Princess Mononoke
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Princess Mononoke Film Comic Translation, Volume 3
"Princess Mononoke" is the adventures of Ashitaka, a young warrior in ancient Japan, who is on a quest to remove a curse put on him by a monster he fought.
This will put him into a strange relationship with San, the Princess Mononoke (the Spirit Princess), who was raised in the forest by a giant wolf.
This page is my translation of a Japanese film comic for the movie. The text of the comic is almost identical to the script of the movie. This page has the translation of the third volume of the film comic.
You may prefer the version with Japanese.
Princess Mononoke Film Comic, Volume 3
Contents
- Cover Introduction 3
- Character Gallery for Volume 3
- Section 1: Eboshi 3
- Section 2: Moro
- Section 3: San 2
- Section 4: Tataraba 2
- Section 5: Priest Jiko 3
- Section 6: Overlord
- Character Gallery for Volume 3
At last the epic battle between the forest spirits and humans has begun. San has come out of Shishigami's forest to serve as the Overlord's eyes. On the other hand, Ashitaka goes to the battlefield in order to stop the fight. Meanwhile, an attack is made on Tataraba while Eboshi is absent. The three intentions of three people will meet and entangle like a ball of thread, as the story reaches its climax. Can nature and humans co-exist? This spectacular adventure raises questions with grand themes. Volume 3 of the Film Comic has at last been released.
Character Gallery for Volume 3
Ashitaka
This young man, who was living peacefully in the far north country, is related to the royal family of Emishi. On a journey because he received a death curse when he defeated a Tatarigami which suddenly came to attack his village.
San
This young woman was abandoned by people and raised by mountain wolves. She hates those who threaten the forest and she makes attacking raids against Tatara and Eboshi's people.
Priest Jiko
By the command of the mysterious organization called the "Master Party," he seeks the head of Shishigami. He would do anything to accomplish this goal, even exploiting Eboshi and Ashitaka.
Lady Eboshi
This cool, self-possessed woman hunts down the animals and leads the city of Tataraba, which she established. She has the gift of accepting people from all sorts of circumstances, and she is well loved.
Okkotonushi (Overlord)
A boar-god from Chinzei (Kyushu), angered by many, many acts of the humans, has joined with other boar-gods to move out in a general attack.
Moro, the wolf-queen
A wolf-god that lives in the forest; she raised San. Hating humans, she always seeks opportunities to kill Eboshi.
An cattle caravan of Eboshi's is being attacked by samurai.
Soldier: Come on. Don't scatter the cattle!
Eboshi: Hold your fire. Draw them in close!
The samurai charge is right in front of them when she gives the command.
Eboshi: Fiire!
The volley throws the charge back, severely wounded.
Gonza: Re-load quickly!
Eboshi and other women with muskets fire in a second volley. The attackers are thrown into confusion.
Priest Jiko, leading a company of priests, watches from a nearby hill.
Priest Jiko: My, my, Eboshi, you're fighting the wrong opponents. You men go on ahead and hide yourselves.
Jiko goes on alone. Eboshi heads back to Tataraba.
Woman: (Watching from a balcony above the gate) I see them! They're coming back!
As the caravan goes along the mountain trail, Priest Jiko pops out from behind a rock.
Priest Jiko: Leader. You've been doing well for me. We'll make our move soon. Tell all the others.
Soldier: Yes, sir.
Eboshi: Priest Jiko...?
Priest Jiko: The Master Party has a host of urgent demands. It's not the time to be playing around with country samurai.
Eboshi: It's because Shogun Asano is egging on the local samurai.
Priest Jiko: Asano? He's a powerful samurai, isn't he.
Eboshi: He is demanding half the iron.
Priest Jiko: (laughs) That's an empty boast. But now we don't have time to be quarreling with humans.
Priest Jiko: The beast-gods are gathering in the forest... they will come soon! This time, just give up all the iron and whatever. After you fulfill your promise to the Master Party, you can fight a war or do whatever you want.
Lookout: Lady Eboshi, hurry -- the samurai are coming. Hurry.
It is a small group of messengers with banners of truce.
Priest Jiko: Speak of the devil... those are Asano's messengers.
Eboshi: (to the women with guns above the gate) Those are messengers. Treat them courteously.
Women: Yeah.
Eboshi and Jiko enter the gates.
