“Princess Mononoke” was the first movie by legendary storyteller Hayao Miyazaki I ever saw. I watched it as a pre-teen girl on VHS, on a tiny TV with a built-in VCR in my childhood bedroom. After I saw the forest die the first time, I cried for hours—for the Earth, for humans, for the trees and the kodama. I’ve seen it dozens of times in the two decades since. After every viewing I come away with this: What an absolute epic.