_Princess Arete_ is, in many ways, an odd duck. While the ending is a good ending by many standards and educates me in some respects, it still leaves me unsatisfied - and I think that may be the mark of how it is a peculiarly *feminist* film as opposed to a regular film, in the sense of showing an empowered competent female protagonist of the kind you have to watch patiently for a Ghibli film to see usually.