THE KODAMAS

The Kodamas are the tiny spirits of the forest. In the french subtitled version, their name has been translated by "Sylvains". Sylvain was in the roman mythology the God of Forests and Fields, the protector of the cattle and of the flocks. Originally that divinity was only called by the adjective silvanus (in latin,"living in the forest"!), but later has been assimilated to the pastorals gods Pan (God of the wood) and Faune (God of the fields). To my mind, I find that translation a bit "bold" and above all useless! If the reason of this change is to find a classic word wich has vaguely something in commun with the Kodamas, the best thing would be to keep the original name. Moreover, for a french, Sylvain obviously shocks 'cause we often know one! Anyway... it's all the same that kind of details wich put together misrepresent a movie.
In japanese (according to what I read) Kodama means "trees'spirit" but can be also understood as "echo". These tiny creatures are white, sometimes a bit green, and more or less transparent. We don't really know which kind of perception they've got about the world. We however see that they got at least a kind of understanding since they are playing a part into Ashitaka's quest: they show him his way to the den of the Shishi Gami.
The "echo" translation seems to me very interesting. Of course the Kodamas don't make any sound but rather some attitude: the one of the human. First of all, those tiny creatures have roughly some humans'faces. Moreover, when Ashitaka carries on his back a wounded,we can notice that the Kodamas copy him... On a certain way, they are a link between the men and the forest, between the both camps in struggle.
In the whole movie, the Kodamas have a huge part. Facing the cruelty and the harshness of the nature, they are a magistral opposite for showing there is also something wonderful in that nature. When they arrive for the first time in the movie, it's just after when Ashitaka sees San for the first time. There was already a cut between this solemn scene and the cuitest moment of the movie.
The Kodamas represent also hope as at the end, the last image shows that they didn't have been totaly killed by the tragedy which is striking the forest...

Kodamas observants (43 Ko)
Kodamas running away towards the tops of the trees (55 Ko)
Kodamas on the tops of the trees(panoramic 142 Ko)
Tragedy (41 Ko)
Final picture (59 Ko)