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A newly discovered deepwater fish has been named Branchiostegus sanae in honor of San from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke, due to its distinctive cheek stripe reminiscent of the character’s facial markings.
After noticing its unique cheek stripes, Chinese researchers identified the fish as a new species.
Lead researcher Haochen Huang explained that the choice of the name ‘sanae’ was a tribute to the film’s themes of coexistence between humans and nature.
“In Princess Mononoke, San is a young woman raised by wolves after being abandoned by her human parents. She sees herself as part of the forest and fights to protect it. The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence between the two—something we hope to echo through this naming.”
The deepwater tilefish, belonging to the family Branchiostegidae, was confirmed through genetic analysis by scientists from the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, the Chinese Academy of Science, Zhejiang University, and Ocean University of China.
While deepwater tilefish are common in seafood markets across East and Southeast Asia, the diversity within the Branchiostegidae family is relatively low.
With only 31 described species in the family and 19 in the Branchiostegus genus, the discovery of a new species is a rare and exciting event.
“Finding a new species in this group is a rare and fortunate event, especially one as distinctive as Branchiostegus sanae,” Huang added.
This discovery is particularly significant as only three new species in the Branchiostegus genus have been identified in the past 34 years.
Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese anime historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Widely regarded as one of Miyazaki’s masterpieces, the anime film took 16 years to conceptualize and three years to produce. It earned ¥19.3 billion at the box office, setting record-breaking sales in Japanese cinemas at the time.
Source: BBC
