Princess Mononoke Ending, Explained

Princess Mononoke ends with the Forest Spirit dead and the forest growing back. Lady Eboshi shoots off the Forest Spirit's head, the headless god spreads ruin across the land while it searches for it, and San and Ashitaka give the head back. The hills turn green again, Eboshi resolves to rebuild Irontown differently, and San and Ashitaka part, each returning to their own side. This page covers the ending in full.

Sources for this page: the scene transcriptions on Wikiquote for dialogue, and two ending explainers, Antonella Gugliersi's for Screen Rant and Renaldo Matadeen's for CBR. Screen Rant and CBR belong to the same publisher, Valnet, so we count them as one source, not two, and we name whichever of them a detail comes from. CBR's account contains details we could not confirm anywhere else, so where CBR alone supports something we say so. We have not rewatched the film for this page.

The head

The ending turns on the Forest Spirit's head. Wikiquote records this line of Eboshi's: “Now watch closely, everyone. I'm going to show you how to kill a god. A god of life and death. The trick is not to fear him.” CBR describes the head as the prize the monk Jigo was sent to collect, believed to hold the secret of immortality.

In CBR's account, the Forest Spirit appears in its Nightwalker form, grants death to the boar god Okkoto and to the wolf god Moro, and then “Eboshi shot its head off, allowing the villains to steal it.” Screen Rant names the thief: the Nightwalker goes looking for “the head Jigo stole.” Before she dies, Screen Rant adds, Moro bites off Eboshi's arm.

The Nightwalker without its head

Headless, the god becomes a spreading ruin. CBR writes that it “turned into a black substance that spread across the land,” and Screen Rant counts the destruction of Irontown among its acts, driven by the need to be reunited with its head “before he can die in peace.” The two explainers differ on the human cost: CBR says the substance killed trees and people, while Screen Rant stresses that apart from the Forest Spirit, Moro and Okkoto, “everybody else lives.” We do not settle that here.

Returning the head

Both explainers agree on the turning point. CBR: “San and Ashitaka returned the head to the deity, making it whole again.” The god disappears, and in CBR's words its passing “rejuvenated the region, causing flowers to bloom and lush, green areas to rise up.” Screen Rant describes the same thing as moss growing over the ruins of everything the Nightwalker destroyed, and adds that the film's last moments show the Kodama populating the mountains. Both say Ashitaka's curse is lifted; Screen Rant's word is that it “seemingly disappears.”

San and Ashitaka

The pair do not end up together. Wikiquote records San's position: “Ashitaka, you mean so much to me, but I can't forgive the humans for what they've done.” Screen Rant reads this as San choosing not to forgive humans rather than to keep hating them, and deciding against killing Eboshi. Their last exchange in the transcription is about the god:

San: “Even if all the trees grow back, it won't be his forest anymore. The Forest Spirit is dead.” Ashitaka: “Never. He is life itself. He isn't dead, San. He is here with us now, telling us, it's time for both of us to live.”

Screen Rant's reading is that the two cannot live together because their loyalties lie with different sides, so they work toward a common goal separately, each helping their own.

Eboshi's vow

Screen Rant says Eboshi “swears to rebuild Irontown without exploiting the surrounding nature, having finally understood that what she did was wrong”; CBR says she “learned the error of her ways.” Screen Rant also points out an irony in her lost arm. Earlier, when Ashitaka tries to stop her fight with San, the transcription has Eboshi say, “I'm getting a little bored of this curse of yours, Ashitaka. Let me just cut the damn thing OFF!” In Screen Rant's reading, she ends the film having lost exactly what she wanted to take from him. CBR closes on Jigo, who in its account jokes about his failed plans.

What the ending means

Screen Rant calls the ending hopeful: by destroying everything, the Forest Spirit gives humans and animals another chance, beginning a new cycle rather than ending in destruction. CBR reads it as a statement against war, in which no one wins when battles are fought or nature is torn down for industry.

Our reading: the ending refuses to name a winner. The god both sides fought over is gone, Eboshi keeps her people but loses her arm and her old plan, and San keeps her forest but not her forgiveness. Ashitaka's last line puts the hope in going on living, not in either side being right. That is our interpretation, not a statement from Miyazaki.

The Princess Mononoke quotes page collects verified lines from the film, the Spirited Away ending explainer covers another Miyazaki ending, and our Miyazaki fact-check covers his most misquoted remark.