Abstract
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films question what audiences may conceive to be inanimate and bring these objects into a new sphere of categorization. New eco-philosophical schools of thought have recently raised the dualistic definitions of the terms ‘human’ and ‘non-human’ as problematic. Philosophical approaches of ‘new materialism’ point to agency inherent to all objects. Utilizing the term ‘non-human’ within this article will enable a more nuanced grasp of what may be considered as the ‘inanimate’ and the ‘non-human’. Miyazaki utilizes a philosophical approach to ‘enchantment’ to present audiences with a complex view of the relations between the human and non-human world through a folkloric lens, thereby providing an alternative mode of eco-criticism.