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Spirited Away

During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts. During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts. During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.

• Hayao Miyazaki
• Daveigh Chase
• Suzanne Pleshette
• 1.7K User reviews
• 224 Critic reviews
• 96 Metascore
• 58 wins & 31 nominations total

• (English version)

• Chihiro Ogino

• (as Ryûnosuke Kamiki)

• Bandai-gaeru
• Kawa no Kami

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Hayao Miyazaki's Magic Worlds

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• Trivia Although it has a rich plot with developed characters, Spirited Away (2001) was not made with a script. Hayao Miyazaki's films never had scripts during their production. "I don't have the story finished and ready when we start work on a film," the filmmaker told Midnight Eye. "I usually don't have the time. So, the story develops when I start drawing storyboards. The production starts soon while the storyboards are still developing." Miyazaki does not know where the plot is going, and he lets it happen organically. "It's not me who makes the film. The film makes itself, and I have no choice but to follow."
• Goofs After Haku flies out of the bedroom we see Sen's left hand touching more of the blood on the railing. The elevator attendant sees it on the same hand after grabbing her arm as she tries to board it. Not much later we see her looking at the same hand again before running across the pipe. It isn't till after being held captive by the baby under the cushions that the blood switches hands as he holds her by the left arm revealing no blood on that hand at all.

Zeniba : Once you do something, you never forget. Even if you can't remember.

• Crazy credits The credits have a series of still images from the film. The last image before the film fades is Chihiro's shoe in the river.
• Alternate versions Various dialog is added to the English dub to explain settings, translate Japanese text, or traditions; for example, when Chihiro first sees the bathhouse, in the English dub, she says "It's a bathhouse", which isn't present in the Japanese version.
• Connections Edited into Miyazaki Dreams of Flying (2017)
• Soundtracks Ano natsu e ("One Summer's Day") (uncredited) Composed by Joe Hisaishi

User reviews 1.7K

• minimeltheminx
• Oct 11, 2004

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• March 28, 2003 (United States)
• Disney's Official Site
• Miyazaki collection
• El viaje de Chihiro
• Tokuma Shoten
• Studio Ghibli
• Nippon Television Network (NTV)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $19,000,000 (estimated)
• $15,205,725
• Sep 22, 2002
• $357,561,772

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes
• Dolby Digital EX

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, chihiro's journey: analyzing "spirited away".

In July 2012, Roger wrote about viewing “ Spirited Away ” for a third time and how he was then “ struck by a quality between generosity and love. ” It was during that viewing he “ began to focus on the elements in the picture that didn’t need to be there. ” Recently, I was re-reading that essay as I was watching the Blu-ray of "Spirited Away" three times (Japanese, English dub and back to Japanese) back-to-back-to-back. 

Suddenly, I was struck by the visual cues Hayao Miyazaki presents in the beginning of the film that set up the character of Chihiro before she becomes Sen. I called it my A-ha moment.

Chihiro has been characterized as whiny, but I think if you understand her situation and contrast her intuitiveness with her parents' obliviousness, she seems less so. In the real world before she becomes Sen, there is no doubt she is a bit sullen. Not unlike Riley in Pixar's " Inside Out ," she's unhappy with being forced to move away from her friends. Her friends have given her a nice bouquet. If there are five stages of loss and grief (denial/isolation, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance), then Chihiro is at the end of denial, and her comment about how unfortunate it is to get her first bouquet as a farewell gift indicates she is entering anger.

When her father, Akio, takes the rural street that leads them to what looks like an old unused amusement park, Chihiro picks up cues that her parents do not. She's troubled and a bit frightened by the moss-covered stone statues. Something about them makes her anxious. In this respect, she is not unlike Lucy Pevensie from "The Chronicles of Narnia." Narnia is closed off from children when they reach a certain age in the real world (until death returns Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Digory and Polly). Lucy is the most intuitive of the four Pevensies although she too has a moment of envy that signals she won't be able to return. Chihiro at ten is still more child than adult and thus more intuitive than her parents.

If we consider that Chihiro senses something is wrong, then her pleading with her parents not to enter the tunnel seem less whiny. She becomes Cassandra, a prophet whose warnings go unheeded. Out on the other side, there is a grass meadow and more stone statues. Chihiro's anxiety over the statues isn't the last bit of foreshadowing that Miyazaki provides visually.

In the following scenes, Miyazaki exploits the visual nature of the Japanese language. Japanese is not like English. Instead of an alphabet, it uses two syllabary systems and Chinese characters. The syllabary systems, hiragana and katakana, originated from Chinese characters, but are used to represent syllables. Hiragana is used for post-positionals and parts of words not fully expressed by Chinese characters (such as inflections for verbs and adjectives). Katakana is used for foreign words and onomatopoeia. Chinese characters often symbolize concrete things. Japanese poetry is filled with wordplay and the following scenes are filled with visual cues and words that can have double meanings.

On the first building we see an incomplete phrase. Alone the character 正 would be read "sho" or "sei" and means right, righteous, justice and genuine, but 正 also suggests 正しい, meaning correct, right, honest and truthful. There's more signs on the shops in the main road. At first casual glance as we go by, it does seem like they are all part of advertising for restaurants, but on closer examination, that proves not to be true.

When we get to the main street we see the characters 市場 for market (ichiba) and the word 自由 (jiyuu) for freedom. Then there are some disquieting Chinese characters. The mother says that all the places are restaurants. When you see 天 float by you might think 天ぷら (for tempura), but actually the characters are: 天祖 (tensoo) for the ancestral goddess of the sun, Amaterasu. In one frame we see only 天狗 (tengu), with "ten" above and "gu" below.  The character 狗 means dog, but can be used for dog meat (狗肉）which is not commonly eaten in Japan (and could suggest the homophone 苦肉 or "kuniku," which literally means bitter meat meaning a countermeasure that requires personal sacrifice. The character usually used for dog is 犬. Tengu, however, or heavenly dog, a legendary creature or supernatural being (yookai) that can be either harbingers of war or protective spirits of the mountains and forests.

Floating at the corner of one building is 骨 which means bone and it could be a restaurant term as in the creamy broth: 豚骨 (tonkotsu) which is literally pig bone. Yet bone or "hone" is used in idiomatic phrases such as hone-nashi meaning to lack moral backbone.

Some of the Chinese characters are just a little off, enough to make you think. Most obviously is the one syllabary and one Chinese character that are written backwards when we look above at the arch. The characters are 飢と食と会 which seem to substitute for 飢える (ueru, to starve), 食べる(taberu, to eat)  and 会う(au, to meet). The と signifies "and." It should read eat ( 食べる), drink (飲む) and meet (会う) or something like that, but the last two symbols are backwards on either side. Looking at these, perhaps Chihiro senses something is wrong.

Further, right before the father Akio turns down a small alleyway, he is framed by the characters for heaven on the left side of the screen and on the right side for devil. Soon after, what he sees is, especially in Japan, a supernaturally large buffet. While he assures Chihiro that he can pay for the feast and we remember he did have that foreign car, a Japanese person might be quickly calculating in their minds the exorbitant cost.

Chihiro briefly leaves her parents and above her head flashes a sign that reminds us both of family, pigs and death. The character 冢 (tsuka) means hill or mound. Yet this is not the preferred character which would be 塚 (also read tsuka). The small cross represents ground or earth. Without that radical, 冢 is only one stroke different than the word for house 家 (uchi) which is the same one used for the Chinese character combination that means family 家族 (kazoku). The significance here is that pig (豚 or buta) under a roof represents house/home 家. That quick flash of this character gives the suggestion of pig and family. Yet it is also like bone (骨 or hone) associated with death as in grave (冢穴).

This character 冢 (tsuka) seems to foreshadow the transformation of her parents into pigs and her journey to figure out how to save her parents from death. The more she sees of this amusement park, the more frightened she becomes. There's an expensive public bathhouse at the end of the pathway and all the lamps seems to be associated with it, but where are the people? Where are the vacationers, the retired old people and the middle-aged women on retreat? Where are the vendors, pushing you to buy anything and everything because everyone must return home with presents (omiyage) for their neighbors, co-workers and relatives. Anyone who has been on the trail to great temples or been on a hot springs tour will know that for such a grand feast and for such a splendid public bathhouse, these scenes are much too quiet.

Chihiro runs back, perhaps to warn her parents only to find her parents have been transformed into hogs.

The movie is called "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" (千と千尋の神隠し). Sen means a thousand, but the pronunciation of the character can change to "chi" as it does in the name Chihiro. The "hiro" in Chihiro means to ask questions. Kamikakushi means spirited away with kami meaning spirit or god and kakushi meaning hidden. So perhaps we can translate the title as "Sen and the Mysterious Disappearance of Chihiro."

"Spirited Away" was released in in July 2001. Most Studio Ghibli movies were released in July, and in Japan, I feel this is especially significant in the case of "Spirited Away" and " When Marnie Was There " because it is the Obon season, a time when Japanese believe the spirits of their ancestors walk the earth and return to their furusato (hometown). That time period (mid-July to August) is, much like New Year's week, a hard time to get things done in Japan due to the various celebrations and the people who leave on vacation. We do learn later in the movie that the character on the first building, 正, is part of a combination 正月 which we translate to mean New Year.

Although Roger didn't read or speak Japanese, he saw the rich detail. This is one of those movies worthy of a frame-by-frame analysis. For the people who read Japanese, some of what I have written above may have been intuitively realized. There are other things I still wonder about such as the prominence of the Japanese syllables of “me” and “yu” throughout. I’ve read one theory that put together into “yume” it means “dream.” I’d enjoy hearing other people’s thoughts, theories and feelings about “Spirited Away.”

Jana Monji, made in San Diego, California, lost in Japan several times, has written about theater and movies for the LA Weekly , LA Times , and currently, Examiner.com and the Pasadena Weekly . Her short fiction has been published in the Asian American Literary Review .

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Screen Rant

Spirited away ending, explained.

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is a signature of his filmography and of Studio Ghibli, and it's ending is one of the reasons its remembered so fondly.

• Spirited Away is a fantastical tale with a triumphant and melancholy ending, featuring a relatable and self-possessed protagonist, Chihiro.
• Chihiro's journey through the spirit world is filled with anxiety and fear, but also triumph and bravery, as she learns lessons from the characters she encounters.
• The ending of Spirited Away sees Chihiro passing a final test, choosing her real parents among the pigs, and ultimately gaining the power of self-actualization to escape the spirit world.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a fantastical tale with an ending that’s triumphant and melancholy. Miyazaki’s eighth directed film, Spirited Away is the story of a young girl, Chihiro, who stumbles across the spirit world and must find her way back to her parents. Chihiro's parents are transformed into pigs and Chihiro becomes lost in the Kami spirit world from Japanese folklore. Chihiro ends up taking a job at a bathhouse for spirits, working with her only friend, Haku, to find a way to escape the clutches of the bathhouse's overseer — the nefarious witch Yubaba — and free her parents.

2001's Spirited Away is not only one of Hayao Miyazaki’s best movies , but it also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Chihiro is a relatable and self-possessed protagonist and her journey through the spirit world is filled with anxiety and fear but even more with triumph and bravery. The characters she meets are imaginatively designed and voiced and each offers Chihiro a different lesson that builds on the themes of the film. Spirited Away explained that Chihiro’s growth feels real and her escape from the spirit world feels earned.

Spirited Away’s 20th Anniversary: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About The Film

What happens in spirited away’s ending, how chihiro rescues her parents from yubaba.

The buildup to the Spirited Away ending sees Chihiro and the spirit friends she made leave the bathhouse and visit Zeniba, Yubaba’s kind twin sister. In the house at Swamp Bottom, Chihiro is treated kindly, but she is upset at the fact she is no closer to escaping with her parents. Zeniba cheers her up with a gift she and her new friends made. At that moment, Haku retrieves her. They reunite happily and the two of them, along with Boh and the Yubaba-bird, say goodbye to Zeniba and No-Face as they head back to the bathhouse.

