What is Shinto

Global climate change and its effects on the planet attract attention by policymakers as well as scholars. Global ecological crises are gradually being examined both in cultural and scientific terms all over the world as a concept as the relationship between nature and people is examined further. Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki stands out with his critical approach to the relationship between humans and nature. Miyazaki's animated films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind provide us with a different perspective on Mother Earth and the relationship between nature and people in connection to “past,” “present,” and “future.” In this chapter, Miyazaki's three films are examined through three approaches in ecocriticism—deep ecology, ecofeminism, and dark ecology—to show how Miyazaki maintains a unifying, and a not discriminatory, narrative in our perception of nature by finding balancing solutions to dichotomies such as nature-man, human-nonhuman, man-woman, technology-nature.