BEST ANIME MOVIE EVER!!!

again one of the finest work of Mr.Miyazaki. bit violent though but movie conveys extremely high regards for nature and our system of balance with it with beautiful imagination and epic story.

Please also be aware that this film DOES contain sexual content related to prostitution.

A quote I recall was "If they show a nipple, it's NC-17. But if they cut the nipple off, it's only R" It fits my sentiments exactly as I laugh derisively at the 9+ age limit on there. Of course it's a good movie, with gorgeous animation and epic themes that would not normally be found in today's American movies. And considering that many people gave Brokeback Mountain a pretty bad rating, I was laughing at the rating. Having said that, Mononoke Hime is a gorgeous movie, as I have said before, but seriously, a 9+ rating? Granted when I first saw this when I was six, I didn't understand any of it (huh? pretty red?) But it isn't something analogous to, oh, let's say Naruto or Pokemon or Barney for that matter. With its complex themes and symbolism, the movie is further inaccessible to those 9 and under, in my opinion, and parents should wait before trying to show this masterpiece to their five year old kids. Again, when I first saw this, I had no idea what was going on. So please don't make the same mistake.

As an anime fanatic [given that I'm Asian] this is yet another masterpiece from whom I consider the greatest animator of all time. Everything about the movie is spectacular, especially the anime. The violence and large amounts of blood will be an issue for younger children, and no offense, i don't see anyone showing this to their nine year old. But who cares? Go see the movie! Now! Hey, why are you still reading this? I thought I told you to go watch Mononoke!

9+??! it IS very gory and violent! Besides, a probably wouldn't want to sit through it! its a great movie but it should be 12+

This movie shows more blood in it than probably any other movie I have seen. Multiple heads are shot off by “demon” arrows, Princess Mononoke sucks mouthfuls of blood out of a wolf god’s wound to clean it, the main character is shot through the chest from which blood flows puddles on the ground as he exerts himself to open a city gate, a man has his arms shot off and pinned to a tree where they dangle for a moment, the decapitated head of a wolf-god bites off a woman’s arm, a ten-ton boargod vomits buckets of blood repeatedly, another boar-god rots away into a reeking carcass in seconds—and that is just the big stuff. This all sounds worse than it seems however, as the film’s cartoon nature makes the gore much less pronounced or offensive. As for sexual content, the film is mostly clean although “not applicable” is definitely an inaccurate rating. A band of women, who giggle a lot, is depicted in relatively modest kimonos (basically bathrobes) which nevertheless show a little cleavage. Many of them have, apparently, been rescued from more disreputable pasts and one man describes them as having been “wasted in the brothels” (a term which is used at least thrice in the movie). The women themselves say that their new life of manual labor is better because “the men no longer bother us…unless we want them to! *tee hee tee hee*” At one point, the main character goes to visit them (not in an inappropriate way) and helps them pump the billows for an iron mine. His efforts toss them lightly into the air which they find quite entertaining, but their bathrobes rumble a bit and one women jokes to another (off-screen) “Whoops! Better keep that kimono closed tight!” As for language, God’s name is abused a couple of times and b*stard, b*tch, d*mn and H*ll are each used, but only about once each. I like this website because of the user reviews, but whoever at CSM wrote this review clearly liked the movie too much. I mean: “Language = Not Applicable”? if b*stard, b*tch, d*mn, and H*ll don’t count as foul language, there is not much that does.

I can't believe Common Sense Media says there are no positive messages in this movie. It's not just humans vs. animals, by any stretch. It's industrialism with the attendant disregard of nature vs. a clean, healthy environment, and imagining a world where nature can defend itself! Yes, it's violent. I strongly advise waiting to show it to your kids until they are old enough to take the extreme imaging, as mentioned in the other reviews. However, many Miyazaki films are strongly environmentally-friendly, for example Ponyo and Nausicaa. This one isn't as easy to follow, but the intended audience is older than the one for Ponyo. Nausicaa falls somewhere in between. But just because the end is a trifle confusing doesn't really dilute the very strong "take care of the earth--it's the only one we have" message. And it is a beautiful movie--the forest god is amazing!

I bought this when I was 11 to complete my collection; at the time I decided it was too violent, so I put it aside for a year and was able to enjoy it when I watched it then; I have, however, met kids as young as 7 who had no issues with it. The main concern is the violence - beheadings, village raids, flying limbs, animals that literally melt into bloody messes, etc. Other than that, there's some references to brothels, and many women only wear what at generally looks like baggy, loose shirts (nothing is shown, though), but most kids probably wouldn't notice. All in all, just tread cautiously with youngsters and the gentler-stomached, but for anyone who can get past that, it's one of Miyazaki's best, if not the best.