When Chihiro returns, Yubaba and all the spiritual and mythical creatures of Spirited Away are waiting for her. Yubaba gives Chihiro a final test; if she passes, she and her parents may leave. The test forces her to choose which pigs are her parents. Chihiro passes the test and leaves the spirit world. When she returns to the fair, she sees no time has passed and her parents don’t remember anything of their experience. Chihiro and her parents get in the car, and she gives one final look at the fairground before driving off.

Every Studio Ghibli Film (And What They Were Inspired By)

How did chihiro and her family escape from the spirit world in spirited away, chihiro gained the power of self-actualization.

When Chihiro begins working in Yubaba’s bathhouse, the witch takes her name and dubs her “Sen” as a condition of her employment. To return to the human world, Sen cannot forget her real name. That is why Haku is still in Yubaba’s employ after many years. Names and identities are extremely important in Spirited Away . Each spirit has a distinct identity and to remove someone’s name traps them. This idea of identity extends to how Yubaba tests Chihiro before agreeing to let her out at the end of Spirited Away — Chihiro must successfully name the pigs that are her parents.

Yubaba may not have even given Chihiro the chance to leave if not for her son. The witch’s baby was originally a spoiled child, but after being transformed into a mouse and forced to stay with Chihiro, he learns a lesson about kindness and speaks up for her. Chihiro looks at the pigs and realizes none of them are her parents .

How she knows this isn't important to the Spirited Away ending, it's the fact she knows it at all that's important. Chihiro knows who she is and who her parents are even she's going by the name of Sen and her mother and father are nameless pigs. Self-actualization allows her to return home.

No-Face’s Ending Mirrors Chihiro’s

The iconic spirit shares many similarities with spirited away's hero.

No-Face is a shadowy spirit with a white mask that Chihiro invites into the bathhouse. Chihiro treats the spirit kindly, and it takes a liking to the girl. No-Face is a strange character in Spirited Away , and his personality and arc touch on important themes of the film and mirror Chihiro’s journey. When No-Face is first introduced , he is alone and without an identity. It isn’t until Chihiro invites him in that he begins offering gold and using the luxuries of the bathhouse. Just like Chihiro, No-Face is a stranger to the bathhouse.

However, No-Face doesn’t belong, as spending any time in the bathhouse transforms it into a monster. Like Chihiro after forfeiting her name to merely be Sen, No-Face does not have an identity either . No-Face represents Chihiro’s loneliness and the beautiful moment in Spirited Away of them sitting together on the train shows how similar the characters are. Chihiro’s journey forces her to confront her loneliness and sense of self and No-Face is a representation of what can happen if she loses those things.

10 Underrated Studio Ghibli Movies That Deserve More Attention

How did chihiro help haku at the end of spirited away, chihiro learns haku's real name.

One of the few friends Chihiro has is Haku, one of Yubaba’s employees at the bathhouse. Yubaba took Haku’s name long ago, and he can’t remember it to escape. When Haku picks up Chihiro from Zeniba’s house, Chihiro remembers something as she rides on Haku in his dragon form. Chihiro recalls a time she was caught in a river and something saved her. It turns out that the name of that river, the Kohaku River, is Haku’s real name, which then frees him from his contract.

It was Haku who told Chihiro to remember her real name when Yubaba changed it to Sen, and Chihiro repays that debt by giving Haku back his name. For most of her time in the spirit world, Chihiro is the victim, but she gains confidence and strength as she helps the bathhouse, becomes a useful employee, and makes friends. Her gift to Haku is the final step in her growth and brings her relationship with the spirit full circle. He saves her at the beginning of Spirited Away and Chihiro repays the favor in the only way she can.

Did The Events Of Spirited Away Actually Happen Or Were They In Chihiro’s Head?

There are clues chihiro's time in yubaba's bathhouse wasn't a dream.

When Chihiro crosses the dried riverbed, she turns back to see that the bathhouse and the surrounding spirit world have been replaced by the wide open field from the film's beginning. Chihiro finds her parents, and they have no recollection of being transformed into pigs. It appears that no time has passed. The scene of the family walking back towards their car is the exact shot of them walking towards the fair from the beginning. It could be assumed that the events of Spirited Away didn’t happen at all.

However, there are two signs that the events of Spirited Away did happen and the magic that transported Chihiro to the spirit world erased her parents' memories of the event. For one, Chihiro still has the bracelet Zeniba gave her in Swamp Bottom at the end of Spirited Away . The second clue is that when the family gets to their car, they see it covered in branches, leaves, and dust. Something happened there and somehow time passed strangely. Even if her parents aren’t aware of it, Chihiro knows that what they experienced was real.

10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Spirited Away

The real meaning of spirited away’s ending, chihiro's adventure is about moving forward and letting go.

Spirited Away’s emotional ending is a standard for Studio Ghibli and resolves Chihiro's arc by transforming how she sees the world and herself. Chihiro starts the film annoyed at her parents for moving and is sad to say goodbye to her friends. She is a stereotypical, gloomy child. Not only does she not want to move, but she’s taken to an abandoned fair that she wants no part of, and as a consequence, Chihiro is transported to the spirit world. However, Spirited Away explained that Chihiro grew up after resisting it for so long.

By the end of Spirited Away, Chihiro is a self-possessed, confident, and kinder young woman. Her very last task is to cross the river bed and not look back, just like she needed to do for her family’s move. It’s a hopeful but also sad ending message for Spirited Away. Chihiro eventually looks back at her old life, but first, she needs to go forward. When her mother asks Chihiro if she’s nervous, Chihiro’s answer, “ I think I can handle it ” points to how the events of Spirited Away have readied her for the next stage of life.

Spirited Away (2001)

Spirited Away, a masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki, is an animated fantasy film that follows the enchanting journey of a young girl named Chihiro. Trapped in a mystical world after her parents are transformed into pigs, Chihiro must navigate a realm filled with spirits and peculiar creatures to save her family.

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Spirited Away

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What to Know

Spirited Away is a dazzling, enchanting, and gorgeously drawn fairy tale that will leave viewers a little more curious and fascinated by the world around them.

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• Spirited Away | An otherworldly journey for growing up

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Spirited Away ( 千と千尋の神隠し , Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi , literally translated to Sen and Chihiro’s Spiriting Away ) is a Japanese fantasy animated movie written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki . It is the twelfth animation made by Studio Ghibli . It was released in 2001, unanimously acclaimed by critics all over the world.

Chihiro’s journey is a coming-of-age story set in a fantastical and traditional Japan. Through this movie, Miyazaki engages with younger viewers on issues such as changes in the environment and the protection of cultural heritage.

A journey into the spiritual realm

Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro Ogino (voiced by Rumi Hiiragi ), a ten-year-old girl, and her adventures in a mysterious world inhabited by gods, spirits, and witches. After a witch called Yubaba (voiced by Mari Natsuki ) cast a curse on her parents and turns them into pigs, Chihiro is forced to work in an enchanted bathhouse in order to free them. There, she meets a boy named Haku (voiced by Miyu Irino ), who will join her on a journey to understand who she is. The challenges Chihiro will face in this alienating place will transform her into a braver, more empathetic version of herself.

Creating a Wonderland

The animations in Studio Ghibli’s movies feel unique. Indeed, they are all hand-drawn and not computer-generated. However, in the early 2000s, Studio Ghibli opted to use 3D to create some technical and labor-intensive shots. These scenes often contain complex camera movements, such as the “tracking shots” of Chihiro running through the flower fields.

In Spirited Away , the daylight scenes use under-saturated and pastel colors . This palette conveys a sense of a soft, calm atmosphere. In contrast, the night-time scenes are imbued with mystery and threats that lie in dark corners. The transition heightens the blue and purple hues of the night, which contrast with the multitude of fluorescent lanterns . This color palette of warm pastel hues contrasting with dark, cool purples recalls Claude Monet ‘s Nymphéas . To support the change of scenery, the mellow tunes shift to a more dramatic and grandiose beat at night. Composer Joe Hisaichi composed the soundtrack for Spirited Away , as well as all of Miyazaki’s other Studio Ghibli movies.

Seeing through Japanese eyes

Studio Ghibli creates Japanese animations that are very different from Western animations , such as Disney or Pixar movies.

In the latter, usually, child viewers see animations featuring charming faces and friendly protagonists . In particular, the female heroine is usually of high lineage and pretty, with large sparkling eyes, tiny noses, and small chins. This makes them appear innocent. Indeed, Disney movies have continued to reproduce old fairy tales centered on a female figure whose success is partly conditioned by her moral virtue and feminine beauty.

As a change from this, Hayao Miyazaki decided to make Chihiro look not as glamourous as typical Disney princesses. Instead, he wanted to focus on her abilities and the evolution of her personality. Also, the other characters she interacts with are creepy and quite terrifying. One cannot forget the apparition of No-Face, a character shaped like a shadow from the unconscious. Yet, No-Face is spine-chilling only because it is alone and does not have a sense of self. Hence, No-Face is appeased when he is invited to stay at the house of the twin witch Zeniba.

For adult viewers, one should approach Spirited Away by managing the cultural differences that carry underlying meanings . For example, the importance of the bathhouse, where all kinds of spirits come to relax. The practice of going to the onsen – the bathhouse – is still common in Japan. The ritual of bathing in hot springs serves not only to wash oneself but also to cleanse the mind and soul. Hence, that’s why one spirit in particular – the River Spirit – is freed from dirt and pollution after its visit to the bathhouse.

A magical fantasy to grow up with

Chihiro’s peripeteia is a coming-of-age story. On her way, she faces many challenges that test her courage, her morals, and her will to overcome her fears. The girl endures a traumatizing separation from her parents and starts working early on. This separation leads Chihiro to discover herself as she searches for her own voice and traces back her history.

First, she learns to master the power of words and to use her voice to make other people hear her out. For example, the witch Yubaba cannot ignore Chihiro’s repeated vocal demand to work. No-Face, who cannot express himself, struggles to be understood and therefore uses money and violence.

Later, the witch steals Chihiro’s name, naming her Sen instead. Yubaba also uses this spell to keep the boy Haku under her yoke. Indeed, Haku cannot go back to where he came from. Remembering his name will be the key to freedom.

By making these conscious achievements, Chihiro marks her rite of passage. The physical journey is a metaphor for her inner journey and inner growth. This metaphor is also used in other stories starring a girl, such as The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland .

Two faces of the same coin

This adventure script is quite unique because it does not intend to make the good triumph over the evil. As the characters evolve, they blur these distinctions.

This is true for No-Face, who stops damaging others when he is cared for. The witch Yubaba and her twin Zeniba also portray this versatility. Zeniba is the kinder, softer version, who welcomes the protagonists into a comfortable shelter. She eventually makes her sister Yubaba look warmer and more approachable. Indeed, Yubaba only plays the bad cop because she is in charge of running the bathhouse. Miyazaki intended to show that this duality is actually the two faces of a coin. In Japan, in particular, one is subject to wearing different masks at work and at home. Authority and hierarchy play a significant part in the workplace, according to the Hofstede model . While at home, courtesy and politeness are highly valued.

Furthermore, this versatile aspect also breaks away from the tradition of happy endings and triumphant goodness typical of Western movies. Spirited Away offers an alternative storyline with room for the good and the bad. Indeed, Chihiro encounters monstrous creatures without weapons and leaves their world without destroying it behind her.

Miyazaki’s message to future generations

Miyazaki’s animes are filled with myths and traditions of his native island. It gives him the inspiration to create universes imprinted with poetry and magic. Spirited Away – like Princess Mononoke (1997) or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) – take place in a medieval or a futuristic Japan. Often, at the heart of the stories, there is a female hero helped by a male companion . They take part in an extraordinary adventure that depicts the links between human societies and the stakes to protect their surrounding environment.

The anime format is well suited to captivating the minds of today’s children with the aim of conveying pedagogical messages. Indeed, Miyazaki’s animes sensitize the youth to issues that are becoming increasingly urgent and will affect them as tomorrow’s adults.

