In this movie, the plot is pretty casual, a very dinsey-like natural film showcasing elements of woodlands, rivers, mountains. Not much thinking required except in trying to figure out what each character faction's motives are.
Like most Japanese-centered films, this movie showcases whimsical spiritual themes of nature and religion.
But anyway, enough reading the obvious, this movie has a lot of flat points that frankly left me disappointed for being "one of the best" from Ghibli.
The first is that the story is all over the place with plenty of inconsistencies. The biggest in this is the absurd way almost nothing get's resolved in the end. Why did the main character save the town's leader rather than the forest? Why did he do all that just to help an evil woman who just wants to destroy the area? Why did the woman not die because of her actions? Why did someone not die because of their actions except the secondary side characters aka the spirits? Why did the guy who stole the spirit's head run off fighting for his prize only to assist the main character in the end? He didn't learn a lesson. Why did the evil town woman even trust that guy so much on their hunt for the head when she knew he was already devious?
The film obviously attempts to showcase the dangers of people messing with nature, and yet, everyone has plot armor from their actions except the forest spirit lol.
The biggest face palm was when the main character ran back to join the last fight.....by heading towards the ore town and not helping the wolves whom want peace.You would think after all the evil the town leader was doing, that maybe, at some point, the main chracter would be against her actions? But what does he do? He saves her from dying in the forest.
Man, the point when San was said to the main character "you were with them all along" was proof that everyone has a choice, and as "neutral" as the main character was believing himself to be, he did the most harm in the movie by helping people that just think about themselves and their poor old mining "town."
Absolutely dumb choices the more you rewatch this movie. Can't even respect the moral of the story when the plot is so dumb written.
