Masashi Ando has worked as an animation director on at least two of the greatest films ever made: Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Satoshi Kon’s Paprika. Other blockbuster credits include Makoto Shinkai’s 200 billion yen-grossing Your Name and the recently re-released Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.
Expectations are, understandably, high for the Hiroshima-born film-maker’s directorial debut.
The Deer King, co-directed by Masayuki Miyaji (Xam’d: Lost Memories), is based on the hit Japanese fantasy novel series written by Nahoko Uehashi. With a nod to classic 1970s manga Lone Wolf and Cub, the film casts a gruff warrior in a parental role. Van (Shinichi Tsutsumi), a former soldier who has lost his wife and son, is a forced labourer in a salt mine who is attacked by a pack of supernatural dogs.
Almost invariably, the pack’s victims are infected by a festering, fatal illness. Van, however, not only survives, he finds that he is possessed with enough unnatural strength to escape his underground dungeon and to rescue an adorable orphaned girl, Yuna (Hisui Kimura).
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The pair hurriedly bond and find refuge in a remote village. But it’s only a matter of time before the rampaging canine illness, an ambitious young healer (Ryoma Takeuchi), and competing political factions converge upon the makeshift family.
There are some beautiful character designs and flourishes here, many of which trumpet Masashi Ando’s long time Studio Ghibli associations. Depictions of plague and the mysterious bridled animals of the title recall the director’s earlier work on Princess Mononoke.
The blimps (!) and elaborate kingdoms may be pretty but there’s rather too much going on visually and narratively, as the script scrambles to accommodate Nahoko Uehashi’s epic world-building. The final two minutes can feel as cluttered and truncated as the notorious last episode of Game of Thrones. The animation remains enchanting and is punctuated by exciting swords-and-sandals action, even if the finished film is not quite the classic we might have anticipated from the talents attached.
