Fantasy epic The Deer King, now on Netflix, feels like a Ghibli movie — even if it isn’t one

polygon.com:

The anime feature The Deer King, now streaming on Netflix, has a bunch of significant things in common with Studio Ghibli’s movie Princess Mononoke: Both movies’ plots concern a spreading corruption overtaking a country. Both protagonists are veteran warriors and exiled wanderers. Both movies focuses on lush natural settings and the people who inhabit them. Also, both movies features people who ride deer. But the main thing Deer King and Princess Mononoke have in common is co-director Masashi Andô, Princess Mononoke’s chief animation director and character designer. Which explains why Deer King doesn’t just look like a Ghibli film, it feels like one.

Up to a point.

Deer King’s story adapts a series of fantasy novels by Japanese author Nahoko Uehashi, collapsing a great deal of world-building and complex character interaction into a broad story that often feels like it doesn’t have enough space to fully pay off all its arcs. It’s an ambitious, fascinating project, with a more fully realized setting and a more complicated setup than most films can manage, but the characters sometimes feel a little lost within that world. Some key story questions are never answered: The movie feels more like a starting point for a trilogy than like a standalone film.

But if you accept those limitations, it’s a marvelous project. Andô’s co-director, Masayuki Miyaji, is also a Ghibli vet, an assistant director on Spirited Away who went on to direct or art-direct episodes of Attack on Titan, Mars Daybreak, and Eureka Seven, among many other series. Together, the duo builds a story that feels rich and unique, aimed at the kind of adult audience that made Game of Thrones a hit.

The story centers on two warring kingdoms: The more powerful Zol is invading its neighbor country Aquafa, until a mysterious spiritual plague that only affects Zol natives begins tearing through the country. One Aquafan warrior in exile, Van, escapes a mine where he’s been imprisoned when the plague tears through