The anime feature The Stag Kingnow streaming on Netflix has a number of important things in common with Studio Ghibli’s film Princess Mononoke: The plot of both films revolves around the spread of corruption in a country. Both protagonists are experienced warriors and exiled wanderers. Both films focus on lush natural landscapes and the people who inhabit them. In addition, both films feature people riding deer. But the main thing is, Deer King And Princess Mononoke Co-director Masashi Andô, Princess MononokeChief animation director and character designer. This explains why Deer King is not only see like a Ghibli film, it feels like one.
Up to a point.
Deer KingThe story adapts a Series of fantasy novels by Japanese writer Nahoko Uehashi, which packs a lot of world-building and complex character interactions into a broad story that often feels like it doesn’t have enough room to fully wrap up all the plot threads. It’s an ambitious, fascinating project with a more fully realized setting and more complicated setup than most films manage, but the characters sometimes feel a little lost in this world. Some important story questions are never answered: the film feels more like the starting point of a trilogy than a standalone film.
But if you accept these limitations, it is a wonderful project. Andô’s co-director, Masayuki Miyaji, is also a Ghibli veteran and assistant director on Spirited Away who later directed or provided artistic direction for episodes of attack on Titan, Mars DaybreakAnd Eureka Sevenamong many other series. Together, the duo builds a story that is rich and unique and is aimed at the kind of adult audience that game of Thrones a hit.
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Image: GKIDS/Production IG
The story revolves around two warring kingdoms: the more powerful Zol invades its neighboring country of Aquafa until a mysterious spiritual plague that affects only Zol natives begins to ravage the land. An exiled Aquafa warrior, Van, escapes from a mine where he is being held captive as the plague spread by monstrous ghost dogs rages there. He takes with him the only other survivor, a young girl named Yuna. A fierce tracker, Sea, pursues Van, while a brilliant doctor, Hohsalle, tries to contact him: both believe he holds a key to understanding the disease that could change the balance of power between the kingdoms.
The Stag King has a strong thread in Van’s connection with Yuna and his determination to protect her. But unlike other fantasy stories of this kind, the two only travel together for a short time: his heroic efforts are dedicated to defending her world so that she can live a comfortable life without him. His adventures go far beyond simply protecting a child or building a family. As with Princess MononokePolitics plays as big a role in this story as any individual effort, and the slow struggle of the kingdoms for supremacy is as important as any individual conflict or effort.
The visuals are rich and majestic in equal measure, with intense scenes like the mine escape alternating with more leisurely, beautifully detailed sequences of the everyday lives of people far from the war and able to live outside of it. It’s a fascinating film: at its best, more impressive, more visionary and more adult than most anime fantasies of the past few decades, and more visually beautiful. Even when it struggles, it’s always more a matter of too much ambition than too little.
The Stag King is now streaming on Netflix.
