In order to get accustomed to dark anime styles, I started to look into films made by Studio Ghibli; the first of which was princess mononoke.
Princess Mononoke is about a boy named Ashitaka. Ashitaka is infected by an animal and begins to seek a cure from the God Shishigami. When he is on this journey, he sees humans ravaging the earth which, in turn, angers the wolf God Moro and his human companion Princess Mononoke. Ashitaka attempts to bring peace between Mononoke and the humans however, this only brings conflict.
Lady Eboshi
Lady Eboshi is the main antagonist of this film. Her main goal is to hunt down the forest spirit, which she does. She ends up cutting off the head while also having her right arm bitten off.
In relation to her character design, I feel like the black hair and thin animated eyebrows really add to her cunning personality. She always seems to have a slight smirk on her face which again adds to her devious look. I found out that she is the only woman in the movie to wear lipstick; this, to me, contributes to the aura of confidence she seems to dawn. In relation to her clothing, she is always wearing a dark red kimono. Colour is really important when it comes to character design and red is said to represent passion, danger, war and power.
Jiko-bo
Jiko-bo is the hidden antagonist of this film. He, at first, appears to be kind and peaceful however, he is actually the one behind the plot to kill the Forest God; he plans to sell his head to the emperor.
The main thing that attracts my attention is his garment. As I said before, red represents danger and his red vest is laid on top up of white piece of clothing; white is said to represent innocence and purity. This is interesting to me because, at first Jiko-bo seems kind however, he turns out to be evil and the red on top of the white represents that perfectly.
I found some moments in the film which I thought had a darker feel to them.
The colour red seems to be a recurring theme.
Ayanfe III 