Name: Princess Mononoke 3
ISBN: 9781435259829

Hayao Miyazaki

During the Age of Iron, a war brews between a village of iron miners who want to exploit the earth and all its natural resources to make developments and the animal gods of the surrounding forest, led by Princess Mononoke.

Princess Mononoke 3

An oversized, lavishly illustrated storybook featuring original watercolor art by legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki! This is the original Princess Mononoke story, created by Hayao Miyazaki in 1980 while he was first conceptualizing the landmark animated film that would be released to universal acclaim seventeen years later. As an initial version of the tale, it offers a new and different perspective from the final version presented in the film. After a long, exhausting war, a samurai lost in a forest encounters a giant wildcat--a mononoke. The beast saves his life, but at the price of his daughter's hand in marriage...

The First Story

Princess Mononoke

Rita Wang

This was so fun and I'm so glad I read it! I am a huge Hayao Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli fan as I grew up with his films as a wee babe. This was such an interesting concept and it was so fascinating to see how this story not only evolved over time, but also how so many of the elements in this story were dispersed throughout his later works as this original storyline was axed. This story is a Beauty and the Beast retelling but I'm glad I didn't know that part going into the story. Although this is only a bare bones concept art / story board for a project on submission, the sketches are so dynamic and full of life, as one would expect with Miyazaki. There is so much humor in this story and the expressions that are more often than not missing from his newer works, and it was nice to see that silly element within the characters and tone despite it predominantly being quite a dark story. 

I do think this potentially could have been a great hit if it had been greenlit but in a way I'm happy that it wasn't because I don't think things like My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, or Spirited Away would have turned out the way they did, as a lot of similar visual elements are in the concept art for this story, the most obvious being that the Mononke looks like the Catbus Kirby-ate Totoro. I'm really glad that this was published as a public access book and it was a fun look into Miyazaki's creative mind outside of the Ghibli canon that is already out there. I really loved this especially for the art and for how unexpected the twist and turns of the book were. Really recommend if you are a big Miyazaki / Ghibli fan, or if you just like picture books or graphic novels.

Princess Mononoke 3

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