When I was growing up, for whatever reason, Leprosy was used as the outstanding example of a decease that completely incapacitated and made people social outcasts to the point they were sent off to islands to live with other Lepers. I don't know why this was culturally a big deal, I imagine it to be the same as quick sand for American children, just something adults were panicking way too much about. I am Mediterranean for context.

When I watched Mononoke, the scenes in the Iron Village completely befuddled me for a long time at first. This city both constantly establishes itself as a place with a deeply negative effect on the surrounding wilds. They're actively destroying the outskirts of the forest where a bunch of animal gods live, and yet at the same time, they're all nice, and oddly gender affirming and... The villain employs Lepers.

As in, they had nowhere else to go, so she took them in. And she has no problem taking a gun they built directly off their hands, completely unafraid. I grew learning that Lepers were being thrown out because everyone was afraid and they were highly contagious and no one knew what else to do, so having the villain, unironically, show the grace I learned belonged to "The modern world", was like a brick tossed directly inside my brain. She was the reason Ashitaka was dying, she was the reason the pig monster showed up. And yet, she was not a bad person.

Good art. Felt a lot of empathy for Ashitaka. Thought about it a lot, made me grow a lot. And all because someone in Japan, somehow, laser targeted me on my sensibilities on Leprosy. So random.