Specifically, Spirited Away mentions the issues of pollution and the receding of natural rivers . However, environmental awareness is explored more deeply in Princess Mononoke . Indeed, while the latter tells the battle between the magical entities protecting the enchanted forest and the human drive for progress, Spirited Away instead values more the protection of ancestral Japan, its customs, and places . Miyazaki made it with a hint of nostalgia to remind children what Japan used to be.

Miyazaki does not only preach good deeds but actively takes part in them. Just like Chihiro, he faces the current issue of environmental pollution. Hence, he often goes to clean up his local river .

Coming back to reality with a message

Spirited Away marked Studio Ghibli’s phenomenal success in and out of Japan. The film won the Golden Bear at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival ( ex aequo with Bloody Sunday ) in 2002. At the 75th Academy Awards , it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , becoming the first non-English-language animated movie to win such an award . In addition, the anime earned a massive ¥31.68 billion in Japan, becoming the highest-grossing movie in Japan for 19 years (a record beaten only by Demon Slayer: Mugen Train in 2020).

The movie reached the hearts of so many because it is the relatable story of a girl entering the adult world. It is a step in life that everyone must take, regardless of a person’s gender, nationality or religion. With the difference that, in Spirited Away , the adult world is populated by fantastic creatures and not by individuals in suits and ties. Spirited Away brings in fantasy. But it does so only to offer fresh eyes on extremely real issues from our world.

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Suggestions, into the great unknown: the infinite wisdom of chihiro’s train journey in “spirited away”.

The climactic journey of 'Spirited Away' holds the key to understanding the ethos behind Hayao Miyazaki's entire filmography.

Hayao Miyazaki has always been fascinated with the idea of youth. It’s not just because he primarily makes films for children—his affection for the imagination and innocence of our childhoods informs his entire career, every one of his films reflecting upon the joy that stems from the freedom of being young and the sadness that comes with losing that. No film captures that more than Spirited Away , his 2001 magnum opus that uses a young girl’s existential journey through a land of spirits as an examination of finding yourself in your youth. While the film as a whole is a stirring pursuit of that idea, there’s one scene that alone unlocks the secret to Spirited Away —and perhaps Miyazaki’s entire filmography.

Near the conclusion of the film, the film’s protagonist Chihiro/Sen takes a trip to the countryside of the spirit realm in a scene that stands out as some of the emotionally striking filmmaking ever committed to celluloid. She boards a train, full of featureless spirits, that takes her across endless expanses of flooded villages and ghostly cities. There is no dialogue, only the sounds of Joe Hisaishi’s haunting score, the sweeping sounds of the ocean, and the relentless chugging of the train’s engine. A deep sense of sadness hangs heavy in the air, Chihiro watching wordlessly as her mysterious fellow passengers disembark for places unknown. In a particularly haunting moment, the train pulls away from a station and Miyazaki focuses on the spirit of a solitary young girl, probably Chihiro’s own age, watching it depart. Are these the spirits of the dead, traveling to a newfound home in the afterlife to reunite with their loved ones? Or are they weary, lost travelers, doomed to years of traveling with no set destination? Miyazaki knows he can’t offer any answers. He instead focuses on Chihiro’s face, which for the first time in the film is set with a sense of determination.

He shows a young girl on a metaphorical, and in some ways literal, journey from the naivete of her childhood to a deeper, more mature understanding of what it means to live for something. Chihiro is perhaps Miyazaki’s most complex character because she isn’t a joyful, mostly carefree child like the many Ghibli protagonists that preceded her. She spends much of the film nervous and unsure of herself, seemingly longing for the confidence of her much more easy-going parents. Her experiences in the spirit realm and her eventual evolution into maturity that the train journey represents form the very backbone of the bittersweet nature behind Miyazaki’s work. He longs for the privilege of childhood, the point in our lives where we are supposed to be unburdened by the worries of the world. But through Chihiro, he recognizes that a sense of freedom isn’t a guarantee and that it’s up to all of us to allow children the space to discover that freedom within themselves. Chihiro’s success in saving her parents and the reclamation of her identity hinges on the determination she discovers within herself in this scene.

Miyazaki’s protagonists in earlier films, particularly My Neighbor Totoro  and  Kiki’s Delivery Service , do face similar struggles over their freedom to be themselves; the merry adventures of Satsuki and Mei’s childhood in Totoro  are complicated by the sickness of their mother and Kiki’s loneliness and lack of purpose drives the moral center of  Delivery Service.  The difference is that the train sequence in Spirited Away  takes Chihiro’s emotional development a step further in that Miyazaki isn’t just speaking to children with this moment, he’s speaking to all audiences. As a child, you watch this moment and say “I know there is something in me that’s stronger.” As an adult, you watch it and are flushed with all the memories of the ebbs and flows of your life. You remember the times you had that same childhood realization, but you also resonate with the sense that something has been lost as you grow older. The faceless spirits mirror our own doubts over the anxiety and mundanity of being an adult, as well as the losses we’ve encountered in that growth, but the serenity in the scene also suggests that Miyazaki pleads that we must make peace with that development.

From a stylistic and structural sense, the scene is so potent because it’s a climax that is not climactic in the traditional sense of the word. It doesn’t land as the structural apex of the movie because it’s a bombastic set piece or a moment to unveil an earth-shattering revelation; it strikes such a chord because it actively challenges that notion of what a climax is, coming immediately after arguably the most action-packed scene of the film (No-face’s rampage through the bathhouse) and even standing in opposition to many of the pivotal moments of Miyazaki’s other films. In Miyazaki’s previous films, the emotional catharsis of those works still come in fast-paced, “epic” moments: Totoro’s themes of childhood bonds and trauma are crystallized in a journey on a cat-shaped bus, Princess Mononoke’s  themes of environmental justice and lost innocence is made shockingly literal in a battle scene, and so on. In stark contrast, the train scene grinds Spirited Away’s propulsive momentum to a near halt to force viewers to linger on the transformation that Chihiro is undergoing and reflect on that change in our own pasts. The emotional challenge of hinging Chihiro’s catharsis around a scene this reserved is so great that Miyazaki arguably shied away from it for over a decade. Howl’s Moving Castle  and  Ponyo  are fantastic films that nevertheless take a step away from the philosophical intricacy of  Spirited Away.  Miyazaki’s more spiritual sense would return with  The Wind Rises , another masterful film that shares more threads with  Away  than you may spot at first glance. The climactic scene of that film can be seen as a moment in the vein of Miyazaki’s more electrifying work that’s complicated by the same quiet grace as Chihiro’s train ride: the protagonist Jiro finally achieves his dream of building the perfect plane, but feels a gust of wind at the test site that signifies the death of his wife Naoko. The triumph of his success is animated with only the sound of the wind and another poignant score from Hisaishi hanging over the scene, the juxtaposition of Naoko’s death and the eventual use of his planes for war illustrating that Jiro’s creative life has been corrupted by forces outside of his control. The mirrored styles of the two scenes and Miyazaki’s decision to return to that method of filmmaking for The Wind Rises  reflects on the importance of  Spirited Away  not only as a tool to understanding Miyazaki’s wider career but as a work that shades Miyazaki’s own thought process even over a decade later. He is confident and wise enough as a director to recognize that his audience, specifically children, don’t have to be taken on a thrill ride for the purpose of the film to connect with them emotionally or spiritually, especially when dealing with themes that he feels would be betrayed by flashier filmmaking.

Chihiro’s train ride brings out the ideology and motivations behind Miyazaki’s sense of duty as a filmmaker with reserved grace. It exposes and continues to inform the ethos of his work, the theme that all his central ideas eventually return to in some way: aging is an inevitable loss, but it is not the end. Aging gives us the agency to discover ourselves, to remember the carelessness of our youth and cherish not only that memory of our past but who we’ve become since. That ideal shines new light on all of Miyazaki’s works, providing an answer to the question of what comes after the joys of childhood that he illuminates in them. As Chihiro’s train leaves her into a dark and uncertain night, Miyazaki reassures us that its journey is not over. It has more of us to shepherd, and the growth that spiritual migration invokes just means we are all strong enough to grow.

• hayao miyazaki
• spirited away
• studio ghibli

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Thanks for such a poignant analysis of this beautiful film.

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A Long Time on the Epiphanic Road: Chihiro’s Coming of Age and Personal Growth in Spirited Away (2001)

From “I liked my old school” to “I think I’ll manage it,” Chihiro grew up.

So did all of us, isn’t it? The hesitant footsteps that had once trembled on touching the waters beneath the steps of the ‘Spirited’ Bathhouse were confidently surprised to find the lush green land they had bid farewell to on their way back home. That, in my opinion, is Growth. But what is Home? This becomes a poignant question to ask at this point. Is Home the one Chihiro left while entering the Spirited World, or is it the one she leaves while returning to her parents? In either of the two cases, ‘Home’ is nothing but a feeling; it is fleeting, and the harsh truth is that neither Chihiro nor we could catch it no matter how hard we tried. The moment we realize that, empathize with our vagabond-like hearts, and understand that it is nowhere that we actually belong, we know we have grown up.

All our lives we spend searching for that one place where we belong. The search ends for some, while others simply make do with the fact that life is like a stream of water; it flows, looks the same, but never is. The inch of water that has passed will never come back, just like a moment once passed never does. The stream we look at from a distance does not have the same water it had a moment before we set our glance. Are people any different? Once a person undergoes a specific experience, he/she/they are never the same.

Our chirpy protagonist, Chihiro, is, indeed, no exception. The film’s opening shot bears evidence of her refusal to accept Change. But ironically and funnily enough, Change eventually happens to be the only constant in her life. The person she was before she entered the tunnel and stepped into the world of Spirits is nothing close to the person that left; Chihiro: a name symbolizing a journey of growth; that of traveling from ‘Innocence’ to ‘Experience’ in the words of William Blake; an emblem signifying our perennial refusal to accept the New and yet succumbing to it anyway.

Hayao Miyazaki is an artiste when it comes to visualizing and painting in vibrant colors the meandering heart of a girl nearing her adolescence. While he pictures a world that appears Utopic, a closer look with a magnifying glass would lead us to the nuanced alleys of dark truth prevailing amid a fantastical world. Japan’s transitional phase between Tradition and Modernity gains a voice in the world of Spirited Away (2001). Miyazaki makes it a point to tuck in details of such a dichotomic phase in bits and pieces into the film, which floats to the foreground on various occasions; for instance, the artifacts inside the tunnel showcasing remnants of traditional life thriving at some point in Japan followed by the royal structure of the tower outside the tunnel that Chihiro’s father identifies to be a Theme Park in ruins. What is the need for a Theme Park fashioned in a traditional architectural design in the first place? Nothing but a need to hold on to the Past, a Past that is fleeting, just like the feeling of Home.

In Miyazaki’s vision, modernity is an Express Train so fast that even the Theme Parks appear to be a thing of the Past. Modernity is fast, daunting, and approaching with such an intense thunderbolt of lightning speed that the Past seems to be traversing into oblivion a little more with every passing minute. At this tumultuous juncture, what could be a better metaphor for the transitional phase of Japan than the transitional bewilderment undergone by Chihiro, the film’s female protagonist? Miyazaki, quite arguably, is no different from the series of film scholars and critics who pose women as the underlining marker of the conditions of a Nation State.

With the women, one gets a clear picture of how far the Nation’s Modernity is complete. Keeping aside the critical arguments on complete and incomplete Modernity, what is crucial in our context is how Chihiro becomes the living, breathing example of the dichotomy not only as she is approaching her teenage but also of how she is perplexed between Tradition (standing for the ‘Spirited World’) and the Modern (standing for the Human World).

