Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: In one of the extras for Volume 7, the God of Love compares the childish drawing of himself to a kodama.
- In Gintama, after an angry Otae tries to kill Sacchan by wrapping her up in a mat and dumping her in a body of water, Sacchan eventually washes up on a remote island inhabited by an indigenous tribe. Sacchan's tribal outfit is a parody of San's, right down to the mask and furry headdress.
- Hayate the Combat Butler: When Hayate is looking for the legendary persimmon tree in the garden, he mentions how it looks like the background from a Studio Ghibli film (Princess Mononoke to be exact).
- Jujutsu Kaisen: After Yuuji and Megumi relay the events of the Shibuya Incident to the suspended third-years, Hakari says the last time he'd felt so depressed was when Yakul got hit with an arrow.
- Naruto: Kiba's Facial Markings are meant to remind of San.
Art
- The white-beast with a fruit-tree coming out of its head from Takashi Murakami's The 500 Arhats
◊ was deliberately based off of the Forest Spirit.
Film
- Pacific Rim: The scene where Raiju bites off Gipsy's arm is reminiscent to what Moro did to Eboshi.
Music
- Alcest based their 2016 album Kodama off of the film.
- Linkin Park: According to Mike Shinoda, the music video for "In the End" was inspired by Princess Mononoke, and accordingly features a similar Green Aesop concept about a devastated wasteland being reborn as Ghibli Hills.
Video Games
- The Messengers of Bloodborne resemble the Kodama in appearance and behaviour, but with more body horror.
- Elden Ring features several boss designs reminiscent of creatures in the film. The Recurring Boss Ancestor Spirit is a huge spectral elk that resembles the daytime form of the Forest Spirit, while the Final Boss Elden Beast resembles a draconic, sword-wielding version of the Nightwalker.
- Hatoful Boyfriend: Siding with Okosan will get you calling him San of the Forest.
- League of Legends: Varus' archetype of an archer slowly succumbing to corruption was directly inspired by Ashitaka, as well as some of his animations.
- In The Last of Us Part II: Manny mentions he likes anime and then latter tells Mel and Abby that he's gonna watch the movie where "the girl rides the wolf"".
- In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Link can encounter a mystical deer-like entity called Satori which heavily resembles the Forest Spirit. Its sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom explicity has Link's right arm infected with Gloom near-identically to Ashitaka's situation and gets superpowers soon after via Rauru's spirit hastily replaces Link's dead arm with his own.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice:
- The Sunken Valley Clan are a group of gun wielding men and women who are all wrapped head to toe in bandages, making them a clear expy for the lepers of Iron Town.
- Wolf is transported to the heavenly Fountainhead Palace by an enormous Shimenawa doll that visually echoes the introduction of the Nightwalker.
Webcomic
- Dean & Nala + Vinny: Nala is play acting that she is Princess Mononoke, but with her tendency toward malapropers, she calls herself "Princess Mononucleosis".
- Gunnerkrigg Court: After Kat and Annie make amends, Kat confesses her like of Annie's forest dresses."Also, I love the Princess Mononoke look you've got going on!" (Annie, of course, does not know what that is so they watch the film later.)
Western Animation
- The Amazing World of Gumball:
- Penny's wolf form when she runs off after thinking Gumball insulted her is similar to the wolf design in Princess Mononoke.
- The Stink Ape seems to be a reference to the American cryptid Skunk Ape (which is also known as Stink Ape). The appearance of the Stink Ape (and the way mushrooms sprout up then instantly wither around its feet) is a nod to the forest spirit in Princess Mononoke.
- Avatar: The Last Airbender: Aang successfully defends the Northern Water Tribe from a Fire Nation siege by having the Ocean Spirit merge with him, becoming a giant, glowing aqueous creature that is an obvious shoutout to the Forest Spirit's night form in Princess Mononoke. The concept of a human trying to kill a nature spirit also comes from the movie.
- The Firebird Suite segment of Fantasia 2000 takes visual inspiration from the Forest Spirit's rampage and shares several of its traits among its three characters - the Stag is a watchful and unaffected representation of wildlife, the Firebird is a towering, oozing wave (of molten lava) that destroys everything between it and the object of its wrath, and the Sprite is a spirit of creation who resides in a secret lake and restores her forest after the eruption by dissolving into it.
- Futurama: The Neanderthal attack in Fun On A Bun is filled with clever visual references to Princess Mononoke
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: From the go-kart episode: "Butt out, Princess Wanna-Know-Ke!"
- Sanjay and Craig: A kodama of all things makes a cameo when Sanjay is trying to make a shelter before Remington arrives.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The pattern of Ahsoka's Facial Markings is partially inspired by San from Princess Mononoke.
- Steven Universe: When the Aesop of the episode "Say Uncle" is delivered, Uncle Grandpa tells the audience to "See with eyes unclouded by hate", a quote from Princess Mononoke.
