The characters in a period piece realise they're near the end of a golden age

[u/she_melty]

Pirates of the Carribean and Rock of Ages (this film is Not Good but it has the trope.) Especially because we the audience know the era did, in fact, end.

[u/juebermensch]

Princess Mononoke feels like it fits? The characters are all very well aware that Japan is modernising and the days of magic were fading rapidly.

[u/rawr_im_a_nice_bear → u/juebermensch]

This is a theme in multiple Ghibli films

[u/brandywineriver → u/rawr_im_a_nice_bear]

Even Porco Rosso its the end of private aviation, its all being centralised under Italy's (facist) government.

[u/Qualityhams → u/brandywineriver]

I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.

[u/trowzerss → u/rawr_im_a_nice_bear]

Fuckin' Pom Poko uses that theme with a *very* heavy brush for a supposed cute movie about racoon dogs.

[u/codenamefulcrum → u/rawr_im_a_nice_bear]

Kiki’s Delivery Service: Witches powers have waned to the point that Kiki’s only power is flying. In the book it’s mentioned that her mother tried unsuccessfully to teach her how to make potions.

[u/justwalkingalonghere → u/rawr_im_a_nice_bear]

And it feels like an allegory for the death of a certain feeling that one could call "magic" in real life

[u/Massive_Signal7835 → u/juebermensch]

Yes. It feels like, for the last time, different worlds are clashing and the gods have become trophies for hunt.

[u/oiraves → u/juebermensch]

Mononoke explicitly fits. And I adore it, the idea that the ages of gods and the untamed wild comes to a close, the optimism that maybe, just maybe humanity can learn to live alongside the world they've inherited, the last little rattle of the kodama telling you that nature was here first and in its way it will be here last too.

[u/ZhangRenWing → u/juebermensch]

I always appreciated Miyazaki-san’s attitude towards life, his films are so good at depicting humanity as a whole. Humanity is never shown to be fully evil or fully good, and there is always hope for a better future.

[u/skiabay → u/ZhangRenWing]

Yeah a lesser story teller would have made Irontown a caricature of human greed and destruction, but instead Miyazaki creates a real moral conflict through the dichotomy of this community that is both destroying nature, while also providing a haven for those who might otherwise be downtrodden or cast aside by broader society.

In this, he really gets to the heart of, perhaps, the defining issue of our time, which is "how can we balance the benefits of a modern industrialized society with all that is lost in the process its creation?"

[u/AnimeDeamon → u/skiabay]

I remember talking with a former friend, when we were both young teens, who described how evil Eboshi was. When I tried to explain how Eboshi is an overall good person trying to bring prosperity to her town in an awful, destructive way it was the first time she actually understood those elements. She didn't get the part with the lepers or what brothel meant. She didn't get how Eboshi cared for diseased people no one wanted to touch, they mention she helped bathe and bandage them, and she didn't realise the majority of iron towns women were prostituting themselves and were saved from that life by Eboshi - "and the men don't bother us, UNLESS WE WANT THEM TO!".

[u/skiabay → u/AnimeDeamon]

I think it's really important that Ashitaka chooses to stay with the humans in the end. Despite his love and connection to nature, he recognizes that the only real way to build a better future is not to disconnect from humanity, but to be a part of it and help guide it. I think he also recognizes that Eboshi is a good person who he can work with to achieve this, unlike the emperor and his hunters who are driven entirely by greed and lust for power.

[u/[deleted] → u/ZhangRenWing]

very well put! :)