Priest Jiko: Hey, aren't you going meet them?
Messenger: Eboshi of Tatara, your recent battle with the local samurai was magnificent! We have come as messengers from the shogun. Show respect and open your gates!
The women on the gate balcony call down to them.
Toki: Ha! If you have business, tell us from there!
Woman 1: This mountain was taken by force from the forest spirits by Lady Eboshi.
Woman 2: You think you'll get money, so you stick out your dirty little hands.
Woman 3: Go home, right now.
Messenger: Women, your rudeness to us is unforgiveable.
Toki: You call that rude?
Woman 1: We've always been rude, from the day we were born.
Woman 2: If iron's what you want, I'll give it to you!
She fires one of the new guns at them. The messengers flee as the women laugh.
Priest Jiko: Wow, I give up, I give up. You don't have any concern about either powerful samurai or spirits? The women of Eboshi's tatara sure are brave.
Eboshi looks over the document Priest Jiko brought (the imperial death warrant for Shishigami).
Eboshi: Is this piece of paper supposed to be useful?
Priest Jiko: It's good for gathering an assorted crew of people together! It's not just a beast after all, but a god we are killing.
Eboshi calls over a couple of the working women.
Woman: Yes, Lady Eboshi?
Eboshi: Do you two know what this document is? It's from his Imperial Highness.
Woman: What do you mean, "his Imperial Highness?"
Eboshi: The Mikado.
Woman: The Mikado...
Priest Jiko is surprised and angry that his document is being shown so casually to common workers, but he tries to hide it.
Priest Jiko: Wow, I give up, I give up.
Eboshi: That's all.
Woman: Yes, ma'm.
Eboshi: If we keep making iron here, the power of the forest will weaken. After that, you could do it with less sacrifice of lives...
Priest Jiko: I've already spent enough time and money. I guess the Master Party would say, "We didn't lend you 40 stone-fire-arrow soldiers just to keep making iron."
Eboshi: Surely you of all people don't believe that the severed head of Shishigami has the power of eternal youth and eternal life.
Priest Jiko: What some in the royal family and in the Master Party think, I don't know... and it's better not to know.
Eboshi: I'll keep my promise. If the woods are crowded with a herd of wild boars instead of the Moro clan, it will be much easier.
Eboshi: You should call in those suspicious-looking thugs that are hidden behind the cliff.
Priest Jiko: Wow, hahaha, so you've found me out?
Eboshi starts to walk away.
Priest Jiko: Oh, yes! One more thing. Has a young man come visting here alone? He was a mysterious young man, riding a red deer-beast, but...
Eboshi: Gone...
Jiko's large troop of parasol-carrying priests and camouflaged hunters marches into Tataraba. They are served a meal in the men's hut. The townspeople watch them fearfully.
Woman: I'm getting a bad feeling about this.
Man: Those are no ordinary hunters. Those are the Jibashiri.
Man 2: The Jibashiri?
Eboshi and Gonza meet with the tatara women in the gun-making building.
Woman: Please let us go with you. (to Eboshi)
Woman 2: You can't trust that bunch at all! If something happened to you, there's no-one who could replace you. And now that we've learned how to use these stone-fire-arrows...
Eboshi: That's the reason I want to ask all of you to stay on guard here. Humans are more to be feared than spirits. If we kill Shishigami, various things may become clear. The masters of the Chinese Parasol Party won't stop with the head of Shishigami... It's not just the samurai. It may be that the stone-fire-arrow troops will turn against us. We won't be able to depend on the men. Hold firm, all of you.
Gonza: Don't worry about Lady Eboshi! I, Gonza, will guard her without fail!
Toki: I doubt that...
Gonza: Whaat?!
Toki: It would have been better if you were a woman, too.
Gonza: Uh...
She sticks her tongue out at him, and all the others laugh.
Toki: Heh heh.
Ashitaka wakes up in the wolves' cave from the pain in his arm.
Ashitaka: Aagh...
He looks over and sees San sleeping beside him on a bed of leaves. His arm starts to move on its own. He goes out of the cave to avoid disturbing her. Outside the cave is a stone platform projecting out far above the forest. Moro speaks to him from a rock above the cave.
Moro: Is is hard to bear?... You could throw yourself off from there and simply end it all. As your physical strength returns, the agony of your brand will begin again.
