Vernon, Alice. "Beyond Girlhood in Ghibli: Mapping Heroine

Vernon, Alice. "Beyond Girlhood in Ghibli: Mapping Heroine Development against the Adult Woman Anti-hero in Princess Mononoke." Princess Mononoke: Understanding Studio Ghibli’s Monster Princess. By Rayna Denison. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 115–130. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 29 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501329753.ch-006>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 29 September 2021, 21:03 UTC. Copyright © Rayna Denison 2018. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 1 15 Chapter 6 B EYOND GIRLHOOD IN GHIBLI: MAPPING HEROINE DEVELOPMENT AGAINST THE ADULT WOMAN ANTI- HERO IN PRINCESS MONONOKE Alice Vernon Many of the fi lms of Studio Ghibli feature a child or young adult protagonist. In most of these cases, the audience is presented with a celebration of girlhood. From Tonari no Totoro ( My Neighbor Totoro, Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) to Omoide no M ā n ī ( When Marnie Was Th ere, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2014), Studio Ghibli has explored the adolescent heroine in stories of fantasy, realism, com- edy and drama. In Mononokehime ( Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki, 1997), the heroine, San, is set against a female antagonist in such a way that both personalities are problematized (for more on San’s unique position within Ghibli’s history see Chapter 5 ). It is through Hayao Miyazaki’s inclusion of Lady Eboshi that the director examines the relationship between the heroine and an adult woman anti- hero. Th is chapter identifi es the parallels between San and Lady Eboshi in terms of their personalities and interactions as well as in comparison with wider cultural contexts, in order to investigate Princess Mononoke ’s explo- ration of femininity extending beyond girlhood. Th e fi rst part of this chapter analyses Miyazaki’s presentation of San and Lady Eboshi in Princess Mononoke . From the similarities in their introductory scenes to the possible symbiotic nature of their relationship, this chapter dis- cusses the ways in which Miyazaki demonstrates a spectrum of images of femininity within these two characters. Th e analysis will show how, through San’s behaviour, Miyazaki both adheres to and deviates from constructed images of the girl princess. Regarding Lady Eboshi’s character, this chapter focuses in particular on her self- sustaining community within the Tataraba, the iron works, and the various admirable roles she assumes – roles that complicate her identity as the supposed antagonist in the fi lm. Despite her harmful quest to kill the Shishigami (Deer God), Miyazaki seems to construct Eboshi as a posi- tive answer to various dark moments in history. Where she fails to take care of nature, she steps in to take care of those who are shunned by the rest of society. 99781501329760_pi-220.indd781501329760_pi-220.indd 111515 111/1/20171/1/2017 44:21:08:21:08 PPMM 116 116 Alice Vernon In drawing parallels between the roles and the position of authority and independence occupied by Eboshi and San, this chapter puts forward the idea that Miyazaki is constructing a symbiotic female relationship. Th rough identifi cation of the careful echoing of Eboshi and San’s personalities, the analysis will discuss how Princess Mononoke establishes the importance of homosocial rela- tionships during the shift from girl- to adulthood. Following this examination, the chapter compares Eboshi to the adult women featured in the subsequent works of Studio Ghibli. A precursor to the relationship between San and Eboshi can be seen in Hayao Miyazaki’s Kaze no tani no Naushika ( Nausica ä of the Valley of the Wind , 1984, hereaft er referred to as Nausica ä ). Despite being released prior to the formation of Studio Ghibli as a company name, Nausica ä is an adaptation of Miyazaki’s manga series (1982– 94), and thus presents many of the themes that became key to Studio Ghibli’s legacy. As adapted from Miyazaki’s manga, the fi lm involves a parallel between its protagonist Nausica ä and its villain, Kushana. Kushana’s visual similarities to Nausica ä seem based on the idea of Kushana seeing her younger self as she ought to have been. Where, as this chapter argues, Eboshi represents San’s adult independence, Kushana is a kind of ‘ghost of Nausica ä ’s future’ – she embodies the patriarchal views that Nausica ä rejected. In a society where the father is ruler of his household, Miyazaki emphasizes that it is important for young girls to maintain their own ideals if they do not agree with those forced upon them, using the heroine Nausica ä as his vessel. Th e dynamic between Kushana and Nausica ä , followed by Eboshi and San, shows a long- standing focus on women’s representation in Miyazaki’s fi lms. Whether the connection between