Explore the vast range of titles available.

The Japanese box-office smash Princess Mononoke is being distributed in North America by Disney subsidiary Miramax Films, but it's no Mickey Mouse cartoon. The engrossing, beautifully animated epic runs more than two hours, as opposed to the typical 80- to 90-minute length of Hollywood animated features. Set in ancient Japan, the film's violent battle sequences include scenes of decapitation and lopped-off limbs. We meet the title character, a fierce young girl who wears an animal-fang necklace, as she sucks poisoned blood from the wolf-god beast that raised her. Princess Mononoke made a record $150 million in Japan, topping E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial as the country's highest-grossing film before being surpassed by Titanic. Based loosely on Japanese folklore, the film is a sophisticated environmental fable about the struggle between man and nature.

This chapter continues to trace the postwar development of Japanese animation from the 1970s onward. In particular, the rise of master animator Miyazaki Hayao and his colleague, animation director Takahata Isao, will be discussed in detail. In examining the eminence of Japan’s animation industry, the close working relationship of Miyazaki and Takahata in the past cannot be overlooked. It is important to examine the common elements found in their works. They founded Studio Ghibli in 1985, which almost equaled the status of Toei Dōga. The establishment of such a Toei-like animation studio was aimed primarily to produce animated feature films.