Princess Mononoke · reception & legacy

How Princess Mononoke has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

It briefly became the highest-grossing film ever in Japan in 1997 — a genuine national event — but its 1999 Miramax release in the US barely registered at the box office. Now it's arguably the consensus pick for Miyazaki's masterpiece and a fixture near the top of every animation canon.

What's debated

The eternal cinephile fight: is this or Spirited Away peak Miyazaki — with Mononoke partisans arguing it's the darker, thornier film that refuses to give you a villain.

Its footprint

"See with eyes unclouded by hate" is quoted endlessly, the kodama have become a shorthand for forest-spirit imagery everywhere, and San's mask is one of the most recognizable faces in animation. It's also the film that made anime feel like serious cinema to a generation of Western viewers.

Where it stands

A Letterboxd top-250 mainstay and a 'you must have seen this' gateway film — the Miyazaki that even non-anime people are expected to have watched.

Named by the director

Influences Hayao Miyazaki has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• John Ford — Miyazaki said he modeled Irontown on the tight-knit frontier towns of outcasts in Ford's westerns.