tomato review, quoted by Ernest Hardy from L.A. Weekly, states, “The film's strength lies in its refusal to paint either its arguments or its characters in black and white: There are no pure heroes, no clear-cut villains, and no pat answers.” 

            With this specific review example in mind, Hardy’s judgment on the film’s strength is entirely normative. However, this is also based on the empirical observation that Miyazaki does not depict any clear boundary for who is the villain and who is the hero within Princess Mononoke.

        Throughout the entire film, characters are shown both sides to them, where the audience mainly judges them based on the personal moral compass, rather than a ‘black-and-white’ rubric as Hardy notes in his review.

            In regards to the way of the critic, many reviewers such as Hardy, take on a thought process that is influenced by the components of the film itself, their own ideas and values, and the arguments that arise among other critics.

            Therefore, the two types of standpoints, both empirical and normative, are more so than not intertwined with each other in the present Rotten Tomato reviews.

            It would not be accurate to say that majority of audience reviews are based on ungrounded subjective opinions, but the subject of opinion is in fact highly connected with the review’s empirical inputs.