As the family walks past the lush green fields under Chihiro’s father’s persuasion and enters the World of Spirits, they seem to have reached the gateway of Tradition, a world that believes in “eight million Gods” where the Modern (in the form of her parents) intrude and try to inflict damage. Chihiro, who does not give in to the urge to destroy Tradition, is left all alone in that world. Her world is shaken when she finds that the lush green fields her parents and she had crossed to reach there have been converted into a vast water body, so huge that the Human World is entirely invisible. What is that water body? Lethe, perhaps, the one separating birth and death; in our case, separating the dead world of Tradition from the dynamic and evolving world of the Modern.

On being left alone in an unknown world, Chihiro has no other way but to learn how to make her way through it. The World of the Spirits, somehow, feels like a complete reversal of the Human World in every aspect; the most poignant being the absolute intolerance of humans. Remarks like “She will stink the whole place” and “You reek of humans” are considered ‘normal’ while eating a dried lizard is regarded as a lavish treat. It is a world where animals and Spirits (shaped like humans) co-exist with an equal share of importance, signifying a prehistoric world where humans and animals coexist in absolute harmony.

The reversal, further, could also be framed in a way where it is the same humans who are known to discriminate and look down upon weaker and lower rungs of society are the ones that are shunned like pests. It almost seems like revenge. Our young protagonist, who has only lately been exposed to life’s hurly-burly, finds it highly hostile and is often seen breaking down. Quite right, too, for growing mostly feels like breaking out of the shell of dormancy and letting the rays of harsh reality prick the immature eyes. Just like a newborn cries its way into the world, Chihiro sobs her way into a hostile world of Change; a world vehemently compelling her to grow up.

 The reversal of the Human World could also signify a moral reversal that a teenager comes to terms with growing up. It is a tough time to realize that parents are, in fact, no superhuman or God-like entities. Instead, they are only mere mortals who could be as faulty as anybody could possibly be. It is a time of realization or an epiphany that life isn’t all about good, bad, or ugly. We are all imperfect beings struggling our way through these absolutes. The epiphany seems too hard to handle, but it eventually does get better. So does Chihiro.

Chihiro’s experience at the Bathhouse reminds me of my teenage years, a time when I suffered and grew up the most—in fact, the entire time she had been talking about her old school and made faces on crossing the new one made me remember my High School days of shifting to a new school. Thirteen years isn’t a period that could be easily erased from my memory , but I somehow believed that the new school was, in fact, better for me. I entered my class expecting welcoming faces, only to get into a fight for apparently sitting on someone else’s seat. I was a new girl. What would I have done anyway? I was devastated by such a start. Nobody spoke to me.

Chihiro’s tears rolling down her cheeks while stuffing the rice cakes into her mouth is so significantly reminiscent of my recess break when I ate my lunch alone for the first time in 13 years. I had tears in my eyes and apprehension in my heart. Where have I come from? Is this at all my place? All I wanted was to belong. But did I even belong to my earlier school? My previous school friends thought I belonged to the new school and vice versa. Funny, isn’t it? The hostility of my surroundings, like that of Chihiro, did compel me to grow up. “I am not a loser,” I said to myself. And then on began my struggle to make my way through the rough tracks of being too old to throw tantrums like a child and too young to accept Change like a mature adult.

But, but, but, in the end, you always make a friend!

Surprising as it might seem, Chihiro got Haku by her side, and eventually, she ended up making a mark of friendship in the entire Spirited World. Everybody loved her and accepted her owing to her eventual will and success at learning to accept Change. She first goes up to Kamaji, the boiler man, and ends up indirectly impressing him with her first act of accepting Change, carrying a heavy stone all the way and throwing it into the fire meant for heating the water. He refers her to Lin, who initially expresses disgust but eventually ends up being her closest accomplice. She even rows her to the station when the latter is off to meet Zeneba and even apologizes to her for being cranky previously.

Chihiro’s growth and acceptance of the New came in the form of her readjustment to the changed environment. Doing so eventually brought her real personality to fruition, just like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. This new Chihiro is an empath, a caring individual who keeps ‘others’ (even though she does not belong to that world) ahead of her needs. Her gesture to feed the River Spirit’s magical boon, which she had been saving for her parents, to the wounded Haku (who had become a dragon) and to No-Face speaks tons of how well she had imbibed the spirit of growing up. The boon might have healed her parents from Yubaba’s curse. Who knows? But Life, as they say, has its own ways. It was in Life’s syllabus to teach her how to grow above and beyond herself, and she, like all of us, had no other way but to oblige.

 What could be a remarkable observation is how Chihiro, quite effortlessly, came to look at herself as one of them and that she gained a friend at every point of her life in the Spirited World. She was even considered a friend by the tiny soot gremlins or bunnies working under Kamaji, who cared enough to safely keep Chihiro’s belongings in their hole. Never to miss out, Yubaba’s child and her bird become the two constants in her journey to the extent that the former even testifies for her release. From being the girl who had never tried her hands at household chores and had been struggling even to wipe a floor, Chihiro became the girl who came to be applauded and protected even by Yubaba when she helped clean the large tank and free the River Spirit.

Every small nook and corner of the Spirited World smells of her kindness and friendship. Considering Chihiro’s inexperience and newness in the Spirited World, the ease with which she gathers small acts and gestures of affection from otherwise odd creatures like the radish spirit, No-Face, and even the lantern hanging at Zeneba’s door speaks tons about how life has its own way of making us taste both hostility and love from the same world. Peculiar, isn’t it? Peculiarly beautiful, as I would say. Just as weird as me making a friend after shedding a lonely tear during recess. Yes, I got a friend too. The resemblance of my experiences with Chihiro is so uncanny, and I believe therein lies Miyazaki’s genius as an artiste. Who could ever have thought that a protagonist penned down sitting on a chair in Japan in the early 2000s could resonate with a girl sitting in Bengal in her 20s?

Yes, I made a friend too. She showed me around the whole school, and I stuck around her for everything I needed. Eventually, I made many friends and gained a best friend. I am not in touch with her anymore but ah! Memories! I have the fondest memories of being with her in that new school, that new world. With my share of good and bad experiences, I made my ship sail through the new world, and then finally, a day came when all of us had to leave. This return, mind you, wasn’t as difficult as adjusting to the environment had been. Or maybe I had learned to accept Change gracefully; who knows?

 Today, I believe that the jump at the age of 16 was, perhaps, necessary as it made my transitional phases in adult life smoother. I still travel to places, have to readjust, do chores that I never had to do at home, and make a family out of strangers, but it isn’t so bad. I’m sure Chihiro’s new school wouldn’t be that bad too! Since she survived the new world, she can survive anything, just as I believe that if I could survive my new world, I can handle many new worlds that would come my way.

A large part of transitional phases in life is also about crises regarding Identity. Who are we? Are we the person we were while stepping into this phase, or are we different? This, again, takes us back to the quintessential dichotomy about where we belong; Home, to be more specific. Who are we, and where do we belong? Where is our Home? It is easy to forget who we are at such an ambiguous juncture. The definition of ourselves that we keep reiterating in our heads gradually grows into a mushy mess of darkness. This crisis comes to the forefront the first time Chihiro identifies herself as ‘Sen’ as she calls out to her parents in the pig shed.

Yubaba, who is in charge of the Spirited World, had given her a new name that she could respond to during her stay in Yubaba’s world. This reminds me of how so many of my friends in my childhood knew me to be a certain person and how I turned out to be completely different in my adulthood. The transitional teenage years, however, had been utterly confusing where I found it so difficult to decide whether I should retain the childhood values and myths or I should look at my friends around and indulge in the joy of growing up and doing grown-up things. I happened to find myself stuck between being too old to stick to the earlier values and too young to do all that my friends did. This crisis has not fully receded; I believe it doesn’t recede entirely from our lives. ‘Who am I?’ continues to prick us till our last breath.

What is interesting here, though, is how the word ‘Sen’ actually is a different pronunciation of the word ‘Chi,’ which is again the starting word of the name ‘Chihiro,’ meaning ‘thousand’ or ‘the one that asks a thousand questions.’ This leads us to a realization. In the end, it is all about the ‘essence.’ “What’s in the Name?” after all? Whether Chihiro or Sen, the protagonist succeeded in the test of never forgetting her essence. No-Face, therefore, is a symbol of all those who forgot their essence and lost their identities in the Spirited World. They have no other way but to stand by the shore, waiting for an identity to imbibe in order to thrive. This explains No-Face’s incessant swallowing of food and people. What if this gives a face to No-Face? What if he gets a voice? However, unfortunately, mirroring others can only take us so far. No-Face, thus, lives on with no face.

The name, however, in Spirited Away (2001) does somewhat function as the ‘essence.’ As the protagonist addresses herself as ‘Sen,’ it is the card of an old friend that reminds her of her real name. Sometimes, it does require our loved ones to remind us who we truly are. Once we hold on to it and are ready to learn, unlearn, and relearn, we are sure to grow as a person. Chihiro has spent just enough time in the new world to hold on to her essence while learning to accept Change, unlearning her childhood dependency, and finally relearning to segregate what is her own and eventually hold on to it. We are sure of it from how well she could grasp the fact that none of the pigs are her parents in the end.

After Chihiro incredibly sails through the tough times and makes her way to return to the Human World, she is not allowed to look back. She floats back to the same shore where she had started this journey with her parents. With her parents utterly unaware of her growth, she hits a moment of epiphany; perhaps life is all about those incidents, experiences, and people who come to teach you something, and then they drift apart, perhaps like a meteor or an asteroid. Who knows? You are not allowed to look back, for there is no trace of their existence anymore lest your memory of them. You run back to the tracks of Life, being the sole witness to your coming of age and personal growth; in other words, your new ‘essence’ or your new ‘identity.’

 “In the end, the whole life becomes an act of letting go…”

Perhaps the greatest epiphany lies in the fact that we can truly hold on to nothing we gained in the Human World, not even our refurbished identities. Everything we achieved here, we let go of and are inadvertently engulfed into the World of Spirits. Chihiro got a glimpse of it at the age of 10. Did you?

Read More: The Nature of Healing in ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ (1988)

Spirited away (2001) links: imdb , rotten tomatoes , wikipedia, trending right now.

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Chihiro Ogino's 12 Best Moments In Spirited Away Ranked

For almost four decades, the beloved animation house, Studio Ghibli , has earned a reputation as the producer of some of the most exquisite animated movies of all time. Undoubtedly the most prestigious of these is 2001's "Spirited Away," the movie that brought it widespread acclaim among Western audiences when it won the Academy Award for best animated feature — a category that was still very much in its infancy, only having been introduced the year before.

Weaving a fascinating and fantastical narrative — rich in traditional Japanese folklore and storytelling — with the universal themes of consumerism, coming of age , and identity, "Spirited Away" is anchored by its young female protagonist, Chihiro Ogino (Rumi Hiiragi). Chihiro's life takes a surprising turn when her parents decide to take a shortcut on the way to their new home. Stumbling into a bizarre and bustling spirit world, Chihiro is forced to take a job at the bathhouse run by the formidable witch, Yubaba (Mari Natsuki), to save her parents and earn her freedom.

Chihiro introduces the audience to the spirit realm as we experience all the strangeness and beauty of it through her eyes. As a character, she is not just incredibly likable, but also demonstrates huge amounts of growth and change — meaning it is easy to invest in her journey. While there are a number of great scenes to choose from, these are just some of her best moments in the film as her character developed.

12. The car journey to a new life

We first meet Chihiro as she lounges in the back seat of her parents' car, seemingly disinterested in the journey and where they are going. It is established that the place the family is moving to is considerably quieter than what they are used to, with Chihiro's mother (Yasuko Sawaguchi) remarking that she'll need to start shopping in the next town. The sense of being off the beaten track is further emphasized by the slightly uneven road Chihiro's father (Takashi Naito) takes them down, believing it will be a shortcut.

While Chihiro doesn't say much in this opening scene, we get an immediate grasp of her personality, which proves to be essential later on for her character development. Initially, she comes across as a typical sulky pre-teen, complaining the only flowers she has received were as a farewell present, and poking her tongue out at her new school, declaring, "I liked my old school."

