Deer King director brought Princess Mononoke lessons to new anime epic

Masashi Ando learned from the master, and he’s not afraid to admit it. A quarter of a century ago, Hayao Miyazaki — the most influential figure in global animation since Walt Disney — broke a remarkable three-film streak of complex-but-kid-friendly fare with Princess MononokeThe epic blends period fantasy with sociocultural criticism, and has a deep, complex relationship as its heart. Ando was Miyazaki’s chief animation director, and responsible in part for its memorable character design. Its fingerprints can be seen all throughout his debut directorial film. The Deer KingThe movie is out now on digital platforms. It will also be available Blu-ray starting Oct. 18.

“I really think Princess Mononoke is inside of me, and I really can’t wipe off what I had contributed, or what that movie had done to me,” he said, through a translator, earlier this year. “I do think, when I saw the final cut of the film, I realized that it was really thanks to MononokeI was able see certain aspects. The Deer King.”

For lovers of Miyazaki’s film, that’s clear from the get-go. Adapted from Nahoko Uehashi’s fantasy novel series of the same name, and co-directed by another Ghibli veteran, Masayuki Miyaji, The Deer King Is a bit of a thing with Mononoke In both style and story. The protagonist of the story is an exile living in a country torn apart from human rapacity. He is afflicted by a curse that threatens that land even further, and is preternaturally gifted in combat despite the gentle heart barely concealed by his survivalist’s demeanor. He can be quiet and kind to those around him, but he is also fiercely protective of his loved one. Through his adventures, he meets many people and makes new friends. He sticks to his convictions and principles regardless of what it costs. He rides a deer.

Image: Production I.G/GKIDS

Van is the last survivor in a group that was part of the guerrilla resistance of Aquafa, who had been enslaved years ago by the Zol empire. Yuna is his young daughter, and after the wild dogs attack him at his mine, Van escapes. But Van is bitten during the getaway and infected with a mysterious illness, called Black Wolf Fever, that has ravaged his homeland — although it doesn’t seem to affect him as it does so many others, particularly the Zol people. (The book series was published starting in 2014, but after nearly three years of a pandemic, it’s hard not to pick up on some eerie parallels between Van’s world and ours.)

After rumors of Van’s survival circulate, a Zol doctor, Hohsalle, seeks him out in the hopes of finding a cure for the disease, which has infected the emperor himself. Somewhere else, rebellion plans are being made and Van, Yuna and Hohsalle find themselves in the middle of an ever-growing conflict they want to avoid.

The film’s nearly two-hour run time is only 20 shy of Mononoke’s 133 minutes, but it’s bursting with ideas that could have played out to even greater lengths. The Deer KingThis article examines the nuanced politics and motives that drive factions in a colonized kingdom.

“The novel is very long, complex, and there’s a lot of information,” Ando said. “That was the appeal of the novel, but also what made the movie very difficult to make — so in the end, out of all the things that happen in the novel, I decided to focus on the relationship between Van and Yuna, and made that the center of the movie.”

That choice is both the film’s key strength and its Achilles’ heel: Van and Yuna’s relationship is a moving emotional and narrative center for the film, but their dominance of the narrative comes at the cost of its other characters — who, Ando said, played more prominent roles in Uehashi’s books. “Those who read the novel know that it is not just about Van,” he said. “The point of view in the novel changes, or the action happens and Hohsalle’s doing one thing while Van’s doing another. Hohsalle’s story is parallel to Van’s story.”

Image: Production I.G/GKIDS

In the film, on the other hand, Van’s and Hohsalle’s journeys are entwined. “With Van as the center of the movie,” Ando said, “we really had to include Hohsalle, so they had to meet. That’s why, in the movie, I made it so that Hohsalle is included in Van’s journey to get back Yuna.” This is after the two are separated in its second act — a fellowship of circumstance that feels a bit too neat to go unquestioned.

Although sometimes confusing, The Deer King is worth a watch for the animation alone, with its lush background illustration, a keen sense of movement, and deceivingly smooth special effects when the film’s more mystical elements take center stage. Above all, the character design and animation are a marvel, in part because the constraints presented by the film’s taciturn dramatis personae demanded greater attention to minute visual details.

“I was really hoping that the character designs would really express the backgrounds of each character,” Ando said. “For a character who doesn’t talk much, their eyes have to say a lot, so I made sure that Van had bigger eyes. Also, you’ll notice that he tends to be looking far ahead in front of him. I was hoping that by doing that with his eyes, I could give a sense of what kind of man he is: He’s always looking far ahead, looking somewhere in the distance. But that changes when he’s with Yuna — his eyes come closer, they’re more focused. I was hoping that those sorts of visual cues would express the relationship, the feelings towards Yuna that he has.”

The Deer King is not the year’s best anime — not that a year that brought new films by both Mamoru Hosoda and Masaaki Yuasa to American shores made the competition for that title any easier — but if the film’s animation is any indication, Ando’s next film might just be a revelation. It takes time, after all, but like many students, by the tale’s end, there’s a chance of becoming the master.

The Deer KingYou can now rent it on Amazon and Apple as well as Vudu.