Ashitaka: It seems like I've been sleeping for several days. I seem to remember that she took care of me.
Moro: If you had made a single sound, groaned even once, I would have bitten you and killed you... too bad I didn't.
Ashitaka: It's a beautiful forest. Hasn't the Overlord made a move yet?...
Moro: Go back in the cave, boy! The forest is screaming in pain from being eaten and ravaged by that herd of wild pigs, but you can't hear it.
Moro: I lie here with my body beginning to rot, intently listening to the screams of the forest, waiting for that woman... dreaming of the moment when I will sink my teeth into her head.
Ashitaka: Moro, isn't there any way for the forest and the humans to end this without fighting? Is it really too late to stop?
Moro: The humans are gathering together. Their fires will soon reach here.
Ashitaka: What do you want to do with San? Do you intend to make her share your fate?
Moro: That's typical selfish human thinking. San is the daughter of my clan. She lives with the forest, and when it dies she will perish with it.
Moro: Silence, boy! How can you heal her sorrow? Humans who attacked the forest threw a baby to me in order to escape my fangs. That was San...! She can't be human, neither can she fully be a wolf. She's my poor, ugly, loveable daughter. Can you save her?!
Ashitaka: I don't know... but she can live with me!
Moro: (with a snarling laugh) How could she live with you? You're saying you would join her in fighting the humans?
Ashitaka: No! That would only increase the hatred.
Moro: Boy...there's nothing you can do. Soon, you are fated to be eaten up by the brand and die. Leave here at dawn.
Later, San wakes up and sees Ashitaka sitting beside her.
San: ...You could walk?
Ashitaka: Thank you. It's all thanks to you and Shishigami.
San smiles and goes back to sleep.
It's full day when Ashitaka wakes up. He finds his sword and bundles of food beside him. He comes out a side entrance to the cave and sees Yakkle on the grass not far below.
Ashitaka: Yakkle! I'm sorry I worried you so.
He tries to leap onto Yakkle's back, but falls short.
Ashitaka: Ouch... My legs have become unsteady.
In the distance, he sees one of San's wolf brothers. He pulls himself up on Yakkle and they follow the wolf down the hill to a trail.
Ashitaka: It's too quiet. There aren't any Kodama, either... There's a faint odor of Tataraba in the wind.
Ashitaka: (To the wolf) Thank you for showing me the way! Would you do me one more favor?
He takes Kaya's dagger from around his neck.
Ashitaka: Please give this to San!
He throws the dagger, and the wolf catches it and runs off with it in its mouth.
Ashitaka: Let's go. (to Yakkle)
San rides one of the young wolves up to a hill where Moro is waiting. San and Moro look down on the encampment of Priest Jiko's forces. They are burning a sulphurous chemical and letting the wind blow the smoke into the forest.
San: That horrible stench... my nose can hardly stand it.
Moro: That's no ordinary smoke. They're trying to destroy our sense of smell.
San sees Lady Eboshi talking with Priest Jiko.
San: ...There's that woman. She knows we're here.
Moro: They have laid an obvious trap.
San: A trap?
Moro: They are trying to enrage the boars and lure them out of the forest. It could be a very effective trick.
San: We must tell them! Now the boars have begun to move. They'll all be killed.
Moro: The Overlord is no fool.
Moro: Even though he understands all this, the boars still want to make a frontal attack... even if only one boar is left, it will keep on charging to trample and defeat the enemy.
San: They've started cutting down trees...
Moro: That's also a ruse.
San comes to a decision.
San: Mother, I'll say goodbye to you here. I'm going to go and serve as the Overlord's eyes. Because he'll surely get confused in that smoke.
Moro: That is all right with me... but you could also go and live with that young man...
San: I hate humans!
Just then the other young wolf runs up. San takes the stone dagger from its mouth.
San: (speaks after a puzzled silence) Ashitaka gave this to me?... It's beautiful.
Moro: You two go with San! I'm going near Shishigami.
San bites through the dagger's string and puts it around her neck.
San: Let's go!
She and the two wolves join up with the charging boars.
San: The Moro clan will fight by your side! Where is the Overlord!?
A nearby boar squeals an answer.
San: Thank you!
