Princess Mononoke: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony. But as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts, who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit. For those were the days of gods and of demons.''|'''Opening narration''' }}

'''''Mononoke Hime''　''' (もののけ姫) is an acclaimed 1997 film from famed Japanese director [[Hayao Miyazaki]], with a rather dark, serious plot and ambience (compared to most of his other works), yet lacking none of the trademark stunning visuals of a [[Studio Ghibli]] production. The score was written by Joe Hisaishi. (Also worth noting that [[Neil Gaiman]] adapted the film's English dub.)

Set in Japan during roughly the 16th or 17th century, the story begins in a small village of the Emishi (similar to but not the same as the Ainu), the indigenous inhabitants of Japan, who by this time have mostly been conquered or driven into hiding in remote corners of the country where they can live in some semblance of peace. The village's peace is shattered by the attack of a terrible demon; the village's last remaining prince, Ashitaka, is injured during the fight to kill it, and even worse, the mortally wounded demon is revealed to be a powerful spirit -- aspirit—a giant boar that curses the Emishi with its last breath and reveals that the wound Ashitaka suffered has cursed him as well. The village elders decide, with much reluctance, that Ashitaka must leave the village before the curse takes full possession of him and [[Walking the Earth|travel west]] in [[The Hero's Journey|search of his destiny]]. Ashitaka leaves immediately, with only his trusted [[Fantastic Mount|red elk]] Yakul and a [[Memento MacGuffin|necklace]] from his sister, Kaya. The young prince follows the demon boar's trail of destruction with the only clue he has about what transformed the spirit into a demon: an iron ball found embedded in a wound on its side.

Ashitaka travels through the war-torn countryside, discovering that his curse has also [[Cursed Withwith Awesome|imparted superhuman strength]] along the way. He eventually comes upon Irontown, a mining settlement on the edge of the wilderness that's in the midst of a three-way war between the strong-willed Lady Eboshi (who protects the town through the use of early firearms -- hencefirearms—hence the iron ball), the spirits/gods of the forest (who want to stop Irontown's expansion to protect their homes from destruction), and an influential [[Samurai]] warlord (who wants to seize the town for the wealth it generates). In Irontown, Ashitaka tries his best to create some peace between the various sides, cure his curse, and pursue a relationship with San, a human girl who was raised by the powerful wolf god Moro and fights alongside the forest creatures as events seem to be heading towards an inevitable disaster.

** [[Fantastic Aesop]]: Don't shoot nature spirits if you don't want them to turn into [[Blob Monster|Blob Monsters]]s.

* [[An Arm and Aa Leg]]: The aforementioned "MY AAAAARRRRRRRM!" in addition to {{spoiler|Lady Eboshi getting her arm bitten off.}}

* [[Animal Companion]]: Yakul. (The wolves are more like [[Raised Byby Wolves|relatives]]).

* [[Anti -Human Alliance]]

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: Eboshi is shown to be gray, but her samurai opponent, Lord Asano, is only described as "A greedy bastard". To be fair, Asano was described as such by Jigo, while he was sucking up to Lady Eboshi -- thatEboshi—that and he chuckled about it immediately after.

* [[Arrow Catch]]: Ashitaka not only can catch an arrow, but use it to fire back at the attacker. He also cuts arrows in half mid-air.

** [[Badass Adorable]]: Even if she [[Raised Byby Wolves|doesn't act like one]], San is still a cute young girl.

** [[Badass Normal]]: Applies to Lady Eboshi in particular. Her enemies are the gods themselves, but it is they who fear her.

* [[Bandage Mummy]]: Most of the lepers are wrapped up head to foot, which is probably what would have happened to them in [[Real Life]].

* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Ashitaka is very kind, helpful and polite to those he likes, and would rather promote peace than fight. But when he's serious ''nothing'' can get in his way.

* [[Changeling Tale]]: San is a [[Foundling]] who was [[Raised Byby Wolves]] after being left at the feet of the Wolf God.

