The anime feature The Deer Kingnow streaming on Netflix, has some key similarities to the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke: Both films are about a spreading corruption that takes over a country. Both protagonists are skilled warriors and exiled wanderers. Both films focus on lush natural environments and the people who live in them. Both films also feature people who ride deer. But most importantly Deer King And Princess Mononoke have in common that co-director Masashi Andô, Princess Mononoke‘s chief animation director and character designer. Which explains why Deer King isn’t just Look just like a Ghibli movie, it feels Like a.
To a certain extent.
Deer KingThe story of ‘s is an adaptation of a series of fantasy novels by Japanese auteur Nahoko Uehashi, who packs a great deal of world-building and intricate character interactions into a sprawling story that often feels like it doesn’t have enough space to fully satisfy all of its plot threads. It’s an ambitious, fascinating project, with a more fully fleshed-out setting and more intricate premise than most films can manage, but the characters sometimes feel a little lost in that world. Some major plot questions are never answered: the film feels more like the jumping-off point for a trilogy than a standalone film.
But if you accept those limitations, it’s a great project. Ando’s co-director, Masayuki Miyaji, is also a Ghibli veteran, an assistant director on Spirited Away who later directed or artistically directed episodes of the series Attack on Titan, Mars DawnAnd Eureka Sevenalong with many other series. Together, the duo builds a story that feels rich and unique, aimed at the kind of adult audience that Game of Thrones a hit.
Image: GKIDS/Production IG
The story revolves around two warring kingdoms: The more powerful Zol invades its neighbor Aquafa, until a mysterious spiritual plague, affecting only the Zol natives, sweeps through the land. An exiled Aquafan warrior, Van, escapes from a mine where he was trapped as the plague rages through, spread by monstrous spirit dogs. He takes with him the only other survivor, a young girl named Yuna. A fierce tracker, Sea, comes after Van, while a brilliant doctor, Hohsalle, tries to contact him: Both believe he may hold a key to understanding the disease, which could change the balance of power between the kingdoms.
The Deer King has a strong central thread in Van’s connection to Yuna and his determination to protect her. But unlike other fantasy stories of this type, the two travel together for only a short time: his heroic efforts go into defending her world so that she can live comfortably without him. His adventures go far beyond simply protecting a child or building a found family. Like Princess MononokePolitics is as important in this story as individual efforts, and the slow grind of kingdoms battling for supremacy is as important as any individual conflict or effort.
The visual design is equally rich and stately. Intense set pieces like the mine escape alternate with more relaxed, beautifully detailed sequences of everyday life for those far removed from the war and able to live outside of it. It’s a compelling film: at its best more impressive, visionary, and mature than most anime fantasies of the past few decades, and visually more beautiful. Even when it struggles, it’s always because it’s over-ambitious rather than under-ambitious.
The Deer King is now available on Netflix.