A Good Word

Miyazaki’s gods are fully imagined, both unique and familiar. Where the great forest spirit steps, everything blooms and grows… and then withers and dies. Tiny tree spirits with asymmetrical eyes lead the humans through the forest. Miyazaki refutes a direct connection between these little spirits and the Shinto ideas of kami, but the cultural iconography is hard to miss. Gods are just as subject to anger, pride, and grief as humans are. The iron bullets made by Lady Eboshi’s workers transform the gods into demons, and the demon-ness manifests as wiggling worms that pour out of their bodies and stick to others. Still, we hear it more than once — even as the forest dies, as the gods-turned-demons attack, as the jealous human armies clash — a character says, “it’s too late!” And another responds, “We are still alive!”

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