Quick Presentation

Princess Mononoke is an animated movie produced by the Studio Ghibli and directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. The visible genres are adventure, drama, and fantasy. It released in theaters the 12. of July 1997 in Japan, and from 2000 in Europe. It’s the first animated movie to use 3D graphics with a « cell-shading » effect and generated $169,7 M at the Box Office. The film was a big success worldwide before Spirited Away and introduced many people to the Japanese Animation and to an original Japanese style that can only be seen in Studio Ghibli’s productions: new animated stories influenced by many different Japanese traditions and visions. These can easily be seen in the story and the characters, but it can be sometimes hidden in the small details. The purpose of this site is to discover the work under these different aspects previously stated, and to discover how it is a major production of studio ghibli and animation in general.

The detailed presentation is divided into 4 parts:

• A general insight
• An analysis
• A presentation of the themes and visible traditions
• A quiz

And on this page, you will know more about the movie in general and us (in order):

1. The Trailer
2. The Story
3. Our Other Work
4. A summary

After reading the different articles on our site, you can take our quiz made by our teams to test your knowledge, first of all regarding the content of the site, but also your general culture on the subject. The answers are anonymous but recorded simply for curiosity purposes on our part, good luck!

The Story (with Spoilers!)

Ashitaka, the prince of the Emishis, combats a giant mad boar possessed by an evil curse to protect his village. After defeating it, he discovers an injury on his arm that burns him. The old Chaman lady of the village finds an iron ball in the boar’s body and tells Ashitaka to go find the solution to the west, “and see what he can see with eyes unclouded by hate”. He discovers during his journey two distinct clans: the humans, in the village of the forges of Lady Eboshi, who creates a shelter for lepers. She is a strong woman who cares about the residents. The other clan are the spirits of the forest, which include the human San, raised by Moro, a wolf. Ashitaka first meets them during a battle: the wolves attack the clan of Lady Eboshi on a cliff. She shots therefore Moro, who falls down the cliff. Ashitaka sees San trying to heal Moro’s injury and ask if they are the “ancient gods”. Later, San infiltrates Irontown trying to kill Lady Eboshi. Ashitaka succeeds at preventing them to kill themselves, but a woman from the town accidentally shot him. San brings him therefore to the Great Forest Spirit, and he wakes up healed. Irontown is destroying the forest to extract iron, which is driving the spirits crazy. The war is therefore unavoidable, and both clans go to their ruin only to be victorious: the emperor wants the head of the Great Spirit of the forest for an eternal life. Lady Eboshi wants to give it him, and the beasts combat to protect their god. The Great Spirit of the forest tries to protect himself with pacifism, but Lady Eboshi succeeds at cutting his head off. The Great Forest Spirit becomes therefore a “destruction god”, and a dark matter spreads everywhere, killing any life that it touches. Jigo, who helps Lady Eboshi to get the head, tries to run away with it, but Ashitaka catches up with him. Seeing what that death caused, Jigo gives up and Ashitaka and San give the forest Spirit his head back, what causes the nature to come back and take over everything again. Ashitaka wakes up without his curse and Lady Eboshi regrets what she did and wants to create a new village.

To Sum Up...