History YMMV / PrincessMononoke

* NarmCharm: That line from Ashitaka, whether in Japanese or English is awesome! And many find the one about the Forest Spirit making the flowers grow to be legitimately touching.

* HolyShitQuotient: Seeing the Nightwalker for the first time is sure to draw this from some people. [[spoiler: Even more so during its final rampage after being beheaded, where it dwarfs ''all of Iron Town''.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped In a graceful, powerful, heartfelt way]].

* VanillaProtagonist: Proof that Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad, the Blog/UnshavedMouse cited the fact that Ashitaka is so moral, selfless, compassionate, unprejudiced and brave still works in the story - especially up against the other wildly grey figures in the movie. And it doesn't stop him being a badass.

* SpiritualAdaptation: [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick Lindsey Ellis]], a professed fan of the movie and whose first video review was of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}}'', once said that this movie was the movie Disney wanted to make but didn't have the delicacy to do properly.

** The antagonists, Jigo and Lady Eboshi, are quite divisive. Some enjoy them due to their likable traits (Jigo being [[AffablyEvil genuinely friendly]] towards Ashitaka and Eboshi taking care of the lepers), others are frustrated by them being {{Karma Houdini}}s who get away scot-free despite their atrocious actions. Eboshi does [[spoiler: get her arm bitten off by Moro]] but it's up in the air whether that's enough.

* SpiritualAdaptation: [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick Lindsey Ellis]], a professed fan of the movie and whose first video review was of ''Disney/{{Pocahontas}}'', once said that this movie was the movie Disney wanted to make but didn't have the delicacy to do properly.

* VanillaProtagonist: Proof that TropesAreNotBad, the Blog/UnshavedMouse cited the fact that Ashitaka is so moral, selfless, compassionate, unprejudiced and brave still works in the story - especially up against the other wildly grey figures in the movie. And it doesn't stop him being a badass.

* HePannedItNowHeSucks: Let’s just say that fans were ''not pelased'' when [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic Doug Walker]] spoke negatively about the film in one of his Disneycember videos, [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement and leave it at that]].

* CreatorsPet: San, aka. Princess Mononoke proved very popular with the creative staff, to the point that the Studio changed the film's original title "The Legend of Ashitaka," and renamed it after her.

* CounterpartComparison: When one looks at Jigo, they tend to see a greedy, ruthless weasel of a man who, despite being [[AffablyEvil oddly charming]] and genuinely fond of the young male protagonist, [[{{Chessmaster}} carefully orchestrates the various elements and factions to his benefit]] and in the end [[KarmaHoudini gets off scott-free]]. Are we talking about a Sengoku-era Japanese monk or a [[Literature/TreasureIsland certain one-legged pirate]]?

* {{Expy}}: Very likely an unintentional example, and yet...When one looks at Jigo, they tend to see a greedy, ruthless weasel of a man who, despite being [[AffablyEvil oddly charming]] and genuinely fond of the young male protagonist, [[{{Chessmaster}} carefully orchestrates the various elements and factions to his benefit]] and in the end [[KarmaHoudini gets off scott-free]]. Are we talking about a Sengoku-era Japanese monk or a [[Literature/TreasureIsland certain one-legged pirate]]?

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Easily one of Miyazaki's best-looking movies, from the background paintings which do the film's GreenAesop incredible justice to the gracefully fluid character animation, especially on ''multiple'' quadrupedal characters, which are notoriously hard to animate, and the demons which not only have multiple limbs but countless undulating appendages covering their bodies.

** The antagonists, Jigo and Lady Eboshi, are quite divisive. Some enjoy them due to their likable traits (Jigo being [[AffablyEvil genuinely friendly]] towards Ashitaka and Eboshi taking care of the lepers), others are frustrated by them being {{Karma Houdini}}s who get away scot-free despite their atrocious actions.

* EnsembleDarkhorse:
** The Forest Spirit and the kodama, thanks to their very distinctive and memorable designs.
** San is a rare occasion of where the title character is this.

* BrokenBase:
** Other Ghibli dubs have fallen into this atmosphere, but viewers can't seem to decide if the Miramax/Disney dub is good in its own right or a watered down travesty to the original Japanese. Purists stubbornly declare it's the latter, but there are fans of the English dub.
** Within the English dub, fans are split over Claire Danes as San. Half feels she is too whiny - the Unshaved Mouse saying she felt more like a ValleyGirl throwing a tantrum. The other half felt she brought a refreshing degree of anger and aggression that was absent in the Japanese dub.

* SugarWiki/SuperlativeDubbing: While the English dubbing makes some serious changes in the dialogues, it's really hard to ignore the quality of it by itself, the names in the cast and how, despite altering original lines, it still delivers a great experience. It is by far one of the best dubbings ever done, to the point that even detractors admit the performances are really good. It further stands out when compared with English dubbing done to previous Ghibli's films.

* BrokenBase: Other Ghibli dubs have fallen into this atmosphere, but viewers can't seem to decide if the Miramax/Disney dub is good in its own right or a watered down travesty to the original Japanese. Purists stubbornly declare it's the latter, but there are fans of the English dub.

* RetroactiveRecognition: You can hear none other than Creator/TaraStrong voicing Ashitaka's little sister, as well as some additional voices in Iron Town. This was before her StarMakingRole as [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Bubbles]].
** Creator/JohnDiMaggio had already dubbed his lines this [[AccidentalMisnaming "Mizayaki"]] film long before [[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} his]] StarMakingRole.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The script for the English dub, adapted by Creator/NeilGaiman no less. He cheerfully admits to freely changing several jokes and other cultural references that would not have been understood (or at least not without lengthy explanations) outside of Japan, while adapting the lines to precisely match the characters' mouth movements. Nonetheless this was all done in a spirit of almost reverent faithfulness to the original.
** That said, a number of detractors insist that his script was a complete butchery of the original.

* WTHCastingAgency: A few people felt that Claire Danes was miscast as San in the English dub, feeling her San was too whiny. Others felt that she brought a refreshing degree of anger and aggression that was absent in the Japanese dub.

* MoralEventHorizon: Jigo's warriors cross it when they use the normal soldiers of Iron Town as bait to lure the boars up, before [[spoiler: raining bombs down on them once they get in range, killing human and boar alike.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Forest Spirit and the kodama, thanks to their very distinctive and memorable designs.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The whole album, by Music/JoeHisaishi no less, particularly the hauntingly beautiful main theme.