And, watch it again in Japanese with fan subs. A lot was changed for the US audiences, and it’s a better film before the censorship. (eg. The little village girl who says goodbye to Ashitaka early in the film is his “sister” in the English version, but was originally an ardent admirer who, in those few shared moments, stoically comes to terms with her future without him and gifts him the crystal pendant as a token of her memory. Which is a far more poignant scene than his little sister sending him off, by orders of magnitude — to say nothing of the quality it imbues the later scene when he gifts it to San. I’ve no idea why they blunted the concept, and hope they don’t fuck up future Ghibli films.) Also, though US voice acting in anime has come a long way from the not-even-half-assed drek of the 80s-90s, the emotive content of the Japanese audio is superb, even without understanding the words themselves.
Princess Mononke, Spirited Away, Ponyo, and The Wind Rises were all at one time his final films.
Seriously? I remember watching this in primary school around 2000.
Mononoke*
And, watch it again in Japanese with fan subs. A lot was changed for the US audiences, and it’s a better film before the censorship. (eg. The little village girl who says goodbye to Ashitaka early in the film is his “sister” in the English version, but was originally an ardent admirer who, in those few shared moments, stoically comes to terms with her future without him and gifts him the crystal pendant as a token of her memory. Which is a far more poignant scene than his little sister sending him off, by orders of magnitude — to say nothing of the quality it imbues the later scene when he gifts it to San. I’ve no idea why they blunted the concept, and hope they don’t fuck up future Ghibli films.) Also, though US voice acting in anime has come a long way from the not-even-half-assed drek of the 80s-90s, the emotive content of the Japanese audio is superb, even without understanding the words themselves.
Yeah, he’s been retiring for the last twenty years.