"In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the spirits of the gods. Back then, man and beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed. Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit, for those were the days of gods and of demons."

The 1997 film Princess Mononoke, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is the story of the young Prince Ashitaka who is given a cursed wound while defending his village from an enraged demon.  Outcast from his homeland, he must seek a cure for his wound in the larger world.  This film, at first glance, appears to be a texbook example of a Hero Myth story, as explained by Linda Seger in her essay 'Creating the Myth'.  The film begins with all the right elements, a young prince, gods, demons, and a quest that requires him to leave the comfort of his home.  As the film progresses, however, the story begins to focus less on the adventures of the main character, and more on the complex and ambiguous interactions of the various human and animal groups populating the story.  The film does not ultimately portray any one group as being morally superior or inferior, nor is there any main villain.  The hero does act heroically throuought the movie, but the conclusion is at best a compromise between the convictions of the various interests in the story.  If the hero's journey format is to be imposed upon the movie, the first 7 steps, up through the "death experience" (Seger, 320), are condensed into the first third of the movie (which is difficult to neatly break up into acts).  Step 8, in which the hero is in charge, is either entirely missing, or has taken place before the story begins, in that Prince Ashitaka has always taken charge of his own destiny.  The movie does come back in line with the process on steps 9 and 10, the final chase and rebirth, although the rebirth is merely physical for the hero (and the second and lessor of two rebirths he goes through during the film) and deeper and more idealistic for everyone else.
	The story also can be interpreted as a healing myth, as laid down by Seger in the same essay.  Princess Mononoke does fit this description more closely, although that may be because the description in the essay is less specific.  Prince Ashitaka is forced to leave his village because of the cursed wound he receives, and goes off in search of a cure.  At the same time, in the second half of the movie, he is forced to put aside his idealism and come to a compromise.  It can be seen as a secondary iteration of the healing myth that he must grow as a character and learn to make these compromises.  This is a loose interpretation of the movie, however, as more realistically he learns that instead of forcing his idealism on everyone else to stop them from killing eachother, he must force compromises on everyone else to stop them from killing eachother.  As with the basic hero myth, the healing myth applies mostly only at a superficial level.
	It might be usefull at this point to briefly describe the plot and dramatis personae of Princess Mononoke, such that the rest of this essay will be less ambiguous than the introduction.  In the opening scene, the main character, Prince Ashitaka, is wounded while defending his village from a rampaging demon.  The wound takes the form of a mottled black mark on his right arm.  He is told by the village elder that the wound will spread and eventually kill him.  The wound does however lend him incredible strength at certain times.  The demon itself turned out to be a posessed boar god that had been wounded, and eventually been driven insane by a lump of iron.  The prince is outcast from his village, and goes off in search of a cure and the source of the iron ball.  After a long journey (via montage) he comes across Jigo, a learned monk, who tells him that he may find more information about the iron at a place called Irontown.  Irontown turns out to be a fortified village surrounding an iron foundry.  The residents of Irontown chop down the trees of the surrounding forest to get at the iron in the hills, while the animals either replant the trees or try to fight the humans off in order to restore the forest.  Lady Eboshi is the leader of Irontown, who brought guns to fight off the forest animals, but also provides equal treatment and employment for former prostitutes and lepers who would have no other place to live.  The iron from the boar god was a bullet from one of Eboshi's guns.  The forest is being defended by the forest spirits, mostly the large Boar Clan, lead by Okkoto, but also by the Wolf clan, lead by Moro.  Moro's adopted daughter is the human San, the Princess Mononoke.  Mononoke is not a name, but a Japanese word for spirit/god/monster of nature.  Shortly after Ashitaka arrives at Irontown, San arrives to kill Eboshi.  Ashitaka prevents the fight and tries to carry the unconscious San out of the town, when he is accidentally shot through the chest.  His cursed wound allows him to carry on, and even push open the extreemly heavy gate of the town by himself.  He succumbs to his wound shortly thereafter.  Despite the fact that she hates all humans, San (who sees herself as a wolf) takes Ashitaka to the spring of the Great Forest Spirit.  The Great Forest Spirit heals the bullet wound and revives Ashitaka, but does not remove the curse.  This is the first half of the movie, and largely the setup for the second half.  The cycle of Ashitaka's hero's journey is more or less complete here, concluding with his waking up after days of recovery at the wolf's den.  The second half of the movie involves a conflict between Many different groups.  Among them is Lord Asano (an unseen character), who is trying to gain controll of Irontown by force, and who wants the head of the Great Forest Spirit which he believes will grant him immortality.  Also in conflict are the Boar Clan marching into one last glorious but suicidal battle with the humans of Irontown
, the Wolf Clan allied with them, the people of Irontown on the defensive, and Lady Eboshi who is off hunting the Great Forest Spirit with Jigo (who is working for Lord Asano).  In the middle is Prince Ashitaka who is simply trying to stop the killing and convince everyone to live in peace.