Ashitaka rides Yakkle in the rain. He hears the sound of explosions in the distance from the battle of San and the boars with the forces of the Master Party. Then he hears a shot from a different direction.
Ashitaka: That came from Tataraba! Let's go!
As he rides over a hill, he comes face to face with hostile samurai.
Samurai: Who goes there!? Halt!
Ashitaka draws his sword and rides at them.
Ashitaka: I'm coming through!
Samurai 2: Get him!
Yakkle overleaps the slashing swords of the warriors, and with another leap is out into the lake.
Samurai 3: There he is. Wow.
Archers try to hit Ashitaka, but he deflects their shots with his sword.
Samurai 4: I hit him!
Samurai: You did, eh?
Samurai 2: Cease firing! It's a waste of arrows.
The city of Tataraba is under attack by the samurai forces. The bellows women, including Toki, are on the ramparts with the new guns.
Woman: Quickly, quickly!
The women see Ashitaka out in the lake.
Woman 1: It's true. It's that guy.
Woman 2: You're sure it's not his ghost?
Toki: Lord Ashitakaaa!
Ashitaka: Is that Toki? Are all of you all right?
Toki: As you see. The samurai bastards took advantage of the men being gone to come and attack us! Everyone down there was killed. They thought they could take us over, with only women here.
Ashitaka: What about Lady Eboshi?
Toki: She and a mobile group of men have all gone out to hunt down Shishigami. Surrounded as we are, we haven't been able to get word to her.
Ashitaka: To hunt down Shishigami...
Just as I expected. There was something I heard a while ago...
Kouroku: Sir -- I took care of these for you!
He has Ashitaka's bow and arrows.
Toki: Why didn't you bring his saddle and coat, too?
Kouroku: But...
Toki: You're useless!
Ashitaka catches the bow and arrows.
Ashitaka: Thank you, Kouroku! I'm going to call Lady Eboshi. Can you hold on until then!?
Toki: If worst comes to worst, we'll pour molten iron on them!
Woman: Please, Lord Ashitaka! Hurry to Lady Eboshi.
Enemy boats are coming in. One of the lepers fires from the wall.
Leper: (Cough, cough). Did I miss?...
Leper 2: The boats are coming. Hurry!
Leper: We're counting on you to help Lady Eboshi! Because we can fight for ourselves.
Ashitaka: I'll return without fail. Do your best!
Toki: We're counting on you!
Woman: Be careful!
Samurai watching on the hill above the city see Ashitaka riding away.
Samurai: Someone came out -- one soldier.
Ashitaka: There are men after us. I'm counting on you, Yakkle!
Horsemen chase Ashitaka. As he rides he sees smoke ahead.
Ashitaka: Aagh.. It's the stench of burning animals.
Just then an arrow hits Yakkle in the right rear leg, knocking both of them down.
Ashitaka: Yakkle!
Two mounted soldiers charge Ashitaka as he tries to help Yakkle.
Soldier: There he is! Wooooh! (war cry)
Ashitaka fires one arrow, but with ordinary human strength; it bounces off the attacker's helmet. Ashitaka barely avoids being ridden down and shot. As they make a second pass, his arm bulges.
Ashitaka: Don't come near!
He slices off the arm of one with his sword, then decapitates another with an arrow. The others flee.
Ashitaka: Yakkle, let me see your wound! I'm sorry. Please wait for me here! I'll return without fail.
He starts walking away, but Yakkle limps behind.
Ashitaka: No! You wait!
Yakkle still follows, so Ashitaka has to lead him.
Ashitaka: Hold on, just a little farther.
They reach the battleground, which is full of burned bodies of boars. He also sees dead soldiers from Tataraba laid out in a row. He is about to speak to a grieving soldier beside them when he hears a challenge. Two priests of Jiko's party approach angrily.
Priest: Who goes there!? This is a field of carnage. Outsiders must leave at once!
Ashitaka: I was once helped by these dead men. I have an urgent message. I want to see Lady Eboshi.
Priest: Eboshi's not here. We'll tell her. Tell us your message!
Ashitaka: I'll tell her in person. Where is she!?
One of the leading workers of Tataraba rushes up.
Leader: Sir ---! You're still alive?
Ashitaka: Headman... a cruel thing has happened.
Leader: Many men are still buried.
Man 2: It's beyond terrible, isn't it.