As the journey continues, we see another trait: When she spots the "little houses" by the roadside, she is immediately curious and asks her mother what they are to learn that they are shrines — turning back to look at them as they drive away. Not only does this show Chihiro's inquisitive mind, but it also indicates where the story is heading. "Spirited Away" is heavily influenced by Japanese Shinto-Buddhist folklore , and the idea of "looking back" and memory is something that becomes incredibly important as the film progresses.

11. Entering the boiler room and meeting Kamaji

Reeling from the trauma of seeing her parents turned into pigs, Chihiro finds an instant ally in the spirit world in Haku (Miyu Irino) — a young boy who seems to be well-respected among the spirits at the bathhouse and is keen to help Chihiro escape from it. As Haku distracts the other workers, Chihiro has her opportunity to get away and heads down to the boiler room to meet Kamaji.

In the dark and steamy depths — far away from the color and vibrancy of the bathhouse — Chihiro finds the spider-like Kamaji (Bunta Sugawara). Assisted by soot sprites, Kamaji controls and stokes the boiler that heats the water for visiting spirits to enjoy their baths. Chihiro is unsurprisingly wary when she first enters the room. However, she knows it is her only choice if she is to survive and save her parents.

While still fearful, Chihiro demonstrates her determination to work in this moment, repeatedly asking the old man to give her a job and not giving up easily. Chihiro has already grown a lot compared to the stubborn and lackadaisical girl we first met, and even though Kamaji turns her down and sends her to Yubaba, she shows her willingness to see a job through to the end. Chihiro's resolve — even in the face of great danger — is one of her defining character traits and this scene gives us an early example of this.

10. The first meeting with Yubaba

While Chihiro first encounters Yubaba when she sees her bird — who bears the face of the witch — it is not until after Kamaji refuses her work that she has her first proper audience with the person who holds the key to her destiny.

The distance between the boiler room and Yubaba's penthouse is vast. As Chihiro ascends with Lin (Yumi Tamai) to meet the witch, there is the impending realization of the immense hold Yubaba has, residing high above the lowly workers below with their fates at her mercy. Via a complicated network of elevators, Chihiro eventually arrives at the lavish quarters of Yubaba's penthouse and experiences her power when she is supernaturally summoned toward her.

There is great significance to this first meeting with Yubaba — beyond it being our first glimpse of the film's villain — as it proves to be a seminal moment for Chihiro. As she continues to show unwavering determination, Chihiro manages to convince Yubaba to allow her to stay. However, while her life is spared, it does come at a cost, as the witch takes away her identity as "Chihiro" and gives her the new name, "Sen." Throughout the film, we continue to see Chihiro grapple with who she is, and the link to her true identity is something that this story continues to explore.

9. Taking her bravery to new heights to save Haku

Along with Lin, Chihiro finds a reliable ally in Haku, and he is the first person to offer her some comfort when she finds herself in this new world. While his allegiance to Yubaba means he can't be seen frequently helping Chihiro, Haku steers her to where she needs to be. He shares a particularly beautiful, heartfelt moment with her when he offers her food. Realizing that she has a strong and reliable friend in Haku, Chihiro also becomes fiercely protective of him, which is demonstrated when he is under attack.

As Chihiro looks out at the vast ocean that has surrounded the bathhouse, she notices some paper doll-like creatures attacking a dragon, who she senses is Haku — now in his other form. Recognizing others despite the mask they may wear, or the false identity they carry, is an important theme in "Spirited Away," and the fact that Chihiro can identify the dragon as Haku is notable.

While she lacks supernatural abilities, Chihiro's love for her friend leads to her brave and bold choices to save him. Although the workers in the bathhouse gather to fawn over the gold-giving No-Face, Chihiro turns down the money so she can find Haku. As she escapes from the hordes, Chihiro scales the walls and even runs along a precarious pipe to find him — a far cry away from the girl once too timid to descend the stairs to the boiler room.

8. Teaching Bôh a lesson

Chihiro's journey is a fascinating one — not just in how she explores this strange new world, but also in how she matures. The first time we meet Chihiro with her parents, she laments what they have left behind and shows little excitement about their new life. Moving somewhere unfamiliar is a huge upheaval, but Chihiro's parents believe it will be the best thing for them, so they try to encourage their daughter to be more open to it.

Chihiro's parents might not have had being turned into pigs or having their daughter trapped in a spirit world on their list of new experiences, but Chihiro's encounter proves to be the making of her. It forces her to grow up quickly and encourages her to welcome the idea of change — something she imparts to Yubaba's baby, Bôh (Ryunosuke Kamiki).

As Chihiro desperately tries to find Haku, she stumbles into the playroom of the oversized Bôh. The light of Yubaba's life, Bôh lives a sheltered existence — not just protected from the outside world, but taught to fear it and its "germs." Bôh believes Chihiro has been sent there to make him sick, but also worries she will get ill if she leaves. However, Chihiro tells him, "It's staying in here that'll make you sick." It may seem like a fairly innocuous moment in the film, but it shows how much she has grown: not just embracing change, but encouraging others to do so as well.

7. Teatime with Zeniba

When Chihiro learns Yubaba has a twin sister, it initially appears they are just as alike in personality as they are in looks. As Chihiro hurries to save the wounded Haku, she is unaware that one of the pieces of paper that had been attacking him has attached itself to her clothing. The paper spirit transforms into Yubaba's sister, Zeniba (also voiced by Mari Natsuki). She firmly warns Chihiro not to speak of this incident and demands that the golden seal Haku stole from her be returned.

However, when Chihiro travels to see Zeniba and return her belongings, she discovers how different she is from Yubaba. Her true nature is kind and generous, and in her secluded cottage far away from the bathhouse, Zeniba lives an idyllic life. Chihiro immediately returns the seal and apologizes on behalf of Haku. Afterward, Zeniba invites Chihiro to sit to have tea.

In stark contrast to Yubaba's palatial quarters, Zeniba's cottage is cozy and warm, and this interaction provides Chihiro with some welcome normality. Zeniba immediately bonds with Chihiro. While she states she cannot help with her quest, she offers some cryptic advice by saying, "Nothing that happens is ever forgotten even if you can't remember it." While she may not realize it, these sage words from Zeniba stay with Chihiro, and the token she provides — a protective hair tie — sees Chihiro safely through the rest of her journey.

6. Entering the spirit realm

Even before entering the spirit world, Chihiro appears timid and scared of her own shadow, clinging onto her mother for dear life when they get out of the car to walk through the mysterious tunnel they stumble upon. Little does she know that things are about to get even more frightening, and when her parents' greed transforms them into pigs, she is forced to face this new world on her own.

As night draws in and the lamps are lit, what had previously looked like an abandoned and uninhabited theme park transforms into a bustling town filled with mysterious and shadowy figures. After the warning from Haku and discovering what happened to her parents, Chihiro is now scared and alone, and we begin to absorb the strange and changing landscape along with her.

These early moments as Chihiro first experiences the magic and malice of the spirit world are pivotal for her as a character. She perfectly captures what any 10-year-old would feel in this situation: the mixture of awe, wonder, and fear written clearly on her face. She runs the gamut of emotions but also demonstrates some of what we will see develop later: bravery and trust. As her physical form begins to fade, Haku arrives to help her by offering food from this world. Initially skeptical, Chihiro accepts the food, which is a crucial moment as she begins to form a bond with Haku.

5. Learning the importance of her identity

As well as being a mythical adventure story, "Spirited Away" is a reflective and poignant coming-of-age film, as we see Chihiro go from being clingy and cautious to independent and determined. While she experiences several trials along the way and has to work hard to appease those with the power to keep her trapped in the spirit world, she also learns a lot about herself.

With the help of Haku, Chihiro manages to convince Yubaba to let her stay in the bathhouse and work, but the cost of making this deal with the devil is that she loses her name. Renamed by the witch as "Sen," Chihiro realizes this isn't just a symbolic gesture by Yubaba; remembering her real name will be essential if she wants to save her parents and leave this place.

After her first night in the bathhouse, Haku takes Chihiro to see her parents, who have been turned into pigs. Not only does she struggle to identify them, but she also uses her new name, "Sen," proving that Yubaba's magic is already taking hold. As she breaks down, Haku offers food and comfort and explains the importance of her remembering her name, having forgotten his own a long time ago. The process of recall is essential for her survival, but the idea of knowing who she is and finding self-assurance is an important life lesson that Chihiro must learn.

4. Giving the Stink Spirit a bath

While Chihiro remains focused on escaping from the bathhouse and helping her parents, she quickly settles into a work routine. Busying herself alongside Lin, Chihiro soon encounters some of the unique spirits that arrive at the bathhouse. One of these is the appropriately named Stink Spirit, an oozing mass of sludge that emits a particularly nasty odor.

When Lin and Chihiro are given orders to look after the big tub, they face a huge clean-up operation to make it pristine and ready for the next customer. The spirit trudges through the rain toward the bathhouse, and the workers desperately try to turn him away before retreating due to the awful stench. The smell similarly repulses Chihiro, but regardless, she takes the spirit for his bath under the instruction of Yubaba — who keeps a close watch from a safe distance.

Facing a baptism of fire — or perhaps sludge in this case — Chihiro shows grit and determination to help the spirit, and when she notices a thorn stuck in it, she rallies everyone together to remove it. As it turns out, the Stink Spirit is the River Spirit, which had been so polluted by the garbage thrown in it that it was no longer recognizable. This moment is a crucial one for Chihiro as it earns her Yubaba's respect and demonstrates one of her best qualities: that she can recognize the good in people when others do not.

3. The bathhouse encounter with No-Face

Appearing as an almost ghostly apparition, the spirit known as No-Face is a wandering soul who seems to gravitate toward Chihiro. While it isn't initially clear what his intentions are, No-Face has the ability to absorb things from his surroundings, and he soon begins to mimic the corruption and greed that he sees in the bathhouse. When he starts handing out gold and demanding food, the workers fall over themselves to get tips from the seemingly rich visitor and feed his insatiable appetite.

Away from the hive of activity, Chihiro witnesses Haku being attacked and rushes to save him, encountering No-Face and his legions of adoring fans along the way. As No-Face offers Chihiro gold, she shocks everyone by turning it down, saying, "[I] don't want any, but thank you." This not only gives a clear indication that Chihiro values friendship and those she cares about over material things, but it provides No-Face with an example of truth and goodness — something that appears to be in short supply among the other workers.

Chihiro also proves to be essential in helping No-Face out of the bathhouse later: When No-Face offers her gold once again, Chihiro not only turns it down, but she shows a personal interest in him, causing him to admit for the first time that he is lonely. After giving No-Face the dumpling gifted to her by the River Spirit, all of his evil and hatred come spewing out, leaving him "clean" again.

2. Flying with Haku and unlocking his memories

Identity is hugely important in "Spirited Away," with Chihiro learning about who she is and was after Yubaba gives her a new name. Guiding her on this journey is Haku, who frequently emphasizes that she must remember her identity and reveals that he doesn't know his real name.

From the moment they meet, it appears that the two may have a shared past — something Haku seems to confirm when he cryptically says, "I've known you since you were small." With this in her mind, Chihiro begins to experience flashbacks where she sees her and Haku in his dragon form underwater.

After Chihiro meets with Zeniba and reconciles on Haku's behalf, he arrives to safely take Chihiro back to where she came from. In a beautifully cathartic moment, Zeniba acknowledges her forgiveness to Haku — perhaps something that also helps him on his journey to rediscovering who he is. As they are flying away , Chihiro recalls an incident — the same one she experienced flashbacks of — when she was a young girl, and she fell into a river. When she tells Haku it was the Kohaku River she fell into and that Kohaku is his real name, he can suddenly remember who he is: a river spirit who saved Chihiro's life. Throughout the film, Chihiro had been adamant that Haku was a good person, and her unwavering loyalty and determination to be true to who she is earned his freedom as well as her own.