{{quote| "So you say you're under a curse? Well so what? So's the whole damn world." }}

{{quote| "Look, everyone wants everything, that's the way the world works, but I might actually get it!"}}

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: "Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite."

* [[Chick Magnet]]: All of the Irontown women think Ashitaka is gorgeous and fawn over him constantly, and even San seems attracted to him.

* [[Cooldown Hug]]: Ashitaka gives one to San after {{spoiler|she stabs him in the chest}}.

* [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]]: Sure, whatever Ashitaka has will kill him, but, while he is alive, he is strong enough to decapitate people with arrows or single-handedly push gates that take ten strong men to open. He doesn't consider this a good thing though, and mainly uses his powers to do good.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Lady Eboshi

* [[The Determinator]]: Ashitaka, full stop. Not even getting shot through the lung slows him down.

{{quote| '''Eboshi:''' He's a god, you fools -- it'll take more than one shot.}}

** Possibly a dash of [[Fridge Brilliance]]...? I mean, has anyone noticed that San is wearing a ''wolf pelt'' throughout the whole film?

* [[Dramatic Wind]]: [[Playing Withwith a Trope|Played with]] -- it—it seems to happen whenever Ashitaka gets angry, even if he's ''indoors''. Given that whenever this happens, it's immediately followed by something weird going on with his arm, it seems something to do with the curse.

** There's also Nago, the initial boar demon, and later {{spoiler|Okkoto}}.

* [[Everything's Better Withwith Samurai]]: Subverted; practically every samurai in the movie is a murderous asshole, which according to some historians is a [[Truth in Television|much more accurate depiction]] than what we normally get in pop culture.

* [[Facial Markings]]: San's distinctive red wolf-fangs.

* [[Foe-Tossing Charge]]: Played with - simply put, it's rare to see one that's pulled off with [[Tranquil Fury]].

* [[The Ghost]]: Lord Asano, the man besieging Irontown, despite being referred to at several points, is never seen on screen.

* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: The wolves have these at night, due to eyeshine. However the apes seem to keep their bright red eyes at all times.

* [[Grey and Grey Morality]]: Everyone has their own reasons for fighting, and [[Audience Surrogate]] Ashitaka finds it hard to blame anyone completely.

** Heck, San hates all humans...but she can't bring it in herself to kill anyone but Lady Eboshi, who has hurt her. Lady Eboshi meanwhile indeed sets out to kill gods and animals who get in her way, but at the same time, the lepers say she's the only one who looked at them as human and she regularly buys women from brothels to give them a home and work.

* [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation]]: {{spoiler|Okkoto [[Freak-Out|freaks out]] when he becomes the only survivor after the battle between boars and humans. And the Assassins disguised as boars to kill him [[It Got Worse|don't help]].}}

* [[He's a Friend|He's A Friend]]: Inverted.

* [[Horse of a Different Color]]: Ashitaka's faithful [[Call a Smeerp Aa Rabbit|red elk]], Yakul. In addition, San often rides one of her wolf brothers into battle.

* [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]]: Played with. Most humans are pretty much normal people, and Eboshi has a lot of good as well as bad. Some others, however...

* [[I Just Shot Marvin in Thethe Face]]: Ashitaka is shot through the torso unintentionally in this way.

*** Perhaps. It's never stated whether the barrels are rifled. It seems unlikely that the pole-guns are rifled, but as for the others...? A musket without rifling is only good for volley-fire at a hundred yards or less at best. A rifled musket could give a shooter firing independently accuracy enough to hit a man at twice that range, say.

* [[Large and In Charge]]: The most powerful gods, such as Moro, Okkoto and Nago are all huge, whereas their subjects are smaller. This makes sense as they're the oldest, and it's implied that as time goes by and the gods lose power, they become smaller.

* [[Lip Lock]]: Not really, but the gods seem to have the ability to speak without moving their mouths, however they regularly open and close them anyway, making it appear that their lines were just badly synced.

* [[Made of Iron]]: Flaming arrows don't affect the boar gods at all, and Moro is seen to be mostly unhurt after being set on fire and thrown off a cliff.

