The story involves a young archer, Ashitaka, who kills a demon in order to save his village. This deed leaves him with a poisoned wound which, he is told by the village elder, will spread throughout his body and eventually kill him. Seeking a cure, Ashitaka journeys west, and finds a haven in Irontown, a walled village whose inhabitants make a living from mining and working metal. But Irontown and its leader, the enigmatic Lady Eboshi, are threatened both by the emperor and his samurai, who want the wealth that the iron provides, and by the giant boars of the neighboring forest, who are upset that the villagers are destroying their trees to make way for the mines.

These giant boars are only one of several species of speaking, thinking animals who inhabit the forest that is Princess Mononoke’s main milieu. Giant wolves, apes, and other creatures are part of the story, and each species is led by its own animal god. Lord of all the animals is the Deer God, a multi-antlered, human-faced deer who can revivify or slay plants and creatures with his breath. San, the Princess Mononoke, the Wolf God’s adopted human daughter, has the potential to link both worlds, but she hates humans for what they have done to her forest, and considers herself a wolf.

Most of the plot of Princess Mononoke consists of one long battle scene, but it’s a fantastic, compelling battle that rivals the ones in Lord of the Rings in terms of complexity and sheer visual splendor. The characters all move with swiftness and grace, and are so perfectly proportioned and brightly colored that they often resemble the warriors in Japanese ink scrolls. But Miyazaki never loses sight of the violence and waste of war. He unflinchingly depicts blood, gore, and rot without stylizing them. The demons the boars turn into when hunted down and wounded serve as a metaphor for the tendency of violence to escalate and spread, as does the poisoned scar Ashitaka bears, which gives him the unnatural ability to slice off his opponents’ limbs with a single arrow. The scar spreads until it covers much of Ashitaka’s body, but his essential good nature—and his unwillingness to fight unless absolutely necessary—seem to be what keep it from overtaking him entirely.

The other participants in the battle have their nuances as well. This is no simple struggle between good and evil. Though the citizens of Irontown despoil the forest, for example, they remain good, cheerful people who carry on a merry battle of the sexes throughout the film. Lady Eboshi, though she discounts the power of the gods, is a strong, capable leader, and a humanitarian who rescues women from brothels and brings them to live in her village. And the animals hardly belong in Bambi (1942): the boars, in particular, are foolhardy, hotheaded, and distrustful of the Deer God’s leadership.

Though Princess Mononoke contains much bloodshed, ultimately its messages are positive and life-affirming. Miyazaki stresses the importance of protecting the natural world throughout the film. His renderings of woodland landscapes are lush and beautiful, and recall, perhaps ironically, the sun-dappled forest scenes in Rashômon (1950). Standing in stark contrast to the violence and filth of the battle scenes, they form a silent argument for environmentalism all by themselves.

Throughout the film the forest is portrayed as a realm of mysterious and holy things, both dark and light. Some, like the Deer God, are never fully explained, and that is as it should be. Miyazaki suggests that there is more to nature than human reason can fathom, and that we should respect it as source of mystery and power. It’s not a Christian viewpoint—in fact the film is loosely based on Japanese mythology—but Christians can still find much to take away from this film. For example, there’s Lady Eboshi, who discounts the spiritual realm in favor of things she can see, feel, and touch. Not trusting the gods to bring good things to her people, she has taken action herself, and brought about tangible good for them here in this life. It’s hard not to sympathize with her. So often God’s ways seem mysterious and slow. We can become impatient with Him and try to take matters into our own hands. But, as the film shows, in the end it’s only the Deer God who is able to bring the world away from the brink of apocalypse. His ways, like those of our God, are beyond our understanding, yet ever good and right.