San and Lady Eboshi has infl uenced recent fi ction, or whether these women stand alone, their personalities and appearances in Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke are important to consider. Not only do they disrupt the distinction between socially constructed gender roles, they also present a spectrum of heroic female behaviours. Both Eboshi and San are ambitious caregivers and warriors who nurse the injured, some human, some not. In addition, San’s wolf goddess mother, Moro, demonstrates the ferocity that can be located in maternal instincts. Princess Mononoke, therefore, encourages the viewer to expand their understanding of the heroine and the female villain character types. Woman as Warrior, Nurse and Mother in Princess Mononoke Released in 1997, Princess Mononoke is an historical fi ction whose criti- cal themes transcend the Muromachi period (1336– 1573) in which it is set. Miyazaki is known for his ecocritical and pacifi st approach to his stories (see Chapters 1 and 3 ), but these themes are made explicit in Princess Mononoke . As Kozo, Solomon and Chang explain, his fi lms – particularly Princess Mononoke – involve the presentation of ‘pseudo- historical environmental confl icts’ that 99781501329760_pi-220.indd781501329760_pi-220.indd 111616 111/1/20171/1/2017 44:21:08:21:08 PPMM 1 17 Beyond Girlhood in Ghibli 117 enable Miyazaki to ‘draw viewers into the diffi culties of real environmental problem solving’. 1 In other words, Miyazaki blends new anxieties into historical situations and settings, showing the timelessness of environmental issues as well as enlightening his audience by demonstrating modern problems from a diff erent perspective. Th e environmental questions of Princess Mononoke are the main and most immediately apparent of Miyazaki’s criticisms. But, alongside and intermingling with the struggle between delicate ecosystems and poisonous but seemingly inevitable human development, there is an extensive deconstruction of female gender roles. Where San protects the forest, Lady Eboshi seeks to destroy it, but Miyazaki intentionally complicates the extent to which the women represent the fi ctional tropes of good and evil. As with his inclusion of environmental criticism, Miyazaki presents a bitter feud between these two female characters in a way that draws attention to some of the past and ongoing challenges faced by Japanese women. In Princess Mononoke , San – a young girl raised by wolf gods in the forest – stands to defend her environment from corruption. With Miyazaki’s stance on environmental preservation in mind, the audience might immediately assume that San is the inherently ‘good’ heroine against the destructive human force embodied in Lady Eboshi. But it is in Lady Eboshi that Miyazaki creates an antagonist as heroine. She is the leader of the Tataraba, a secluded island in a lake, which is dedicated to the production of iron and, more dam- agingly, the development and manufacture of guns. It is from a single ball of Lady Eboshi’s iron that the plot of the fi lm emerges; the boar god Nago, aft er being shot with one of the Tataraba’s guns, turns into a ferocious and demonic tatarigami . Even before the audience knows her name, Miyazaki introduces Lady Eboshi through the destructive aft ermath of her enterprise. By the motif of the iron ball alone, the audience perceives its maker as the villain of the fi lm. Of the two main female characters, it is Lady Eboshi whom the audience fi rst meets. Keeping with the reputation that Miyazaki has loaded into the simple iron ball, the fi rst image of Lady Eboshi is in her role as a leader. She is an authoritative, commanding fi gure whose grace and confi dence is main- tained during the mountain pass scene as she faces San and the wolves. Amid the chaos and fear of her male workers, Eboshi calmly holds her ground and fi res a gun – an action that further embeds her association with the enraged tatarigami – at Moro, piercing the wolf goddess’s fl esh with the same iron that killed Nago. Th e audience’s initial impression of Eboshi, then, further pins her to the role of villain. She is the formidable source of confl ict in the story, and it is interesting that Miyazaki presents her as so immediately transgressive of the feminine ideal. In writing of Asian representation in Hollywood, Gina Marchetti explains that, in particular reference to Chinese- American cinema, there exists the ‘fantasy’ whereby ‘Asian women are “saved” from the excesses of the Chinese patriarchy by Anglo- American heroes.’2 By contrast, in just a short 99781501329760_pi-220.indd781501329760_pi-220.indd 111717 111/1/20171/1/2017 44:21:08:21:08 PPMM 118 118 Alice Vernon introduction, Lady Eboshi is shown to be an adult woman not in need of sav- ing; rather, she is the dominant force among her group of men.

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