	The begining of this story, as mentioned, follows the hero myth quite closely.  Prince Ashitaka's village is a simple countryside village, with people going about their normal business of farming, raising families, and so on.  The 'Catalyst' that 'pushes the hero into an extraordinary adventure' (Seger 319) is of course the deomized boar god that springs out of the forest to attack the village.  Even though the prince manages to fight and kill him, he is wounded, which provides the impetus for him to leave his home.  It is unclear why, except for by custom, but because of his wound the prince MUST be banished from his village.  It is revealed that he is the last prince of a dying people (the Imishi, who were banished and though destroyed by the outside world long ago), who must now depart forever, making his predicament all the more significant.  It is certain that the prince is reluctant, as he is leaving behind his fiance and possibly dooming his village to collapse.  Prince Ashitaka, after traveling for a long while, eventually comes across the help from an unusal source, personified in the film by the monk Jigo.  As a monk, he fits into the learned/literate monk/priest character type common in myths in many cultures.  Jigo is able to estimate the cash value of a nugget of pure gold Ashitaka is trying to barter for rice, warns him of bandits who saw the gold tailing him, and is able to point him towards Irontown when Ashitaka shows him the lump of iron.  Jigo also recognises several clues that Ashitaka is from the Imishi, such as the strange bowl he uses, his stone arrowheads, and the red elk he rides instead of a horse.  Jigo promises not to tell anyone where Ashitaka is from, thus establishing himself as the trustworthy helper character.  The next step says that "The hero is now ready to move into the special world where he or she will change from the ordinary into the extraordinary" (Seger 320).  This corelates with Ashitaka meeting Sen, who he first encounters across a river treating a gunshot wound on her adopted mother, the gigantic wolf goddess Moro, and with Ashitaka's passing through the spring of the Great Forest Spirit, and finally with his arrival at Irontown.  If the Great Forest Spirit's healing of Ashitaka's bullet wound is to be seen as the final stage of the hero's journey, his 'rebirth, then his phase of 'tests and obstacles' is very short.  He carries two wounded citezens of iron town from the river back to Irontown.  He talks with Lady Eboshi, and learns how she is caring for the former brothel girls and lepers who others would consider outcasts, and talks with many of the people of Irontown as well.  Finally, he prevents Eboshi and San from killing eachother, and tries to carry San out of Irontown to safety.  His lowpoint, then, would be after the super human strength conferred by his curse gives out and he collapses, aparently dying.
	This is the point in the story where it truly diverges from the classic hero myth.  There is no 'taking the sword in hand', either literally or metaphorically.  In fact, Ashitaka has continually shown himself capable of taking charge throuought the whole movie.  In the opening scenes, he is shown as an incredibly gifted rider and archer, even able shoot the demon boar in the eye at a full gallup on his red elk.  After he is wounded, he accepts his banishment and sets off without a single word of complaint.  He rescues two men from a river who had been wounded by an attack from the wolves, and brings them back to Irontown.  He is assertive as well, deciding to take the wounded Sen out of the village despite the protests of Lady Eboshi, and many of the women armed with guns who's husbands Sen has killed.  Prince Ashitaka is Skillful, stoic, heroic and assertive, among other admirable traits, and is no more or less so after this incedent.  He is no more in charge than he was to begin with.  He is wounded, aparently fatally, and resurrected, as proscribed by step 10, the final step, in the essay, but he is not transformed personally.  Seger says of the hero myth "The person has to complete a task, but the task itself is not the real treasure" (seger 321).  Ashitaka has not completed his task.  He still has his cursed wound, and the humans and forest spirits are still fighting eachother and amongst themselves.