Goyavoyage's den

Miyazaki movies bingo

I've been meaning to post this silly thing for ages, and a rewatch of Princess Mononoke I did last weekend seems as good a spark as any to finally do it.

A 5 times 5 grid titled "Miyazaki BINGO" with the following elements: Triple time signature music, Magical jewelry, Food that looks SO good, Gooey mucus moment, Really weird thing that is never explained, Character's hair suddenly floating up, Girl character with a big lesbian vibe (but who probably isn't), Cute sidekick, Old lady, Character with big glasses, Curse, War, FREE SPACE (planes/flying things), Gears and mechanisms, Message on the environment, LOTS of water, Magical creature of unclear alignment, LOTS of wind, Baddie who is actually ridiculous or harmless, LOTS of fire, Rushed ending, Child labour or child in charge of way too many things, Straight crush with red flags, Scene where (women :() characters do the cleaning, An important character almost DIES.)

Click to read the original in French The same 5 times 5 Miyazaki bingo, in French

We made this bingo for the Miyazaki movies three years ago with my lover in the middle of a retrospective of his works, and it was extremely fun to then have bingo elements to check throughout the entire remainder of the retrospective. It was all the more when The Boy and the Heron released later that year and we realized - without having particularly planned for it - that the bingo actually held the test of that new movie extremely well1.

Rewatching Mononoke a few days ago was great, too - as it was the only one I had missed back during that retrospective or failed to rewatch soon after that2. Obviously, I'm more critical now of its aspects of women empowerment: they are either part of a rather clear binary and gendered division3 within the mining town led by Eboshi; or, for the two badass women that are San and Eboshi, way too often undermined by the way protagonist Ashitaka removes their agency. I also believe the movie would benefit from a content warning for violence and war and blood and crawling worms-like curse stuff.

Still, what a movie Mononoke is. Of course it had such a deep impact on pop culture and on so many people, including younger me in some ways - I was surprised by how much I remembered its soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi deeply, despite not having watched it for maybe ten years. And as it often is with Miyazaki movies, I keep being amazed at its aesthetic as well as its environmental and anti-war themes; and also how it effortlessly juggles at least half a dozen factions by the end. Knowing youkai folklore better in the past few years also made me appreciate references like the kodama and mononoke and daidarabochi a lot.

Anyway. This post wasn't supposed to be a Mononoke review this much. I just wanted to drop this bingo in case it may tempt you to rewatch one of Miyazaki's movies4.
Or, you know. Until he announces he's making yet another very last movie.

(don't mind me, this is the bonus part of the post where I'm off meandering through Wikipedia and suddenly realize something barely related that I hadn't exactly put together: that the much-beloved 1979 anime version of Anne of Green Gables (of which I loved the 2025 version dearly last year) was directed by Takahata, and had Miyazaki contribute to some of its scene design. I didn't know. This is wow and fun.)

  1. We had however, as everyone did, widely underestimated the number of parakeets.↩

  2. the retrospective notably allowed me to watch The Castle of Cagliostro, his first feature film before Nausicaä. I believe it is better viewed as "what Miyazaki brings into the Lupin the IIIrd franchise" preferably with some basic knowledge on the latter, than as a movie on its own; but with said basic knowledge and as a part of the retrospective on the filmmaker's style and legacy, it was interesting in some ways.↩

  3. This kind of division, no matter how much you represent strong women within it - strong, but essentially different from their men counterparts - is a cornerstone of ultimately feeding into some essentialist discourse that gives no room for trans and genderqueer people, and that thickens the fabricated divide between two binary genders. Of course, Mononoke is from 1997, which makes me more lenient with it (and which tracks with a more essentialist feminist wave, historically); but still. I just want to advise you to always be wary of this kind of representation.↩

  4. My first two picks would be Kiki's Delivery Delivery Service (1989) for its deep themes on depression, art block, and its soft sisterhood through community while settling down in a new city and its lesbian painter icon Ursula that still feel so relevant, despite how the movie also sadly overshadows the original book series the movie was loosely adapted from; and Howl's Moving Castle because I'm biased and I just love it and its enchanting atmosphere so much - despite how toxic Howl actually is, haha; or things more readily egregious like its clear fatphobia at times. But seriously I know so many of the French version of its lines. I can't wait to rewatch it and complain about its shortcomings with close ones who know it just as much while still being head over heels about it. ... Also, the "triple time signature" cell of the bingo is the least representative element of (Joe Hisaishi's music in) Miyazaki movies, by the way. We were just biased toward this particular movie.↩

#anime rec #sillyposting