Whenever we have a Studio Ghibli film, we should expect something from a fantastic land with a peculiar twist. Our story, in this case, is settled in an old Japanese era called Muromachi (roughly between the 14th and 16th centuries). The good news is that we had royalty in such time. The protagonist of Princess Mononoke is Prince Ashitaka, from an Emishi tribe. Proud, controlled and noble despite his young age, Ashitaka rides around the village on his elk, Yakul.

One fine day, the village is attacked by a strange wild boar. Ashitaka manages to kill him before he does harm, but is infected by a curse that the suffering animal was carrying. After some inquiries, the elders of the village find out that the curse was caused by an iron ball inside the boar’s body, who used to be a forest spirit. They tell Ashitaka that he will die unless he is able to find a cure in the place of origin of the spirit, in the western lands. Anyway, that means that Ashitaka has to give up his Emishi identity and embark on a perilous journey, but he does all of it with a brave heart. He truly was raised to be a prince, huh?

There is an iron forging town very close to a forest in the west lands. Its leader, Lady Eboshi, is riding back home bringing supplies, when an ambush attacks them! And it is not your regular ambush: three giant white wolves (spirits) and a girl covered with white fur and a red mask kill or destroy whatever they can. Thus, lady Eboshi fires one of her cannons, hitting the biggest wolf (Moro) and forcing them to withdraw.

Meanwhile, our protagonist Ashitaka is crossing the western forest when he finds some injured men. He tries to help when he senses something else not so far away. That is how Ashitaka discovers the wolves and the girl, now unmasked, sucking and spitting the polluted blood of the injured wolf. Although Ashitaka tries to talk in a friendly manner to them, all that he gets is a cold and savage stare from the blood covered girl. Yeap, that is San, the Princess Mononoke (Spirit Princess) from the movie title. Not our regular princess, right? But that is how we know this is going to get exciting.

Ashitaka is an outsider when he arrives to the western lands. Nevertheless, his natural leading abilities kick in since the beginning. In first place, Ashitaka helps the men from the convoy and takes them to the safety of the iron town. This grants Ashitaka the favor of Lady Eboshi, the actual head of the town, and opens his way to learn about their life style. He also interferes in the fierce battle between San and Lady Eboshi, preventing both of them from getting hurt. Actually, the dark powers of his cursed arm are shown in this scene, but Ashitaka uses it to avoid further conflicts and demands to get leave town with San. Ashitaka keeps in control even in such tense situations, which make people around him respect and obey him.

On the other hand, we could imagine San as a rather weak member of the wolf tribe. Abandoned as a baby in the forest, she was raised like the rest of the pack, but being human, she has her limitations. Yet San also has advantages, like the ability to speak and manufacture weapons. It is hinted that the wolf spirits accept her as one of them, and being the loyal, fearless, sneaky girl she is, San has all that it takes to be respected and obeyed too.

San has lived out most of her life with spirits, thus she can communicate with them better than with humans. On the other hand, after being taken by San to the lake in the center of the forest and partially healed by Shishi Gami, Ashitaka acquires the benefit of the doubt from the spirits. This means that at least they will talk to him, in sharp contrast with his other fellow humans. Thus we can see that Ashitaka and San are different individuals with experience in both realms.

When the boar spirits decide to attack Lady Eboshi’s people, San chooses to assist their chief Okkotonushi, who can no longer see. Ashitaka goes back to the iron village and finds out that is under siege by samurais while Lady Eboshi went to the forest with a group called Karakasa Ren to hunt down the Shishi Gami. She might be possibly betrayed by the Karakasa Ren, so Ashitaka rushes back to the forest. On his way, Ashitaka finds that the Karakasa Ren beat the boar spirits with explosives, killing almost all of them. As for Okkotonushi, he is so wounded that he is becoming a cursed spirit, pulling San with him. A wounded Moro manages to grab San away, who is then caught and brought to the cleansing lake by Ashitaka.

Things get even worse, though, as the Shishi Gami arrives to the place and its head is shot down by Lady Eboshi. As a result, the Shishi Gami becomes a tar like creature that spreads death to everything he touches, looking all over the place for his head. The head has been taken by the Karakasa Ren, so Ashitaka asks San to help him find them. After a battle against the group and being surrounded by the deadly tar, Ashitaka and San manage to recover the head. Holding it high in the air together and embracing at the same time, they offer it to the Shishi Gami so that there can be peace.

After a spectacular disappearance of the giant Shishi Gami, the fire on the iron town goes out. The zones covered with the deadly tar are now full of green and young plants. Ashitaka and San, who were both marked with curses during the last battle, awake to find themselves cured. San admits that she loves Ashitaka but cannot forgive humans. Ashitaka says that it is fine, as he will stay in the iron town and go to the forest to visit her. After hearing those final words, San departs with her wolf brothers.

So, we have an open ending again, but it is not hard to guess that our couple was able to meet in the future. Lady Eboshi was an energized leader who was determined to rebuild an even better iron town, and the forest creatures were also reviving. Thus, the unbreakable link between humans and nature was going to start a new cycle again. Such delicate relationships were going to need very good ambassadors, but look no further. That is why the forest has San and the iron town has Ashitaka, a truly heroic couple that rose to their ultimate abilities on the most defying circumstances.