The films from the animation studio Ghibli invite you to dream. In almost every one of the animes, there is a creature that has little airtime but is still known by every fan. MeinMMO presents you the iconic mascots.
What criteria were used to select the beings? In this list, you will find only mascots that appear in the films of the Japanese animation studio Ghibli. For example, Nausicaä from the Valley of the Wind does not count, even though the film is by Hayao Miyazaki, because it was not produced by Studio Ghibli but by Topcraft.
Many of the beings are only seen for a few scenes or appear only occasionally in the anime. They do not overshadow the main characters, but are still important.
This Ghibli film unfortunately did not make it onto the list:
For that reason, we wish they appeared more often and interacted with the main characters. To limit the list, we decided on only one being per film – although there were many other mascots we would have liked to include.
Forest Spirits (Princess Mononoke)
What is the film about? In Princess Mononoke, not only the young warrior stands in the foreground, but also the warrior Ashitaka. He is cursed by a wild boar and embarks on a journey to find a cure. In doing so, he gets caught in the conflict between the people of the iron town, who extract resources, and the forest spirits, who defend their homeland.
Among the warriors of the forest is Princess Mononoke, who was raised by wolves. Ashitaka attempts to mediate between the two parties. However, the god of the forest comes under attack from greedy humans.
What role does the being play? The forest spirits are peaceful beings that live in the cedar forest. Although they seem playful, they appear to be friendly towards humans and never seem to want to mislead them. A special feature of the forest spirits is that they can clack their heads by turning them.
Unfortunately, the forest spirits only appear a few times. They are shown whenever the condition of the forest is at stake. You can read how well the cedar forest is doing based on them. Nevertheless, the forest spirits are interesting beings as they originate from Japanese mythology of the 13th century.
