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Princess Mononoke: The First Story: The First Story Hardcover – October 21, 2014
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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...
- Print length104 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherVIZ Media LLC
- Publication dateOctober 21, 2014
- Dimensions11.63 x 0.7 x 11.63 inches
- ISBN-101421575868
- ISBN-13978-1421575865
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Product details
- Publisher : VIZ Media LLC; Reprint edition (October 21, 2014)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 104 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1421575868
- ISBN-13 : 978-1421575865
- Item Weight : 2.22 pounds
- Dimensions : 11.63 x 0.7 x 11.63 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #98,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #60 in Animation Graphic Design (Books)
- #131 in Art of Film & Video
- #1,368 in Fantasy Manga (Books)
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About the author

Hayao Miyazaki is the prominent director of many popular animated feature films. He is also the co-founder of Studio Ghibli, the award-winning Japanese animation studio and production company behind worldwide hits such as PRINCESS MONONOKE, HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and SPIRITED AWAY.
Photo by Thomas Schulz detengase @ Flickr (http://flickr.com/photos/t_p_s/2842706001/) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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The plot of Princess Monoke is a rather straight forward fairy tale quest. I won't go into details other than to say that it involves a samurai who has given his daughter to a cat like beast in exchange for saving his life.
The book itself is an a quite large book, similar in size to ViZ's other studo ghibli art books. The illustrations are gorgeous watercolor paintings but have a real loose, almost quick study feel to them. Seeing Miyazaki's work is a real treat and it's impressive to see how much movement and emotion he conveys with just a few lines in his art.
The text is minimal and the overall look of the work is that if a larger, much thicker children's book complete with dust jacket.
I enjoyed the story and the art immensely. Obviously this book would appeal most to fans of Studio Ghibli. Reading through it one can see the beginning of ideas that would crop up in later films.
Overall this is an easy recommendation for any Ghibli fan or those who collect picture books. Well worth the price!
For those familiar with Miyazaki's films, it's fun to spot the appearance of several archetypal characters he recreated again and again in various settings. For instance, the cat seen on the cover and in other pictures facially resembles the Cat Bus in My Neighbor Totoro.
The illustrations are five-star, but I rated the book four stars for a couple of technical issues: the color reproduction on some pages is too pale, and the english text occasionally has vocabulary that will need to be interpreted by adults for children who can otherwise easily follow the story.
What a great buy. The book is a little expensive but it is a huge, well-made hardcover copy. It really stands out in your bookshelf and almost has that collectible feeling to it.
Also, for any fans of the story, it's a great and simple read.
I actually think it's a great children's book even if you haven't seen the movie. Beautifully drawn.
A new feature in our bookshelf.
You get to see the various pieces that were used in other Ghibli works, as well as the whimsical adventure of a girl's marriage with a mononoke. About every page has a picture!
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Reviewed in Germany on October 21, 2019







