The by far coolest German TV channel for youngsters of my generation used to be “RTL II”. Every reasonably cool dude on elementary school watched anime after school.
Christmas Eve 2003: An, at the time even more, fabulously blond 3rd grader tunes in the aforementioned channel. The unique beauty of this movie combined with the epic score burnt into his mind. Since this was the first and last time this movie was aired uncut in Germany the boy, at the time mainly noticed the allegedly little to not at all physically legit by arrow detached limbs in the beginning.
Today I can definitely say that this movie shaped me more than any other. Every time I hear the main theme starting with the Cello and Contrabass, the landscape shot with cloud-capped mountains. Then a short crow sound and the incipient epic bassy-old-guy-narrator voice: “In ancient times a land lay covered in forests” “Man and beasts lived in harmony”. Then the camera zooming down on Ashitaka riding his awesome ibex/ antelope “Yakule”. It is just perfect and gets me every time.
