Everyone can eat San’s jerky, but only select humans will get to ride the boar god slide, though.
Ghibli doesn’t do things by halves, which, in a case of linguistic irony, means that the opening of Ghibli Park has been split into three parts. The Aichi Prefecture theme park had its initial grand opening one year ago for its Dondoko Forest, Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse, and Hill of Youth sections, but the Princess Mononoke-themed Mononoke Village and Valley of Witches, with nods to Howl’s Moving Castle and Kiki’s Delivery Service, weren’t yet finished.
But now the final finishing touches are being put on Mononoke Village, and Ghibli Park is showing off its recreations of two gigantic creatures from Princess Mononoke.
During an advance preview day, the world got its first glances at Mononoke Village’s nine-meter (29.5-foot) long Tataragami, the raging monster that the protagonist fights, and is cursed by, during the anime’s opening battle sequence. Next to the Tataragami is a 3.4-meter-tall Okkoto-nushi, god of the forest boars who Ashikaga crosses paths with as he searches for a way to cure his affliction.
While the in-anime Okkoto is reluctant to offer aid to a human, Ghibli Park’s is much more hospitable, as it’s also a slide that guests can go down, as shown in the video below.
▼ Although since the slide can only be ridden by children elementary school-age and younger, perhaps Okotto is merely giving them a temporary pass in recognition of their youthful innocence.
Mononoke Village’s structures are inspired by those of the anime’s Tataraba, or Irontown. Instead of an iron foundry, though, the main building houses a workshop for making goheimochi, a kind of hearty skewered rice cake traditionally eaten in the mountainous areas of Aichi and its neighboring prefectures of Gifu and Nagano. For an additional fee, participating guests can make and grill their own goheimochi, applying either the customary chestnut miso or soy sauce glazes or, in an avant-garde twist, Napolitan tomato sauce.
▼ The goheimochi workshop can be seen at the point in the video queued here.
And, of course, there will be exclusive merchandise, with the souvenir stand shown in the video below offering Tataragami and Okkoto-nushi plushies as well as Mononoke Village Hoshiniku jerky, a callback to the dried meat San feeds Ashikaga in the movie, all of which can be seen in the video here.
▼ You can expect anime fan couples to start recreating the scene almost immediately.
Mononoke Village opens to the public on November 1, while Valley of Witches is scheduled to open next spring.
Source: NHK News Web
Top image: Studio Ghibli
Insert images: Studio Ghibli
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