Ashitaka is the heroic protagonist of Princess Mononoke. The hero of his village, he is forced to leave when infected by Demon Worms. Ashitaka and his red elk Yakul, head to the forbidden forest and eventually reaches Irontown, an insular settlement administrated by the mysterious Lady Eboshi, which is attempting to control the forces of nature that surrounds it. Later, in the forest, he meets the wolf-girl San, who wants to destroy Irontown. Ultimately, Ashitaka stops a war between Irontown and the forest creatures, and stops the incensed Forest Spirit from destroying them both.

AppearanceEdit

At the beginning of the movie, Ashitaka had long hair that was tied into a bun, but he cuts it off after he is told to leave the village. His main clothing color is blue. A blue top and peach-white pants. He wears brown bottom warmers and shoes made out of fabric. He also wears blue arm sleeves and a red hat to cover his face. He wears a cloak made out of hay for a small portion of the movie. It is not seen, but after his night at San's place, he has been wearing his sister's crystal dagger before he gave it to San. After San's attack on Iron Town, Ashitaka has a slash scar on his left cheek where San slashed him with her dagger. 

PlotEdit

Nago Attacks the VillageEdit

The movie Princess Mononoke starts as Ashitaka is riding towards the lookout tower for his village, telling everyone he meets along the way that the village wisewoman has ordered everyone inside the village. When he reaches (and climbs to the top of) the watchtower, he asks the watchman if he sees anything. he points into the forest not far from the tower. The camera zooms in, and you see something moving in the underbrush, getting closer. It is a monster that appears to be made of rusty-brownish-red worms. Everything it touches seems to wither up and die. It is moving very quickly-right toward the watchtower and the village. It crashes into the watchtower, sending it crashing down a steep hill. Ashitaka and the watchman escape, and Ashitaka mounts Yakul and rides to cut the demon off before it reaches the village.

He does manage to cut it off right before it reaches the village, and tries to reason with it and make it leave. We catch a glimps of a boar under all of those worms. It doesn't listen to Askitaka. Seeing no other choice to keep it from attacking the village, Ashitaka shoots an arrow at it, and hits its eye. Enraged, the worms around the beast reach out for Ashitaka, and a few latch themselves onto his arm. Ashitaka shoots again, and the boar falls and stops.

The wisewoman and several villagers come to the scene of the fight, and remove Ashitaka from Yakul. He has a large, irregularly shaped, purpleish scar on his forearm where the worms touched him. The wound is tended to. The wisewoman turns to the dying boar and tells it that they will give it proper burial rights and asks it not to bear them any ill will. It dies after ignoring the wisewoman and saying that humans were pathetic and that someday they would suffer as he had suffered.

Ashitaka Heads WestEdit

That night Ashitaka meets before the village elders. The Wisewoman reads Ashitaka's future using magic stones and tells Ashikata that the wound is a curse, and that it will grow and consume him, cause him great pain, and then kill him, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. A few elders protest, saying that their numbers are growing smaller, and that they do no wish to send away their last prince. The Wisewoman tells Ashitaka that the most he can do is to meet his fate. She takes from her kimono an iron ball, and tells him that it was found inside the boar's body, and that it is the cause of his suffering and what turned him into a demon. She bids Ashitaka ride east and find out what did this, to 'see with eyes unclouded' and see what he can do to make sure what happened to the boar doesn't happen again. Ashitaka agrees, and cuts his hair before leaving to pack his things.

Even though the laws of the village forbid it, Ashitaka's little sister Kaya comes out to bid him goodbye, and gives him her crystal dagger. Ashitaka tells her he will never forget her, then rides off on Yakul. Kaya runs to the front gate where it would be her last night to see her brother.

The Forbidden ForestEdit

After rescuing two men in the waterfall, Ashitaka looks around if their were any other injured men, only to see a wolf injured. A girl with her two wolfs come and get rid of the poison blood. The girl spots Ashitaka, but doesn't confront him. Ashitaka decides to introduce himself only to mistaken her as the forest spirit. Being told to go away, Ashitaka hears a scream coming from the men he rescued and decides to bring the men back to their home. With the help of the Kodama's they arrive in the forbidden forest. A deadly forest where humans were restriced to come near. Ashitaka decided that they should take a break. While getting water for one of the injured men, he noticed a wolf paw printed onto the grass, thinking that the wolf girl lives in the forest. He later see's another print in the water, realizing that the prints were made recently. As Ashitaka is observing, he sees a hoard of moose-like animals, then see's one that is completly different from the others. Surprised and wanting to get a better look, the side effect of his cursed arm began. Not wanting the injured men to know about his curse, he quickly puts his arm into the water, not having time to take off his arm sleeve. After the pain was gone, the hoard was gone. Ashitaka asked the man if he saw something strange but he said no.

Arriving in IrontownEdit

Ashitaka and the two injured men arrive to their home, Irontown. Not wanting ayone to know his identity at first, he arrives to Irontown by boat and is greated by Gonza. A group of workers come to bring one of the men to a place to heal and rest. The injured men who has been riding on Yakul's back is known to be an ox driver in town named Kohroku and has a wife name Toki. Toki first happy to see him alive, but furious to see his broken arm and leg yells at him how he's going to ride the ox when he is all injured, later giving him a death wish of dying by the wolves. Lady Eboshi, mistress of Irontown comes to greet Ashitaka and welcome Kohroku back home. The men treat him as if he was a family while the ladies asked Ashitaka if he would like to see their job. As the men were talking about the demon boar god Nago, Ashitaka recieves a slight feeling that Nago was the one who attacked his village. Speaking with Eboshi and exposing his cursed arm, Eboshi reveales that she was the one who put the curse on Nago.

San Attacks Iron TownEdit

The very same night of Ashitaka's arrival, San makes a suprise attack on Iron Town. But due to her quick agility, no one was able to case after her while she was running her way to Eboshi. Ashitaka stops San from being killed by three gunman. As San was knocked out by two ladies. One named Kiyo and the other unnamed, who's husbands were killed by her wolves, Ashitaka wakes San up, only to recieve a scar on his face by her dagger. Ashitaka, showing off his powers, stops San from attacking Eboshi and exposing the truth about his cursed arm. After Ashitaka stuns both Eboshi and San, he decides to leave Iron Town with San. Kiyo points her gun at Ashitaka, not actually not wanting to shoot him. By suprise by one of the elders, Kiyo shoots Ashitaka by accident, but due to Ashitaka's curse, he was able to stay alive. 

Arriving at the gate, San's wolves come to take her back. Ashitaka tells them that she is safe and he is coming with them. His final words to the people of Iron Town, "You have my thanks".