ANI-MOVIES, *The Deer King

The Deer King was originally a series of novels written by Nahoko Uehashi who had anime adaptations done of her works including Moribito and The Beast Player as episodic TV series, but this was the first time that a motion picture would try telling an entire fantasy saga in single feature-length movie. Production IG was the studio behind this 2021 release directed by former Studio Ghibli animators Masashi Ando and Masayuki Miyaji, and their prior experience is on full display as there are major influences in this from films like Princess Mononoke of which one of the animators actually worked on. The quality of animation is up to Hayao Miyazaki standards, but what really bring it down from the reputation of a Ghibli production is bad pacing and the rush to fill in the entire novel series plot into a 114-minute-long movie.

In an alternate reality, the Zol Empire had taken over the country of Aquafa, but rebellious Aquafese wish to liberate themselves from Zol even though they have maintained peace with their conquerors a decade ago. A bizarre plague is sweeping through the land while taking the form of spiritual wolves, a bite of which causes Zolians to eventually die while the Aquafese are unaffected. In a prison mine, former resistance leader Van and an orphaned girl Yuna are the only survivors after a wolf attack. Van is one of the last of an Aquafese tribe known as the Lone Antlers and they had a special kinship with the deer of this land here called pyuika, and manages to wrangle one of his lost bucks into giving him and Yuna passage to a village of pyuika wranglers. Van seems content in this new home with Yona as his adopted daughter even if he lost his family during the Zol occupation. Meanwhile the new lord of the Aquafa is preparing for a visit from the Zolian emperor which is threatened by this virus, and a young doctor seeks out Van and Yuna as their blood might be the cure to the disease. The hunt is on now for the doctor, his eager bodyguard, and a tracker woman to locate these survivors, but Yuna is taken away by the wolves leading to Van teaming up with his unlikely allies to bring her back from the Aquafese liberators planning to use the outbreak to free their nation no matter who gets hurt along the way. Van realizes that his immunity to this virus is giving him enhanced strength and supernatural powers, but he has to suppress his emotions in order to not let it give in to rage.

The Deer King contains spectacular visual aesthetics with rolling landscapes and a very rich lore to it, however the dense lore is what prevents it from achieving any replay value. There is more than enough backstory to comprehend and several conflicting terms to keep up with. Many critics shot down the movie for its bad pacing and trying to understand the post-credits conclusion, plus there are too many comparisons to Princess Mononoke as both films are eerily similar. I'd suggest catching the film on streaming first before you decide whether or not if you want to actually add this to your library.