1. The train journey with No Face

Perhaps one of the most enduring images from "Spirited Away" is Chihiro sitting silently on a train with No-Face by her side. As well as being exquisitely animated, this quiet and contemplative moment offers a rare moment of tranquility away from the bathhouse's madness and allows Chihiro to reflect on what has happened so far and the changes she has experienced.

It is fitting that this scene comes almost immediately after No-Face's chaotic encounter with Chihiro at the bathhouse — not just because the contemplativeness of it is a welcome palette cleanser, but because there is a common link between Chihiro and the mysterious spirit. No-Face is perhaps representative of Chihiro in some ways, lonely and wandering through life without a clear purpose, and he similarly undergoes quite a transformation. After beginning with little character and being consumed by the corruption and greed from the bathhouse — almost to the point of destruction — No-Face is finally transformed by Chihiro's kindness.

Despite the mayhem caused by No-Face, Chihiro allows him to travel with her, offering one of her train tickets so he can board. This beautiful moment demonstrates how so much can be said without saying anything at all, and as Chihiro stares wistfully out the window, we can't help but wonder what she is thinking. The Chihiro that we see at this point is completely different from the one we first met, and this moment gives both her and us the space to consider that.

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Film Colossus

Your Guide to Movies

Spirited Away | Key Shots

In this section of our Colossus Movie Guide for Spirited Away , we look at the key shots that help us understand the film. 

• Chihiro Ogino/Sen – Rumi Hiiragi
• Haku – Miyu Irino
• Yubaba – Mari Natsuki
• Zeniba – Mari Natsuki
• Lin – Yoomi Tamai
• Chichiyaku – Tsunehiko Kamijō
• No-Face – Akio Nakamura
• Akio Ogino – Takashi Naito
• Yūko Ogino – Yasuko Sawaguchi
• Aniyaku – Takehiko Ono
• Kamaji – Bunta Sugawara
• Hayao Miyazaki – Writer and director

Key shots of Spirited Away

Chihiro in the magical tunnel.

When Chihiro first enters the magical tunnel, she is dwarfed by it, visually representing her fear and trepidation about the unknown. It also sets the stage for her transition from the human world into the spirit world. The tunnel acts as a threshold to another realm, a common trope in fantasy literature, signifying a journey of self-discovery and growth. This shot is emblematic of the fear of change and the unknown, themes that resonate throughout the film.

The bathhouse

In this shot, Yubaba takes Chihiro’s signature into her hand. From this point forward, Chihiro is known as Sen. While this seems menacing, it’s the crucial first step for Chihiro’s spiritual growth. As Sen, she receives a blank slate. Her mortal, childlike worries are no longer applicable, and she must move forward as her inner self. This is a key moment that sets up themes of identity and transformation.

Chihiro discovers Haku’s true identity

Earlier in the film, Chihiro and Haku stood on a balcony overlooking the sea. This shot was a defining moment in their relationship, revealing a sense of shared solitude and mutual understanding. It captured the comforting yet ephemeral nature of their friendship. The vast expanse of the sea is reflective of Chihiro’s daunting journey, while Haku’s presence signifies guidance and hope.

This climatic shot, then, carries all that weight and more. The principle of On, a key tenet of Japanese ethics that signifies a sense of moral indebtedness, is incredibly prevalent and important in Spirited Away . Because Haku helped Chihiro, she owes him a debt of gratitude and helps him when she can. By discovering his true identity as the Kohaku River, she not only frees him from Yubaba’s stranglehold, but allows herself to connect with a deep, lost component of her identity. As a child, she fell into the Kohaku River and almost drowned. But the spirit of the river, Haku, saved her, and continued to watch over her in this magical world. This is a key moment in Chihiro’s spiritual growth as she forges a deep, unforgettable connection with a spirit she had previously lost contact with.

No-Face and Chihiro stand off

This shot showcases No-Face’s monstrous transformation and rampage in the Bathhouse. It serves as a graphic representation of greed and consumerism, with No-Face embodying an insatiable hunger for consumption. His transformation illustrates the destructive effects of unchecked desire, a critique of consumer culture. The chaos also represents the loss of traditional values, a significant theme in Miyazaki’s films.

Chihiro rides the train with No-Face

This shot features Chihiro and No-Face on a train, traveling over a flooded landscape. The train, traveling in only one direction, symbolizes the inevitability of growth and change. No-Face, tamed and silent, reflects the lessons Chihiro has learned about greed. The flooded landscapes passing by suggest the temporary nature of things, emphasizing the concept of “Mono no aware” (the beauty of transience). This shot underscores the essence of Chihiro’s journey—learning to navigate life’s transitions with grace and resilience.

What are your thoughts?

Are there more shots you think should be part of the Colossus Movie Guide for Spirited Away ? Leave your thoughts below and we’ll consider adding them.

Travis is co-founder of Colossus. He writes about the impact of art on his life and the world around us.

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Spirited Away

Hayao miyazaki.

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Chihiro/Sen

Chihiro is a typical ten-year-old girl, spoiled and overprotected. When we first meet her she is angry because her parents are moving the family to a new town and she doesn’t want to go. Her parents want her to think of the move as an adventure, but she stubbornly refuses. Beneath Chihiro’s childish behavior, however, is a well of maturity and wisdom that Chihiro isn’t yet aware of. One sign of this maturity is that she instinctively values and follows rules that she knows are important, even when authority figures tell her to break them. For example, when Chihiro’s father decides to explore the abandoned theme park, Chihiro’s instincts tell her it’s not a good idea. Once inside the park, her parents gorge themselves on the food they find, and she refrains from eating anything. Chihiro’s wise respect for rules will prove important in the spirit world.

When Yubaba changes Chihiro’s name to Sen, Chihiro seems to lose her true identity. Chihiro desperately holds on to her former self because if she forgets who she used to be, she’ll be trapped in the spirit world forever. She believes that resisting her new identity as Sen is necessary to survive. Yet Chihiro’s time spent as Sen is when her true self develops. Chihiro has always been instinctively kind and respectful, but as Sen, she relies on these qualities. She doesn’t allow scary circumstances to dim her optimism and trust. Chihiro’s kindness toward others isn’t just a façade to help her escape, and she forms true friendships with several of the bathhouse inhabitants. She helps Haku, Boh, and several needy spirits, even though doing so means she may get stuck in the spirit world. Chihiro leaves the spirit world a more self-sufficient and self-reflective young girl. She realizes that the problems of moving to a new school are nothing compared to the real challenges of growing up.

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Chihiro’s most powerful moments in Spirited Away

By gabii rayner | mar 15, 2022.

The year 2022, amongst many things, marks the 20th anniversary of the global theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki’s world-renowned animation  Spirited Away  (originally released in 2001), one of the most celebrated and critically praised films of the 21st century.

Produced by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, the movie follows the story of Chihiro, a young girl who must navigate a magical yet eccentric world of dragons, witches and spirits in order to save her parents, who have been cursed and transformed into pigs. Across the decades, Chihiro has become an iconic female character, empowering girls and women the world over as she embodies hard work, perseverance, and relatable vulnerability. To celebrate her girlhood in honor of March as International Women’s History Month , here is a look back at some of Chihiro’s most powerful moments in  Spirited Away .

Chihiro gets a job in the world of Spirited Away

In order to survive the wrath of the witch – Yubaba – who owns the bathhouse she has found herself in, Chihiro is told she must get a job or risk being turned into an animal. After being turned away by the bathhouse’s boilerman, Chihiro tries her luck with Yubaba herself, begging to be employed.

Chihiro demonstrates incredible strength in the face of a fairly terrifying witch, particularly when we remember that she is just 10 years old, alone in an unfamiliar new world. Although manifesting in a manner not dissimilar to that of a childish tantrum, she stands her ground, asking over and over for a job, even when it is revealed that she must literally sign her name away to Yubaba. She demonstrates power through stubbornness as opposed to rage, as is so often the case in Hollywood when depicting ‘powerful’ female protagonists.

Chihiro helps a Spirited Away creature

As her first customer in the bathhouse, a “stink spirit” provides another opportunity for Chihiro to grow, and another opportunity for a powerful moment. Despite the guest producing a smell that is rancid enough to be hair-raising, Chihiro wades through its mud and sludge in order to reach the bath and successfully do her job of cleaning the spirit (pulling out a bewildering amount of man-made waste as she does so).

This moment in highlights both her perseverance and her love for her parents, making her willing to do whatever it will take for them to return to their original human forms. Whilst this is perhaps Spirited Away ‘s metaphor for the brutal, “hustle culture” of both America and Japan under capitalism, it alternatively offers a simply powerful moment of personal growth for Chihiro when compared to her lazy, timid personality at the very beginning of the film. Director Hayao Miyazaki explores this persevering, powerful moment of Chihiro in the following quote, extracted from an i-D piece by Zio Baritaux :

"“Many of my movies have strong female leads,” Miyazaki said in an interview with The Guardian in 2013, “brave, self-sufficient girls that don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart.”"

Chihiro and No-Face in Spirited Away

Though Chihiro and the enigmatic spirit No-Face have a few mysterious interactions throughout the movie, one of the most powerful takes place towards the end of the film. In this scene, No-Face has become engorged after running rampant throughout the bathhouse, consuming endless amounts of food and even a few guests upon discovering the workers’ greed for his gifts of gold. No-Face meets Chihiro as she is on her way to meet Yubaba’s sister Zeniba; he tries to tempt her with gold the same way he has the rest of the bathhouse.

However, Chihiro proves she is not a greedy person (perhaps thanks to her youth) and instead prioritises doing what is right – she turns down No-Face’s gold and offers him a healing dumpling given to her by the river spirit she helped earlier in the movie. This allows No-Face to revert to his original form, whom Chihiro allows to accompany her in the journey to Zeniba, demonstrating a touching level of kindness. She produces a powerful moment in  Spirited Away and arguably one of the most iconic shots in animated cinema.

Chihiro showcases power in unconventional ways throughout the  Spirited Away  film, challenging orthodox ideas of female heroism that are often influenced by and demonstrated through masculinised understandings of strength as physical.  She demonstrates persistence, courage, hard work, familial love, altruism, and kindness , all characteristics that can never be praised enough.

Spirited Away is available to watch now on Netflix .

dark. Next. 7 movies to watch (and 4 to skip) in March 2022

Ghibli Wiki

Warning: the wiki content may contain spoilers!

• Main characters
• Female characters
• Spirited Away characters

Chihiro Ogino

• View history
• Reason: This article needs more information about plot.

Chihiro (荻野 千尋 , Ogino Chihiro ), referred throughout most of the film by Sen (千 lit. "one-thousand" ), is the ten-year-old core protagonist of the Japanese animated film Spirited Away .

• 1 Appearance
• 2 Personality
• 3 Speculation
• 5 Etymology
• 7 References

Appearance [ ]

Chihiro is a ten-year-old girl who has brown hair, brown eyes, and rosy cheeks. She is very petite and has a childish appearance, and a pudgy face. Her attire includes a white medium-sleeved T-shirt with bright green stripes, bright red shorts, white socks and sunshine yellow velcro sneakers. While working in the bath house, she is barefoot and wears a coral colored kariginu robe with a white hitoe underneath and short sashinuki pants, as well as a tasuki cord for tying her sleeves up.

Personality [ ]

Chihiro's growth into a capable individual is a core factor to the movement of Spirited Away's plot. During her adventure in the Spirit World, she matures from an easily scared girl with a childlike personality to match her age to a hard-working, responsible, and brave young girl who has learned to put her fears aside for those she cares for. To protect her friends and rescue her parents from a spell that has turned them into livestock, Chihiro sheds her former personality and adapts to her environment to become a courageous, caring, quick-witted and reliable girl.

The strength of her bond with Haku as the story progresses eventually evolves into a very sincere form of love that dispelled Yubaba and Zeniba's respective curses on Haku.

Speculation [ ]

Chihiro ponders her experience after returning to the real world.

