ABSTRACT
Relationships are important to make the audience feel that the character relates to their social and natural environment, reacts to it, acknowledges it, and is part of it. The environment, both social and natural, has always an impact on the character in the form of shaping habits or emotions as much as the character in turn has an impact on their environment, shaping it after their liking, needs, or just by living there. Relationships assist tremendously with storytelling as stories evolve through additional visual information and are intellectually enriched by them. For example, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1997): San grew up in the forest and was raised by wolves, which is obvious in her outfit that is different from Ashitaka’s, which follows the traditional outfit of the Emishi, an indigenous tribe from northern Japan. Both characters however loosely relate to each other because they share a similar height, age, and features (the face shape is similar, their entire facial structure shares a similar direction). The viewer does not necessarily see the relationship, but feels it. These relationships are tremendously helpful in touching upon the subtexts of a story, the little details that are not mentioned in the film but are still important to not only make the viewer understand the relationship but also feel it. It is also clear from the visuals who belongs where. Ashitaka wears the Emishi tribe’s practical garb of a hunter connecting him to a social setting, whereas San wears a fur cape, a necklace of teeth (or bone), and a white shirt, which in its color relates her to the wolves she lives with. The teeth around her neck obviously do the same 46and also give her a natural fierceness and strength. It is the materials of fur and teeth that relate her to the natural world!
