If you’re familiar with anime in the least, you probably know that Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke is among the most beloved in the entire canon of Japanese Animation. And now it’s being turned into a stage production.
Both Studio Ghibli (the people that produced the original animation) and Whole Hog Theatre, the London-based company behind the stage adaptation will be working together on the production — and based on this news (as well as the image seen), here’s hoping this fares better than Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark did with some critics. According to the synopsis (provided by Kotaku), the play will be an “epic ecological fable” and feature live music and ‘puppets constructed from recycled materials’ and premiere next April on the stage of London’s New Diorama Theatre. As The Whole Hog website reads, here is the synopsis for the stage play (which sounds pretty truthful to the original anime) :
“With the co-operation of Studio Ghibli, Whole Hog Theatre presents the world’s first theatrical staging
of Hayao Miyazaki’s renowned animated film.
Young warrior Ashitaka is a marked man. Cursed by a demon god while defending his village, he
must leave his home forever to seek a cure. In the forbidding forests to the west, he is forced to
reconcile the warring human forces and the animal deities of times past. In the midst of this bitter and
bloody conflict, he meets the wolf god Moro and her human child San: Princess Mononoke.
Using giant puppets made from recycled materials, visceral, physical storytelling and original live
music, Studio Ghibli’s epic ecological fable is retold for the stage.”
The site says that the company has been “working on making this project possible for over a year, and we are over the moon to get
started! Performances will take place on the 2nd-6th April 2013.”
So — blasphemy? Or bastion of a new era of awesome anime-to-stage adaptations? Like I said, there’s always the Spider-Man adaptation, which, while not anime, seems to have done its best to avoid staying true to the comic and pissed off fans of the pop culture phenom something fierce. If this thing crashes, hell hath no fury like the scorn of several million dedicated anime/Miyazaki fans…
Jeff Nau – who has written 1264 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Jeff Nau is a main contributor to the Jace Hall Show covering pop culture and music trends in the nerd community. He has contributed to San Diego City Beat, 944, and Ill Literature, amongst others, and spends his spare time working as an artist and photographer.

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