It is mentioned by director and creator Hayao Miyazaki that Chihiro has lost all her memories of the Spirit World following her exiting of the tunnel. However, according to Haku's promise, he and Chihiro will meet again someday. This may or may not be referring to Chihiro's eventual death and transformation into a spirit. However, Zeniba's quote, "memories are never forgotten, they are just difficult to recall," suggests that Chihiro could, eventually, remember her experiences at The Bathhouse and the Spirit Realm. Regardless, the fate of Chihiro and Haku's relationship remains unknown and is up to audience interpretation.

"I want you to know my real name. It's Chihiro." —Chihiro to Zeniba

• "The wind's pulling us in."
• "I'm not going in there! It gives me the creeps!"
• "Wait for me!"
• "Wait a minute."
• "What's up with him?"
• "I'm dreaming! I'm dreaming!"
• "I'm see-through!"
• "It's just a really bad dream."
• "They did turn into pigs. I wasn't dreaming."
• " Kamajī ?"
• " Yubaba ?"
• "Please! I gotta get a job here!"
• "Yes, ma'am."
• "Just a minute, sir."
• "He's a good person."
• "I knew you were good!"
• "We would like to go to Swamp Bottom, please."
• "Wow, you're a big baby."
• "Staying in this room will make you sick!"
• "Germs! I got germs! See?"
• "Shut your mouth!"
• " Lin , you know Haku?!"
• "There aren't two him, aren't there?"
• "I don't feel so good."
• "Which ones are you?"
• "Bad dream."
• "Don't you worry, I promise I'll get you out of here! So just don't get any fatter or they'll eat you!"
• "No, you can't!"
• "Haku, we're falling!"
• "What are those weird buildings?"
• "What are those stones?"
• "My flowers are dying!"
• "Kamajī lit the boiler already?"
• "How long was I asleep?"
• "I hope Dad hasn't gotten too fat."
• "I'm going to go look for Haku!"
• "Where is Haku?"
• "Are birds chasing him?"
• "Fight 'em!"
• "Haku, you're bleeding."
• "It's just paper."
• "Thank you, Mr. Boiler Man."
• "Please, I just want to work!"
• "Please, can't you just give me a job?"
• "Everyone, I need my shoes and my clothes, please."
• "I think I can handle it."
• "I guess my parents will have to wait."
• (To Yubaba) "Thank you for everything, Granny."
• (To Zeniba) "Granny, I can't remember anything at all. Haku could be dead already, and I'm just sitting around here. My mom and dad could've been eaten for dinner."

Etymology [ ]

• Part of the name Chi (in Chihiro) and Sen both use the same Japanese kanji (千), which means 'one thousand', but are different readings of the same character.
• In some countries, Chihiro's surname Ogino was changed to Senko , so that viewers who do not have a deeper knowledge about the Japanese language wouldn't be confused when her name in the bathhouse was changed to Sen.
• In an interview [2] regarding Chihiro's character design, Hayao Miyazaki informs the audience that "[He] created a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathize. It's not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances. [He] wants [his] young friends to live like that, and [he] thinks they, too, have such a wish."
• Chihiro was based on a real-life girl: the then-ten-year-old daughter of a friend of Miyazaki's. This girl also made Miyazaki continue working after promising retirement from filmmaking after Princess Mononoke (1997).

I can give her no greater power than she has already," said the woman; "don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kai, we can do nothing to help her...

References [ ]

• ↑ The Art of Spirited Away, page 54
• ↑ "Miyazaki on Spirited Away", Nausicaa

The Bathhouse of the Gods: “Spirited Away” and Japan’s Religious Traditions

The Power of Words

It has been 20 years since the film Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001. It soon became the country’s highest-grossing film ever, and was only toppled from this position last year by Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train . Director Miyazaki Hayao’s film has also received critical plaudits around the world and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

The original Japanese name for the film is Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi , which might be translated literally as “The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro.” But why this title?

Chihiro is the name of the main character, a 10-year-old girl. Miyazaki said that girls of that age are tough these days, which is why he chose one as the heroine. She is the daughter of middle-class parents, as is apparent from the four-wheel-drive Audi they own, the upscale brand of the supermarket bag inside, and the relatively young age at which they have been able to buy a detached house in the suburbs. The couple and their daughter Chihiro are selfish, ill-mannered, and devoted to their desires. They are typical of the Japanese people of the time, who ignored the country’s traditional, spiritual culture to sing the praises of economic prosperity.

Chihiro (千尋) becomes Sen (千) when Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse in the story, takes one character of her name and gains control over the girl.

In Japanese tradition, words are thought to have a spiritual power, which is called kotodama . According to this belief, when certain words are spoken, their hidden power can affect the real world in a variety of ways. The idea of kotodama could still be said to feed into the creative background for Japanese poetry.

Wrong Roads

A kamikakushi refers to the sudden vanishing of somebody for no reason. It was apparently due to the absence of a known reason that such events were attributed to the kami (gods). Or it might be that identifying the kami as the perpetrators was a way of finding acceptance.

Parents feared kamikakushi as it was often children who went missing. In the Japan of the past, at times when human trafficking was relatively common, kidnapping was a very real possibility. Frightening memories of these kinds of incident lingered into much later periods.

In theological terms, Chihiro’s experience is of a voyage to another world, and then a return to our own. There are many stories of journeys to heaven or hell and back in human history. This is the classic form for such a voyage.

At the start of Spirited Away , Chihiro’s father gets lost and takes the wrong road. This pattern of traveling along a mistaken path as a route to entering an entirely different world is very similar to Dante’s Divine Comedy . While Chihiro’s voyage is not on the same scale, it does an excellent job of presenting Japan’s unique spiritual world.

Thunder and Lightning of the Gods

The lost family first encounters an old Japanese cedar ( sugi ) stretching upward with a torii gate built in front of it, and stone hokora , “houses for the guardian spirits,” piled up beneath it. All these are connected with Shintō .

A close look at the old cedar shows that it is broken at the top. These kinds of old trees are often found at shrines in Japan, such as Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto and Kasuga Taisha in Nara. They are revered, due to being seen as locations where kami descended from the heavens in the form of lightning. This divine connection makes these trees sacred.

In the Old Testament, when Moses brings the Ten Commandments down from Mount Sinai, there is thunder and lightning. In Hinduism, Indra derives originally from a thunder god. However, in many religions, the gods’ origins in thunder and lightning have been forgotten, as they have become detached from natural phenomena to become omnipotent deities transcending human understanding.

In Japan, however, the gods have long maintained their connection with the natural world. The fact that kami are counted using the word hashira (pillar) conveys an association of being rooted to the ground. In the Onbashira Festival at the Suwa Shrine complex in Nagano Prefecture, which is said to be one of Japan’s oldest such sites, sixteen huge pillars are dragged to and raised at the corners of the four shrines.

This is one example showing that trees have been revered for their divine nature. When Buddhism spread to Japan from continental Asia, the first statues of the Buddha were made from camphor trees, which were considered the most sacred of trees. The term shinboku is used for trees venerated as divine. In Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro , the titular creature lives in a camphor tree, and may possibly be its spirit.

Japan is said to have myriad gods, or literally 8 million, and so Shintō is entirely different from monotheistic religions. In Spirited Away , there are gods everywhere.

It is worth noting that generally these kami are not at all of high status. While one polluted river spirit cleansed by Chihiro is apparently quite important, others are quite ordinary, despite being gods, and most travel in groups.

This attitude to kami could also be said to be Japanese tradition. It is true that some are powerful, like the sun goddess Amaterasu , who is said to be the ancestor of Japan’s emperors. Most kami , however, are familiar, approachable beings like Totoro, and there are loose boundaries between their world and the one where humans live.

Animism and Buddhism

The belief that everything in existence is alive and has a spirit is known as animism, from the Latin anima , meaning “life” or “soul”—incidentally, animation derives from the same word. That “everything” includes such features as rocks, mountains, and rivers, which are not generally thought of as being alive.

There is a tendency to view animism as a primitive belief system. However, in Japan, it can be found incorporated into highly sophisticated Buddhist thinking.

In one well-known example, the Buddhist monk Kūkai (774–835) stated: “Composed of the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, all things in creation contain echoes of the truth. . . . Dainichi Nyorai, the supreme Buddha, is the image of the world as it is.”

Singer Matsutōya Yumi expressed the same idea in simpler terms in her song “Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara” (Embraced by Tenderness): “If I open the curtain, and I’m embraced by the tenderness of the calm sunbeams through the trees, everything I see is surely a message.”

The Zen master Dōgen (1200–53) said that “even tiles and stones can achieve enlightenment to become a Buddha.” Thus, Japan’s great spiritual minds created a unique advanced synthesis of animism and Buddhism.

In India, where Buddhism originated, it was thought that only animals were able to advance to the stage of becoming a Buddha. Other aspects of nature, lacking spirits, could not achieve that enlightenment. In Japan, however, it was believed that they did have spirits, and therefore could become a Buddha. This would never have been possible without the animistic view of nature among Japanese people.

In Tibetan Buddhism, a faithful descendant of the Indian original, there has also been the idea that only animals can move along the path to enlightenment. In recent years though, the Dalai Lama has shown a great understanding of the concepts of Japanese Buddhism, and now tends toward the idea that all of nature can become Buddha.

Considering the environmental problems of the twenty-first century, it must be apparent that considering nature on the same level as humans will be greatly useful for tackling these problems.

Here I will touch on some other important aspects of the film.

Journeys Between Realms

After going from the real world to the bathhouse, Chihiro travels to a world where she makes a train journey over the water, before returning to the bathhouse and back home. In the train sequence, the scenery has a desolate air and the people who get on and off are shadow figures wearing old-fashioned clothes.

These aspects mean this third realm conveys an image of the past or the afterlife. The voyage from the world of the living to that of the dead and back again has a strong connection to profound religious experiences. It may be that the journey also contributes to Chihiro’s spiritual growth, so that this is not only the result of her physical labor in the bathhouse.

Around three days and two nights pass for Chihiro from when her father takes the wrong road until she comes back to our world, but for her parents, it is an extremely short time. They do not even remember eating the gods’ food without permission and being transformed into pigs.

However, when they leave the tunnel, the wall has changed to look completely different from when they went in, overgrown with vegetation, while their car is covered in dust and leaves. Some considerable time may have passed, and if so, one worries whether Chihiro and her family have really returned to where they came from.

The Bathhouse Garden

In the bathhouse garden, flowers from all year round bloom at the same time. All the seasons take place simultaneously, symbolizing that this is not the real world. Miyazaki did not invent this idea himself. In Pure Land Buddhism, those who show faith in Amida Buddha are reborn in the Pure Land, an eternal paradise, after their death. From the Heian period (794–1185), the technique seen in the film has been used to depict the Pure Land. Throughout his works, Miyazaki takes inspiration from traditional Japanese culture and adapts it for his artistic visions.

No-Face and Us

The character No-Face (Kaonashi) has no voice of his own, instead, using the voices of those he swallows. The lower half of his body is also semitransparent. These aspects may symbolize that he has no real self.

In the second half of the film, No-Face scatters counterfeit gold that emerges from his hands, eats gluttonously, and acts without restraint. Then he transforms into a disproportioned and uncanny creature, like a spider or tick, with a tiny head on a giant body.

This large/small combination seems to symbolize overflowing desire and the weak spirit unable to control it. Although he swallows other characters, he regurgitates them just as they are, which may show that knowledge and experience cannot truly be made one’s own. It could be that No-Face represents us all.

(Originally published in Japanese on June 24, 2021. Banner photo: Spirited Away . © 2001 Studio Ghibli/NDDTM.)

anime religion Spirited Away Studio Ghibli Miyazaki Hayao

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Studio Ghibli’s Oscar-winning SPIRITED AWAY , created by legendary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki is re-imagined for the stage by Olivier and Tony award-winning director of Les Misérables , John Caird . The original Japanese cast perform this extraordinary production with wildly imaginative puppets, dazzling set and costume designs and a live orchestra playing the magnificent original film score by Joe Hisaishi .

