Art collection includes never-before-shown illustrations from Hayao Miyazaki’s vision for a feudal-Japan version of Beauty and the Beast.
The very first time I saw a preview for Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, I was shocked by how dark the tone was. I was not at all prepared for a grim tale of humans and giant forest creatures fighting to the death in a territorial struggle with no clear “good guys” or “bad guys.” I’d been expecting this story of a mononoke/monster princess to be a sort of feudal Japan-version of Beauty and the Beast, complete with a cuddly-looking cat samurai’s caring, protective side being awoken by a young girl whose safety he has to ensure.
However, my shock wasn’t because the Princess Mononoke trailer was the first piece of Japanese animation I’d ever seen, some sort of “THIS IS ANIME!” moment that shattered my sheltered American mind with the revelation that animation didn’t have to be limited to Disney fairy tales (I’d already had that experience — thank you, Bubblegum Crisis). No, the reason I had been expecting Princess Mononoke to a pseudo-Beauty and the Beast with cute Ghibli critters is because that’s what the original story concept and artwork were, as shown way back during the anime’s pre-production phase and reprinted in at least one North American anime magazine at the time.
I’ve been telling fellow anime fans this for years, usually getting a puzzled expression and awkward silence in response, but now finally I can point to the newest entry in the Hayao Miyazaki Image Board Series, in which the early-concept artwork for Princess Mononoke has been collected.
▼ Two of these illustrations will immediately look familiar to people who’ve watched Princess Mononoke, and one of them almost certainly will not.
This is the seventh volume in publisher Iwanami Shoten’s Hayao Miyazaki Image Board Series, which compiles all of the concept illustrations and brainstorming drawings produced by anime director Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. A total of 258 pieces of artwork are contained within the 184-page book, including 90 which have never been publicly shown before, making it a sort of record of two different Princess Mononoke, the version we were originally going to get, and the one we eventually did.
Miyazaki was developing the original Beauty and the Beast-esque story after directing 1992’s Porco Rosso, and in 1993 he added text to some of his concept illustrations for a long out-of-print book, also titled Princess Mononoke, which was published by Tokuma Shoten, Studio Ghibli’s parent company. As time went by, though, Miyazaki came to feel that the story he was crafting was too old-fashioned and stale, and while working on the animated music video for Japanese pop song “On Your Mark” in 1995, he became convinced that“it is wrong to be limited by the past,” and the changes in creative course from then on were what resulted in the Princess Mononoke anime that opened in Japanese theaters in 1997.
Hayao Miyazaki Image Board Series Volume 7-Princess Mononoke, which comes with a personal endorsement by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda (hence his signature on the book’s obi paper wrapping), goes on sale December 3, priced at 6,000 yen (US$38), and can be purchased through Iwanami Shoten ‘s website here.
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