“With Studio Ghibli,” says Napier, “you have a sense that, contrary to the Judeo-Christian Western point of view, humans are not necessarily the dominant creatures in the world.” It’s an ethos with arguable roots in Japan’s history of ecological disasters, and in Shintoism, the animistic folk religion of Japan, based around the faith that there is a spirit in all things. Writing in 2006, in promotional material for a new short film, Miyazaki states that, “I am much more attracted to the idea of preserving the forests… not for the sake of humans, but because they themselves are alive.” In the words of Yoshioka, “He believes that we should not protect nature just because it’s useful, or try to control it. Instead, we should respect nature as something which has agency of its own.”
Source: Princess Mononoke: The masterpiece that flummoxed the US – BBC Culture
