History Characters / PrincessMononoke

* NiceHat: Wears a distinctive red hat which makes her easier to spot in a crowd.

* WarriorMonk: The cynical Jigo and his mercenary band nearly completely inverts the traditional image of a Japanese Buddhist warrior monk. Instead of being a fighter for a righteous cause, or a contemplative mystic with {{Enlightenment Superpower}}s, he completely lacks the qualms or scruples which would prevent him from carrying out any act, no matter how repugnant, [[MoneyDearBoy as long as he gets paid for it]], and makes no attempt to hide this fact. The most Buddhist thing about him are his robes.

* WarriorMonk: The cynical Jigo and his mercenary band nearly completely inverts the traditional image of a Japanese Buddhist warrior monk. Instead of being a fighter for a righteous cause, or a contemplative mystic with {{Enlightenment Superpower}}s, he lacks any kinds of qualms or scruples that could prevent him from carrying out any act, no matter how repugnant, [[MoneyDearBoy as long as he gets paid for it]], and makes no attempt to hide this fact. The most Buddhist thing about him are his robes.

* WarriorMonk: Jigo so heavily subverts the classical image of a Japanese warrior monk he nearly inverts it. Instead of being a fighter for a righteous cause, or a contemplative mystic with {{Enlightenment Superpower}}s, he's an incredibly cynical mercenary who'll carry out any act, no matter how repugnant, [[MoneyDearBoy as long as he gets paid for it]]; with the most Buddhist thing about him being his robes.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: San's hair appears to be green under certain lighting.

* WalkingWasteland: He curses everything he touches after turning into a demon.

* PerilousOldFool: He's an ancient soldier who doesn't want to accept that the time of gods is over and is determined to lead his clan into a fight against a foe they have no hope of beating.

* CallASmeerpARabbit: An elk is a large North American deer with antlers almost as large as a moose. These "red elks" of which conveniently there are none in Japan, or in any other part of the world now for that matter, much more closely resembles a three-way cross between a yak, a pronghorn and a gazelle (or perhaps a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lechwe lechwe]]).

%%* ActionGirl: She and the other women of Iron Town.

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: She has a standing army of lepers, criminals, and former prostitutes. Subverted in that these people aren't evil, just the misfits of humanity that they joined Lady Ebosi for her quest to create a paradise for themselves. Ebosi's benevolent and caring nature to them ensures their loyalty.

%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Is a rare well-intentioned version of this.

* LadyOfWar: She's elegant, calm, calculating and has an arsenal of rifles at her disposal that can pierce samurai armor like paper. This is in contrast to the more primal and savage [[JunglePrincess San]].

* {{Leitmoif}}: An intriguing knocking sound can be heard whenever they are near.

* NoNameGiven

* PhysicalGod: In the same manner as the rest of her family she is immortalized as a Shinto concept of animism; a representative of the hunter-gatherer spirits when they still walked the earth before the rise of agriculture and an embodiment of nature's mystery. She also possesses one of the most apparent dualistic aspects of personality that permeate nearly every character in the film. Namely: love and wrath. As a kami; San is not so much a deity in the Shintoist sense as she is a force of mind and presence, one that Ashitaka is so smitten with that he will risk all to appease her.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingPutCthulhu: He begins the movie killing Nago the boar god-turned-demon, but in the process gets his arm grabbed by its accursed flesh and is afflicted with a curse himself that will eventually kill him.

* BigBad: In all but name. Nearly every bit of misfortune can be traced back to him: He's the ManBehindTheMan for Lady Eboshi, her effort to destroy the forest and its spiritual denizens, and, by extension, Ashitaka's curse; also, while Eboshi herself is a WellIntentionedExtremist AntiVillain who just wants to build a home for her people, Jigo is a more clear-cut villain, being motivated purely by greed; and to top it all off, he serves as the FinalBoss who Ashitaka and San have to confront during the film's climax.

* BigBad: In all but name. Practically every bad thing that happens in the story can be traced back to him: He's the ManBehindTheMan for Lady Eboshi and, by extension, her effort to destroy the forest and its spiritual denizens; also, while Eboshi herself is a WellIntentionedExtremist AntiVillain who just wants to build a home for her people, Jigo is a more clear-cut villain, being motivated purely by greed; to top it all off, he serves as the FinalBoss who Ashitaka and San have to confront during the film's climax.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Downplayed. Yakul shows no unrealistic abilities - just the natural athleticism of a mountain beast and the affection of a well-trained domesticated animal. It might be argued that he's awfully smart for a member of the deer family, though.

* DefrostingIceQueen: She comes very close to killing Ashitaka with her knife to his Addams apple, but after she witness the forest sprit heal him she warms up to him.

* NiceGuy: [[AllLovingHero Doesn't want a war to start between humans and forest spirits?]] Check. [[BigBrotherInstinct Killed a boar spirit when it head towards his younger sister, Kaya?]] Check. [[FriendToAllLivingThings Has a deep respect for the forest spirits, that may only be second]] [[NatureHero to San?]] Check.

%%* GutturalGrowler
%%* NobleWolf

%%* PhysicalGod
%%* TalkingAnimals

%%* TalkingAnimal
* ThoseTwoGuys: Even their own mother doesn't name them in the film when addressing them!

* LeitMotif: ''The Legend of Ashitaka'. Which is sometimes played as a gentle melancholy tune or as an epic crescendo of passion.

* DentedIron: Although she survives a close-range blast of a black-powder cannon, being bathed in a jet of Greek fire and falling about three hundred feet off a massive cliff, clipping the side at least once and being swept downriver; Eboshi's bullet condemns her to be greatly weakened and eventually paralyzes her hind legs.

* MadeOfIron: 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.

* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Subverted. Yakul shows no unrealistic abilities - just the natural athleticism of a mountain beast and the affection of a well-trained domesticated animal. It might be argued that he's awfully smart for a member of the deer family, though.

* FamousLastWords: After being killed by Ashitaka, he says, "Disgusting little creatures. Soon, all of you will feel my hate and suffer as ''I'' have suffered."