A masterpiece of storytelling and stunning visuals SPIRITED AWAY , tells the enchanting tale of Chihiro who while traveling to a new home with her family, stumbles into a world of fantastic spirits ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba. When her parents are turned into pigs and she is put to work in a magical bathhouse, Chihiro must use her wits to survive in this strange new place, find a way to free her parents, and return to the normal world.

Audiences in the UK now have the chance to be spirited away and delight in the mystery of this genre-defining anime classic at the West End’s iconic LONDON COLISEUM , from April 2024 for a strictly limited season.

This production will be presented in Japanese, with English surtitles.

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Shonen Jump Proves How Its New Hero is Unique With Bold Choice That Defies Convention

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Kagurabachi chapter 27!!

• Even superpowers are not sacred in Kagurabachi , as shown in Chapter 27.
• Chihiro proves himself as Kagurabachi' s protagonist, proving that his power comes from himself, not his weapon.
• The return of Kuregumo offers new plot possibilities, with any sword potentially wielded by anyone.

Chapter 27 of Kagurabachi kickstarts a battle with Chihiro unleashing a new power. Unlike other shonen protagonists, however, it is not an expansion or upgrade of "his" abilities: instead, the hero simply grabs a new weapon and set of powers without any hesitation . This flies in the face of typical shonen rules, which promise that protagonists keep a tight grip on their unique talents.

Takeru Hokazono has been able to keep readers off guard with his narrative choices. Chihiro's new arsenal upends story expectations , and also continues to establish the grittiness of the crime-ridden setting.

Since even the hero's powers are not sacred and free to be abandoned, the conflict over the Enchanted Blades will be much more unpredictable going forward, with the author free to change the formula whenever he wishes.

Almost Unheard Of - Breakout Manga Proves It's Shonen Jump's Next Mega Hit With English Release

Kagurabachi promises that not even superpowers are sacred, chapter 27 shows that chihiro is the main character, not his sword.

The current arc shows Chihiro contending with the Sazanami Clan, which plans to auction one of the missing Enchanted Blades. As part of a long-term ploy, Chihiro willingly surrenders his own unique sword, the Enten, so he can trace its location to the auction. A recurring question throughout the manga so far is how Chihiro would fight the sorcerers without "his" sword, which chapter 27 answered . In a dramatic reveal, he unleashes the Kuregumo, another Enchanted Blade that belonged to Sojo, a prior villain. This confirms that the swords can be passed about, and that Chihiro is willing to use or abandon them as necessary.

Until now, Chihiro was strongly associated with water and goldfish motifs, so seeing Kagurabachi's hero change his abilities so easily is unusual. It is like envisioning Naruto abandoning his Shadow Cloning, or Luffy coughing up his Gum Gum Fruit to find another power . It's normally unthinkable for a shonen protagonist to give up their "unique" talent , and Chihiro's Enten also fits the bill, being a secret seventh blade that was personally granted to him by his father. Nonetheless, the swordsman is unafraid to use whatever tool is available to him, even what was the signature weapon of a former enemy.

Chihiro's New Sword Opens New Doors

Anyone can potentially use any enchanted sword from now on.

The return of the Kuregumo also promises a unique unpredictability to the ongoing plot . It is possible that Chihiro may collect and subsequently wield all the Enchanted Blades; it is also possible that the swords will continue to find their way from one owner to another. Even the Enten may wind up being used by either friend or foe. This only further highlights the grimy world of the manga, where everything is a tool to be used. With a single page, Kagurabachi shows that its hero's true strength is his resourcefulness, and promises that the story's signature weapons can return.

Kagurabachi is available on Viz Media

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Momofuku responds to chili crunch backlash: ‘We wanted a name we could own’

Momofuku wants ‘chili crunch.’ Fly by Jing wanted ‘Sichuan chili crisp.’ Why they shouldn’t have it.

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Imagine walking into a grocery store and seeing a single brand of each item. Identical squeeze bottles of “Ketchup.” One company’s “Mustard.” One brand of “Salsa.” Just one maker’s “Hot Sauce.” What a bland world it would be.

If Momofuku has its way, the only “Chili Crunch” on store shelves will bear the name Momofuku.

Momofuku, founded by chef David Chang, acquired the rights to use “chile crunch,” spelled with an “e,” last year from Chile Colonial LLC, a Denver company that registered the trademark in 2015 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office after making a Mexican-inspired chile crunch sauce since 2008. Then on March 29, Momofuku filed a trademark application for the term “chili crunch,” spelled with an “i,” and started sending cease and desist orders to multiple businesses selling chili crunch products, the Guardian first reported .

Social media backlash immediately followed. Actor Simu Liu, who serves as the chief content officer for MìLà, a food and beverage company that makes frozen dumplings and chili crunch, challenged Momofuku to a blind taste test on Twitter last week: “Winner keeps the name, loser (it’ll be you) backs off.”

In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for Momofuku said the company has seen multiple chili crisp products rebranded as chili crunch over the last year, and that the trademark was never intended to “stifle innovation in a category that we care deeply about.”

“When we created our product, we wanted a name we could own and intentionally picked ‘Chili Crunch’ to further differentiate it from the broader chili crisp category,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We worked with a family-owned company called Chile Colonial to purchase the trademark from them. They have defended the trademark previously against companies like Trader Joe’s.”

One of the voices critical of Momofuku threatening legal action against other chile sauce businesses was Fly by Jing chef and entrepreneur Jing Gao . She started bottling Sichuan chili crisp in 2018, and is often credited as the catalyst for the mainstreaming of chili crisp. She is also an investor and advisor in Homiah, one of the brands that received a cease and desist letter.

Gao’s own company, as multiple outlets reported, filed to trademark “Sichuan Chili Crisp” in 2019 only to see its application dismissed in 2020.

“The ‘chile crunch’ trademark should also not have been granted,” wrote Gao in a Substack newsletter titled “On Trademark Bullies.” “It is a descriptive term for a cultural product, one that has existed in Chinese cuisine for hundreds of years.”

What the newsletter and other stories did not mention , however, is that last week, on April 3, Fly by Jing filed again to trademark “Sichuan Chili Crisp,” according to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office. Then on Monday, Gao said in a statement to The Times that she requested to withdraw the application.

Gao said Fly by Jing reapplied for “Sichuan Chili Crisp” as well as “Chengdu Crunch” “to safeguard against the potential that we need to defend ourselves against a larger power that may be threatened by our existence. In light of the events of the last two days however, we now believe that there’s been enough awareness raised about the descriptive nature of the term, that the USPTO will reconsider the chili/chile crunch trademarks, and we felt comfortable with filing a request to abandon the application for our product’s name, which we have already done as of Saturday.”

“Even if we were granted the trademark for Sichuan Chili Crisp, which we have now abandoned, Fly By Jing would not have used it to intimidate small businesses,” wrote Jing.

A spicy Thanksgiving with Fly by Jing founder Jing Gao

The flavors of Sichuan spice up Thanksgiving when Fly by Jing founder Jing Gao makes jiaoyan turkey, mala stuffing, chili crisp mac ‘n’ cheese and more. ‘Thanksgiving, to me, is the most personal meal.’

Nov. 9, 2023

Yet if Fly by Jing had been granted a trademark, the company would be responsible for enforcing it, as outlined by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. By not protecting your trademark, you could lose it.

If I had my way, neither term would be trademarked.

David Tran, founder of the Huy Fong Foods Sriracha sauce, never sought to exclusively own the term “Sriracha.” Instead, he trademarked his signature rooster logo and bottle.

I reject the notion that someone could exclusively own something so ingrained in my culture, a food I consider an intrinsic part of my identity. These trademarks will limit who can profit off a food with a connection to entire cultures. It would be like someone trying to trademark salsa macha and salsa verde. Wait, inexplicably somebody did trademark salsa verde , signaling a serious problem with the USPTO lacking the knowledge to accurately or fairly determine what’s descriptive or confusing when it comes to certain foods.

I, like many Chinese Americans, feel a sense of pride and ownership over the condiment typically made with garlic, other alliums, chiles and oil. Whether you call it crisp, oil, crunch or sauce, it’s a condiment that’s integral to the cuisines, cultures and experiences of Asian Americans around the world.

Michelle Tew, founder and CEO of Homiah foods, called receiving her cease and desist letter a “punch in the gut.”

“Homiah’s Sambal Chili Crunch product is personal and based on a family recipe from my Granny Nonie dating back to countless generations of Nyonya heritage in Penang, Malaysia,” Tew wrote in a statement on LinkedIn . “I was shocked and disappointed that a well-known and respected player in the Asian food industry would legally threaten me — a one-woman show operating on a much smaller scale — from selling a product that is part of my family’s history and culture.”

The move to trademark “chili crunch,” whether intentional or not, will only serve to whitewash an entire genre of chile sauces. Although some of the sauce companies have strong financial backing — according to Forbes , Momofuku raised $17.5 million in funding last year with $50 million in sales, MìLà recently raised $22.5 million and Fly by Jing raised 12 million last year — many of these products are made by small AAPI-owned companies.

All deserve a piece of the more than $3 billion hot sauce industry in the United States. And that number is expected to nearly double in the next decade, according to a market report by Fortune Business Insights.

Melody and Russ Stein’s pizza company Pi00a (pronounced pie-oh-ah) started selling jars of chili crunch when they launched a ghost kitchen in Koreatown last year with their children, Taysia and Rylan. Pi00a is a Deaf- and family-owned business, selling Neapolitan pizzas with Asian influences and a mission to provide jobs for the hard of hearing.

For a soppressata pizza, Melody came up with her own version of chili crunch, something “sweet and spicy” that goes with the Italian dry salume, she said over the phone with her daughter as interpreter. “People liked it and started asking for jars of it,” and Pi00a now sells about 100 jars a week through its online business and 40 retailers.

“We just started our small business, it costs a lot of money to rebrand. It’s very difficult to absorb any added expense. We just hope [Momofuku] realizes the impact this has on the community and they drop the trademarks.”

Kansas City chef James Chang, who makes a chili crunch of his own, wrote in an Instagram post referencing the cease and desist letters, “While I have not received one yet it’s only a matter of time. ... For someone that has railed against how ethnic aisles in grocery stores do not have enough minority-owned brands [David Chang] is doing just the goddamn same. Instead of creating a community he wants to create a monopoly.”

You can find a jar of chile sauce that’s half oil, half chile-and-garlic sediment on the tables at most restaurants serving dumplings in the San Gabriel Valley. Many make the sauce themselves.

Before it was a trendy condiment found at every superette (and even Costco), there were half-empty jars of Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp with crust around the lids in my fridge and on my family dinner table. My Chinese grandmother and uncle introduced me to Lao Gan Ma spicy chili crisp in the late ‘90s. It’s a sludge-like combination of dried chiles, crispy onions, MSG and fermented soybeans. For years I called it chili crunchy. I could never remember the name, and simply asked for more of that “chili crunchy stuff with the stern lady.”

The sauce was created by Tao Huabi in Guizhou, China, in 1984. Hers is the face on every bottle.

Obsessed with chili crisp? Here’s how to make it extra crunchy

This homemade chili crisp recipe inspired by Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp is the best condiment. It’s savory, crunchy, oily, spiced but not too spicy.

May 15, 2020

Nearly a decade ago, I brought Lao Gan Ma to a hot sauce taste-off with the late Jonathan Gold and Kogi BBQ chef Roy Choi. The chili crunchy stuff with the stern lady on the bottle was the clear winner.

“Sauce invented by our ancestors, our version perfected for 30+ years ... ,” wrote the makers of Bowl Cut chili crisp on Instagram. “No one should own a trademark for the description of a sauce that’s been around forever.”

Chili crunch belongs to everyone.

Deputy Food editor Betty Hallock contributed to this report .

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Jenn Harris is a columnist for the Food section and host of “The Bucket List” show. She has a BA in literary journalism from UC Irvine and an MA in journalism from USC. Follow her @Jenn_Harris_.

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