Ashitaka: Tataraba is under attack by samurai.
Leader: Whaaat!?
Ashitaka: The women are doing their best to hold the defense from on top of the walls. For now, they are still hanging on.
Leader: This has turned out just terrible.
Man 2: It's Asano's gang... they aimed for when we were gone.
Ashitaka: Lady Eboshi isn't here?
Leader: Yeah... she went into the forest to kill Shishigami...
Ashitaka: Call her back, quickly! They won't be able to hold on!
Priest: If your message is done, get out of here right now. All of you, get back to work!
Man 2: Hey, you mean to abandon us?!
Leader: Wait just a minute.
Man 3: You want to leave Tataraba to its fate!
Leader: If we wait until they come back, it'll be too late.
Man 4: Send a messenger, quickly!
Priest: The forest is huge and deep. There's no way to send a message.
Leader: Don't lie to us!
Man 2: You must have signal rockets or something; it should be your specialty!
Man 3: Lady Eboshi has been manipulated by them.
Ashitaka: Weren't there any wolves among the boars that attacked?
Man 3: Huh?
Ashitaka: Was San... I mean, was the Spirit Princess there?
Man 3: Well, I don't know. It suddenly became very dark, and they came charging at us so fast...
The man who had been bowed down with grief speaks.
Man 5: She was there... W-we were in the very front, so...
Ashitaka: And then...
Man 5: I don't know! Suddenly everything got confused... Those rats with the Chinese parasols used us as bait to lure the boars... They blew up the ground out from under us. They even threw down fire bombs from above us...
There is a flashback to when the boars charged. The men of Tataraba shoot at the boars, defending a rough fort at the cliff base. Suddenly there is a huge explosion, throwing many boars and men into the air. San, the wolves, and more boars charge up the cliff. Priests at the top throw down bombs in rock containers, killing the boars as they come. Bombs and boars fall on the men below.
In the present, Ashitaka hears a growling out in the battlefield. He finds one of San's wolves pinned under the body of a huge boar.
Man 3: Hmmm...?
Ashitaka: What happened to San?
It only growls and snaps at him. Ashitaka tries to lift the boar enough to free the wolf.
Ashitaka: Uuugh! Calm down! I want to help you.
Man 3: Aah! It's a wolf! There's a wolf still alive! (Realizing what Ashitaka is trying.) S-sir, what are you...
Leader: Sir!
Priest: Out of my way! Boy... what are you doing?
Ashitaka: I'm going to ask it to guide me, that's what. I'm going to go call Lady Eboshi!
Priest: So, you're up to some devilish trick? (to men around him) Clear the way!
Ashitaka: What's more important, Shishigami's head or Tataraba?
The priest pulls the top from his umbrella, revealing a blow-pipe. He fires darts at Ashitaka, barely missing him.
Man 2: Poison darts! S-stop!
The men knock out the priests with shovels and rakes.
Leader: Everyone help lift! Use levers!
With everyone helping they free the wolf. Yakkle limps up and the two animals touch noses.
Man: He got out!
Ashitaka: Everyone please get to the marsh and hide near the lake!
Men: Yeah!
Leader: Be careful... they've got stone-fire-arrow troops with them, too.
Ashitaka gives the leader his bow and quiver.
Ashitaka: Please keep these for me! My last arrow has broken.
Ashitaka: (to Yakkle) Please go with them. (to men) I'm counting on you to take care of Yakkle!
He sets off running with the wolf.
Ashitaka: To where San is! Eboshi will be there too.
Priest Jiko: Don't fall behind the Jibashiri. We'll finish this on this very day.
A Jibashiri hunter in bearskin calls out from the bushes.
Jibashiri: Priest Jiko, sir.
Priest Jiko: Oh! How's it going?
Jibasiri: The badly wounded Overlord and the Spirit Princess are heading deeper into the woods.
Priest Jiko: As I expected, they want to ask Shishigami for help. Stick right on their tail! If you are recognized as men, Shishigami will not come out.
Jibashiri: That goes without saying...
Eboshi: Is that boar blood he painted his face with?
Priest Jiko: Heh heh... That's a trick of the Jibashiri. Disgusting!
In another part of the woods, San and one of her wolves leads the wounded Overlord.
San: Keep going! Because soon we'll be at Shishigami's pool.
The Overlord slips, knocking her down.
