Archetype Blog: Princess Mononoke

In ancient times a land laid covered in forests, were 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 allegiance to the great forest spirit for those were the days of gods and demons."-Pirncess Mononoke opening scene.

This movie is about a warrior prince, Ashitaka, (the hero) from the Emishi tribe, is attacked by a demon, his right arm is touched by the demon cursing him. He sets out on a quest to find a cure for the curse, but he may never come back to his village, to them he is dead. Ashitaka makes his way across japan, and fins himself at iron town were he must confront Lady Eboshi (the crone), she is the leader of iorntown witch is exactly what it sounds like a town that makes iron. who is the one responsible for the demon attacking prince Ashitaka and is small village. Ahitaka must also find away to help a girl, San (more or less like the maiden, a warrior maiden) and her wolf mother and siblings. He must also save the forest spirit, who has the power to heal him of the curse that is eating away at him. In the end he is able to save it all, San and her wolves, the forest, Lady Eboshi and her iorntown, and most inopportunely himself.

Prince Ashitaka is the typical hero, he's mild mannered, strong, wise, and kind. And he's on the typical hero's quest/journey to solve his problem in this case that's to find a cure for his curse. Lady Eboshi is the crone in this story because she is evil, her goal in life is to become ruler of the world and, I suppose she's also the villain but that's not an archetype, or at least I don't think it is, is destroying the forest, she's the threat to Ashitaka's quest. San is the maiden because she's the girl in well a crisis, she thinks she's a wolf because she was raised by wolf demons, but she's not helpless she's a fighter, she also falls in love with Ahitaka but that's not a main point in this movie. Jigo, a character i didn't mention is the trickster because he plays the bad and good side, he tricks Lady Eboshi into cutting off, actually she shoots it off, the forest spirit's head, he also respects our hero, or dose he? I think Jigo is the perfect trickster because you never really now what his exact plans are, and that is a good example of a trickster. I suppose you could say the wolf god Moru, is the wise man...well women actually. She's old and wise and knows the ways of humans and the forests, she's also the protector of the forest spirit. Those are the main archetype's in this movie, I'm sure there are some deeper one's but I can't think of them.

You can tell that the movie is set in japan, I did some research and this is what I got; The story takes place in Japan during the Muronachi Period, which is considered to be the transition period between the medieval period and the early modern period. Some main symbols in the movie are, the sandals they wear, the samurai, all the rice they eat, and the plethora of gods. I wish they were eating sushi in this movie because that would be a really big give away that it was Japanese. Also, the names are not American so it's easy to tell that the movie come from somewhere in Asia, to be specific Japan. This is one of my favorite movies, it's cartoon but so what, it's the best animated epic of all time.

-Jessica C.