‘Princess Mononoke’ Fans Think They Found the Boar God in Real Life

Fans of the classic 1997 anime film Princess Mononoke believe they’ve spotted the cursed boar god, Nago, out in the wild world. Well, sort of.

Back in January, Twitter user Conor Ryan posted a short video of what they claim is a group of caterpillars mimicking the movement of a slug. (It’s hard to tell exactly what kind of creature is massed up here, and whether it’s actually trying to mimic a slug is questionable at best.) They bunch up together and move nearly in unison to give the illusion of one whole creature moving, but to the human eye it creates a strange, undulating mass. You can check out the tweet below:

Ever since, folks have been comparing the motion to the manner in which Nago crashes into the Princess Mononoke film, right before Ashitaka puts him down with his bow. In the film, Nago resembles an undulating mass of dark, gooey tentacles that scrambles across the ground like some kind of strange spider — thus drawing the comparison. It’s only revealed later, just before his death, that there’s a boar god underneath all of that.

While many folks have made the comparison to Nago and Princess Mononoke, comic book writer is arguably responsible for a significant upswing in tweets about it given his own calm, succinct response. You can check that out below:

What do you think? Do you think the video resembles Nago’s cursed form from the beginning of Princess Mononoke? Are people just seeing what they want? Let us know in the comments!