San: Aagh!
She hears something moving.
San: Something's coming! Is something wrong with the Overlord?... Come on, then, just a little more!
Wolf: Something really bad is coming.
San: What could it be? I can't smell it with all this blood.
Suddenly, large branches drop from the trees onto them.
San: The orangutans...
Orangutan: It your fault.
Orangutan 2: It your fault this forest finished.
San: What are you saying? Is this how you show respect to those who fought for the forest?
Orangutan: You brought ruin on us!
Orangutan 2: You brought things that are not beast or human!
San: Things that are not beast or human...?
Orangutan: They cooome!
Orangutan 2: It the end of the forest!
Out of the woods come figures draped in boar skins.
San: ....Warriors...
Overlord: They've come back! They've come back! My warriors have come back from the land of the dead!
The Overlord squeals and begins to run.
Overlord: Come on, warriors, let's go to Shishigami!
San: Overlord, please calm down! The dead don't come back! They've put on the skins of your warriors and changed their scent. Those are humans in there!
The Overlord, not listening to her, keeps running.
San: Stop! They want to make you lead them to Shishigami.
Overlord: Shishigami, come forth! If thou art god of the forest, restore my clan from death and destroy the humans!
San: Overlord, please calm yourself...
Wolf: We'll be surrounded. It's too late for him. Let's leave him behind!
San: No! If we abandon him he'll turn into a Tatarigami! You go tell Mother what's happened. The humans are after Shishigami. If she's still alive she'll tell us what to do. Go! Don't let our wolf bloodline be wiped out! Good boy...
The wolf runs off, leaping over the "boars." San stands with her spear by the Overlord as her enemies close in.
San: I'll kill the first one to come near! I'll expose you for what you really are throughout the forest.
In the distance, she hears the howl of the other wolf.
San: ...Ashitaka...
A hunter gets close enough to attack the Overlord from the side opposite San. She charges around to attack.
San: You!
Overlord: It burns! My body's like fire...
Tatarigami-worms begin to flow from the Overlord's skin.
San: Aaah! NOOO!
San: Overlord, don't become a Tatarigami! Overlord...aah!
One of the disguised hunters slings a stone at her. She is knocked out and falls on top of one of the Overlord's tusks.
Above the forest, Ashitaka hears the other wolf howling.
Ashitaka: He answered! Do you understand him?
Wolf: San's in danger!
Ashitaka: Let's go! (They start running).
San wakes up. The Overlord's Tatari-worms are all around her.
San: Uuh...! They're hot...!
Suddenly, she sees the tentacles are also coming from her body!
San: Aaagh!! No...I don't want to become a Tatarigami! Overlord!
The wolf and Ashitaka run down a slope.
Wolf: You're slow. Ride!
Ashitaka jumps on, and the wolf leaps down the slope to where Eboshi's forces are gathered.
Ashitaka: Ah!
Soldier: It's a wolf!
They leap through the first group of troops, evading shots, and head towards Jiko and Eboshi.
Ashitaka: Eboshi!
Priest Jiko: Oooh!
The soldiers around Eboshi fire, barely missing the wolf.
Ashitaka: Sh--! You go on ahead!
He leaps from the wolf's back, letting it run on.
Ashitaka: Eboshi, listen to me!
Eboshi: Is that you, Ashitaka!?
Ashitaka: Tataraba is under attack by samurai. Stop trying to kill Shishigami and go back there quickly! The women are fighting. The men have also come down from the mountain. They are all waiting for you to come home.
Eboshi: ......What proof do I have that your story is true?
Ashitaka: None! If I could, I would have stayed and fought for Tataraba.
Eboshi: So you're asking me to stop killing Shishigami and start killing samurai?
Ashitaka: This is wrong! Isn't there any way for the forest and Tataraba to co-exist!?
Suddenly, Ashitaka hears something and runs off.
Gonza: Lady Eboshi, let's go back.
Jiko: That guy...whose side is he on?
Eboshi: The women have been prepared to take care of things on their own. The best guard for one's self is one's self... Here's the pond! Shishigami is nearby.
Priest Jiko: At last, the very place we've been longing for. Don't get careless.
Priest: (whispering to Jiko) Even without her...
Priest Jiko: It's a fearsome thing to kill a god. We'll let her do it for us...
