The internationally famous J. R. R. Tolkien franchise, The Lord of the Rings, recently saw its debut in the anime world with The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. It is an anime dark fantasy movie that was released on December 5, 2024, and has earned a decent reception from anime fans from all over the world.
The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim follows the story of Helm Hammerhand, the king of Rohan, and his battle against the army of Dunlendings. The story is set 183 years before the original The Lord of the Rings film trilogy and puts a special focus on Helm’s family and their struggle against the attack of Dunlendings.
The anime film is directed by Kenji Kamiyama, and it is taken from a Lords of the Ring screenplay that follows the characters from the original storyline. However, what many fans don’t know is that Kamiyama is a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan, and even had to explain how one of the similarities between their works was not intentional.
Hayao Miyazaki Served As An Inspiration for The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim
After the recent success of The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, Kamiyama was recently interviewed by TheOneRing. Their interview was shared on YouTube, and during the interview, Kamiyama was asked whether he intended to have scenes in the movie that referenced Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke.
Kamiyama pointed out that Miyazaki’s influence is quite common in the works of directors of his generation. It is not intentional, but the Japanese director’s impact on the industry is so big that it automatically gets embedded in their works. He even explained that the reference to Princess Mononoke was not at all intentionally placed within the anime movie.
Further talking about his inspiration for The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, Kamiyama stated that the movie that has actually influenced him and his journey as an anime director is the 1954 movie, Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa. In fact, the two movies share a similarity in terms of the siege scene, which is quite significant in both movies.
Princess Mononoke Gave Harvey Weinstein Nightmares
Hayao Miyazaki’s fans might not know this, but the release of Princess Mononoke on a global level became a huge controversy that involved Miyazaki and Weinstein. IndieWire reported that when Disney made a deal in 1996 with Studio Ghibli to release English dubs of its films, Weinstein’s Miramax was asked with the release of Princess Mononoke.
However, things were not that easy as Harvey Weinstein demanded that Studio Ghibli cut Princess Mononoke from 135 minutes to 90 minutes. But Weinstein’s demand had nothing over Miyazaki’s, as the Japanese director was stern in his decision of not cutting the film at all.
In fact, to express the seriousness of his decision, Miyazaki sent a samurai sword to Weinstein as a gift that had a note that read, “No cuts.” This move led to Weinstein bending to Miyazaki’s decision, and ultimately Princess Mononoke was released globally with no cuts.
Princess Mononoke is available to watch on Netflix.