Spirited Away: A Precious Anime Movie for Soft Souls

Hayao Miyazaki is known as a famous Japanese who won the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, Japan’s highest-grossing movie of all time. The adorable children’s story was the first animation to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the first movie in history to reach $200 million before its North American release, and it is even considered as Titanic in Japan. Here is something you might be curious about Spirited Away. The film was released in 2001 at 2 hours 5 minutes for an only-one episode in length. Let’s explore this anime movie with us!

CHARACTER

• Chihiro Ogino/ Sen
• Haku / Spirit of the Kohaku river
• Yubaba / Yeniba
• Kamaji 
• Lin …….

PLOT 

Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl, sits in the back seat of her parent’s car. The family is on their way to a new home in a new town, and Chihiro doesn’t want to move. When her father gets lost, they discover the entrance to an abandoned amusement park. The parents investigate and find an empty stall piled with food. They started eating, and soon, the two of them would go out. They try to get Chihiro to eat, but she has a bad feeling about it and rejects the food. Chihiro was wandering around alone. As she explores, a guy appears and warns her to leave before dark. She runs back to the stall and finds out that her parents have turned into pigs. As night falls, dark spirits fill the park, and Chihiro begins to become transparent. The boy appears again and lures her to eat food from the spirit world, which will keep her from disappearing. He then led her to a busy bathhouse, negotiating her safety through a phalanx of dissatisfied souls about having a human among them. After taking her to safety, he gives her detailed instructions on how to get a job in the spirit world, where he says it is the only way to survive. He said his name is Haku, and he has known her since she was very young.

 

Chihiro first went to see the boiler mechanic, Kamaji, to apply for a job. Kamaji told her that the mesmerized soot creatures would give him all the help he needed. As they talk, Chihiro rescues one of the soot creatures. A girl named Lin arrives and is shocked to find out who everyone is looking for. Impressed by Chihiro’s perseverance and kindness, Kamaji lies and told Lin that Chihiro was his niece. He bribes Lin to take Chihiro to Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse, to apply for a job. Yubaba refused at first but gave in when Chihiro persisted. After Chihiro signed a contract for the job, Yubaba stole some of the characters that made Chihiro’s name, renaming her Sen.

 

On Sen’s first day at the bathhouse, she encountered a silent, white-faced spirit called No-Face, with whom she willingly left a door open. She also cleansed a stinking soul, which turned out to be a contaminated river soul. The river god rewards her work with a magical herbal cake. No-Face became obsessed with attracting Sen’s attention. The next day, Sen woke up to find everyone had disappeared, and No-Face, who spoke out by eating worker frog meat, was making a commotion by creating gold out of thin air.

 

Outside the bathhouse, Sen saw the white dragon, Haku, being attacked by birds. She opened a door for him and he flew through, followed by birds, made of paper. In pain, Haku flew to Yubaba’s room upstairs. Knowing that she was bleeding to death without any help, Sen ran to look for it. One of the paper birds was hidden on her back. When Sen ran past the bathroom, No-Face saw her and tried to hand her the gold. She refuses it and runs away. Angry at her rejection, No-Face began to swallow the stick and caused a panic. Arriving at Yubaba’s whereabouts, Sen finds Haku unconscious. The paper bird hiding on Sen seemed to transform into Yubaba, but it was actually her twin sister, Zeniba. Zeniba has been spying on Haku because he stole her golden seal. Disgusted with Boh, Yubaba’s giant child, Zeniba transforms him into a little mouse and turns Yubaba’s pet bird into a fly. Fighting around, Haku smashes the paper bird, and Zeniba disappears.

 

Haku and Sen fell on a dark shaft into the boiler room. Kamaji told Sen that Haku was bleeding from the inside, so Sen gave Haku a portion of the herbal cake that the river spirit gave her. Haku vomits a golden seal and a slug and is strangled to death by Sen. Sen, Boh mouse, Yubaba fly, and No-Face get on the train together. As the group approaches Zeniba’s, Haku recovers. He leaves the group and returns to Yubaba, promising to return Boh to her if Yubaba brings Sen and her parents back to their world.

 

When Sen’s Zeniba, she asked Zeniba to forgive Haku for stealing the seal and apologized for killing the slug. Zeniba explains that Yubaba gave Haku the slug to control him and that Sen healed Haku with her love. Haku appears in his dragon form, and Sen climbs on his back so he can take her, the mouse Boh, and Yubaba back to the bathroom. Sen remembers that when she was very young, she fell into the river. Instead of letting her drown, the river brought her to safety. She had forgotten the name of the river but now remembered that it was called the Kohaku River. Sen tells Haku that she thinks he’s the river. Upon hearing his real name, the Kohaku River, Haku’s dragon scales disappeared and he reverted to his son’s form. They go to the bathroom, and Haku reminds Yubaba that she has promised to free Sen and her parents. Yubaba says that Sen must first identify her parents from a group of pigs. Sen looked over at the pigs and declared, to be precise, none of them were her parents. Her contract dissolves and she becomes Chihiro again. Finally free, Chihiro finds her parents, and as they drive away, Chihiro assures her parents that she can have a new home and school.

Cre: https://www.sparknotes.com/film/spiritedaway/summary/

        https://www.gradesaver.com/spirited-away-2001-film/wikipedia/plot

        https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Spirited_Away