** Ashitaka seems more distraught by the fact that his girlfriend said she hated him than by being stabbed.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: San's name can mean "three", which would make sense as she is technically Moro's third child.

* [[Milky White Eyes]]: Okkoto has these, being old and blind.

* [[Mr. Fanservice]]: Arguably Ashitaka, the one young, attractive male in the cast who frequently performs feats of great [[Badass|badasserybadass]]ery and/or takes his shirt off.

* [[No Arc in Archery]]: Ashitaka's arrows are almost like medieval cruise-missiles. [[Justified Trope|Justified]] in that this is [[Cursed Withwith Awesome|due to the curse]].

** Also, it's implied to be averted. A later battle shows characters holding umbrellas up to protect themselves from arrows.

* [[One-Man Army]]: Ashitaka. It's already established he has the strength of ten men, but what about when he takes on {{spoiler|the forces of Irontown, Lord Asano and Okkoto}} ''all at once''?!

* [[Pet the Dog]]: Eboshi gets a number of these moments, such as when it's shown that she gives shelter and work to lepers. The movie is unusual for [[Green Aesop]] stories in that the traditionally evil [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters]] representative gets several chances to [[Pet the Dog]], while the environmentalist side represented by San is more often [[Kick the Dog|kicking it.]] See [[Hanlon's Razor]]; it's shown that both sides are capable of quite a bit of good, and the source of their conflict stems entirely from their refusal to coexist.

** With the exception of the Deer God, who actually does live up to both parts of his name quite well.

* [[Raised Byby Wolves]]: Literally for San, albeit the wolves are gods that can speak.

* [[Rampage From a Nail]]: The boar at the beginning of the movie is crazy/evil because of a bullet.

* [[Raven Hair, Ivory Skin]]: Eboshi, fitting for a lady of high status.

* [[Reverse Grip]]: How San holds her knife most of the time. In this case, it also makes it easier for her to block.

* [[Smug Snake]]: Jigo.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Ashitaka steadily loses more and more of his clothes throughout the movie, until he is running around in just his pants and his... sleeves?

* [[Shout-Out]]: The movie opens with [[The Messiah]] racing to save otherwise defenseless loved ones from an enormous, unstoppable, rage-filled monstrosity with [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|demonic red eyes]]. Said messiah pleads with it desperately before using force, putting himself in its path and asking it to return to the forest and leave them alone. [[Nausicaa of the Valley of Thethe Wind|Hmmmm...]]

* [[So What Do We Do Now?]]{{context}}

* [[Suck Out the Poison]]: San tries this with Moro's bullet wound. It apparently didn't work, as Moro later says the bullet is still inside, slowly killing her.

* [[Tap Onon the Head]]: Ashitaka ends the fight between San and Lady Eboshi by knocking them both out with a couple stiff shots to their respective abdomens. To be fair he is imbued with superhuman strength.

** When Eboshi tells him how she plans to defeat all the gods with her new guns, he is noticeably angry, but then his right arm moves to attack her ''by itself''. He holds it back and calmly states that he would kill her with his left if he thought it would solve anything.

* [[Tsundere]]: Toki is this completely toward her husband. San also has elements of it.

** {{spoiler|Ashitaka}} as well, with some help from the aforementioned.

** The Spirit cures {{spoiler|all the lepers at the end}}.

* [[The Wise Prince]]: Ashitaka, who is also a prime example of a [[Warrior Prince]].

* [[WalkWalking Onon Water]]: A habit of the Forest Spirit. After the first time he's shot, he briefly sinks into the water, then begins walking on it again as if nothing happened.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?]]: Sure, it's a Ghibli movie. So is ''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]''. A lot of kids were traumatized by this movie when their parents took them to see it because ''[[Pokémon]]'' came out in America at around the same time. So logically, they'd love another Japanime type skit, right?

* [[World -Healing Wave]]: After {{spoiler|reattaching the god's head.}}

[[Category:PrincessFantasy MononokeAnime and Manga]]