San is the so called 'Princess Mononoke' (mononoke = spirit/ghost/monster), being this more a title than a name because, for humans, she is the princess of the forest' spirits.

Moro, a wolf goddess, caught San's parents in her forest and, while running away, they left their daughter behind. Moro, instead of killing the baby, raised her as her daughter together with her other two sons.

San assumes herself as a wolf and carries a deep hate toward the human people, the motivators of the destruction of forests and the animal world. Among humans, she simply wants dead Lady Eboshi, who she considers as the Demon itself. To kill her she's willing to sacrifice herself.

She always uses a wolf fur's cape and when she fights she puts a ritual mask that imitates the face of a spirit (or a wolf, I'm not sure). More things to make her look like anything except human.

Being a psychotic assassin half the time and a cute, innocent girl the other half, San is, deep inside, only an adolescent with troubles understanding herself and searching for a better place in the world. That's why she wants the invaders of her world to disappear and takes eternities to admit her love to Ashitaka.

She has the skills and the sharp senses of wolves and is more than a match for Lady Eboshi in fight. Nevertheless, she also has a really kind heart, not really wanting the war and only hating people for what they had done to her forest. After all, if she wanted to kill people only because they were humans, she wouldn't have let Ashitaka alive after he had take her from Iron Town.

Like her wolf mother, the princess mononoke is very loyal to the guardian spirit, forever protecting him. Her life life is so dictated by this that she simply looses her courage and will to live when he dies (it's good that our young prince was there to encourage her to continue with her life ^^).

At the end San learns not to hate people but she can't learn to forgive them, that's part of the reason she doesn't stay with Ashitaka in Iron Town, the other part being the fact that she continues to be too independent to be stuck at a place such as a town.

Web Mistress: seastar