Spirited Away: Difference between revisions
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Chihiro, a sullen young girl unwillingly moving to a new town, is stranded in the spirit world after her parents stop by what ''appears'' to be an abandoned amusement park and eat food that turns them into pigs. At first, her only aid is Haku, a mysterious boy who finds her shelter and a job in a bathhouse that caters to these spirits; eventually, Chihiro makes more friends as she searches for a way to make her parents human again and escape the spirit world before she forgets her real identity. Oh, and that's just the first half-hour -- which doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the odd denizens of the spirit world, ranging from the villainous bathhouse manager Yubaba to arachnid worker Kamajii to the enigmatic, voiceless spirit No Face.
Despite its bizarre events, ''Spirited Away'' is regarded by many to have succeeded in depicting a world that was strangely realistic and engrossing; it also never loses sight of the self-growth of Chihiro as she matures from a whiny girl to a confident young woman. It should go without saying that the trademark stunning [[Awesome Art (Sugar Wiki)|animation]] of Miyazaki's [[Studio Ghibli]] is also showcased in this film. The fact that it won [[Academy Award|the Oscar]] for Best Animated Feature Film (the only traditionally-animated film ''and'' the only anime film to do so to date) should be noted as the Oscar's tend to favor CG Western Animated productions. With a box office gross of ¥
Not to be confused with the Australian TV show ''[[Spirited]]''. Or the 1974 film ''Swept Away''. Or that film's 2002 remake/Madonna vehicle. Please.
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* [[Animal Motifs]]/[[Animal Stereotypes]]: All bathhouse workers are animal spirits.
** [[Deadpan Snarker|Lin]] is a weasel.
** Most of the bathhouse workers are toads.
** Yubaba is a crow/raven who are known to be cunning, ominous and foretell death and destruction, such as Yubaba taking the names of her workers and "killing" their past selves so they can't remember who they are and thus are enslaved to her forever (unless they remember their name).
** Kamajī (the boiler man) is either a spider or daddy longlegs.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: Yubaba is arguably one. Although somewhat greedy and rather strict, she is [[Noble Demon|fair]] and [[I Gave My Word|doesn't go back on her word]] when Chihiro passes her final test correctly. On the [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains]], she would be a Type I or possibly IV.
* [[Author Appeal]]: A [[Plucky Girl|determined heroine]], a flood, young love, flying sequences and precipitous heights.
* [[Award Bait Song]]: "Itsumo Nando Demo" (''Always With Me'') by Youmi Kimura. Interestingly, the song actually helped inspire the film, instead of being written for it. It was written for a unrealised Miyazaki film titled ''Rin the Chimney Sweeper''. While working, Miyazaki would repeatedly listen to the song. The director believed it's perfect for ''Spirited Away'' and used it in the end credits.
** It's also missing some key elements of an Award Bait Song, most notably the lack of "sparkly" synth.
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Chihiro's parents and the other humans turned into pigs.
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* [[Cain and Abel]]: Yubaba and Zeniba; despite being twins, they are opposites in almost every way, and ''seriously'' don't like each other.
* [[Card-Carrying Villain]]: Yubaba is a very unpleasant old lady, but only curses Chihiro because she's basically constrained to carry out her role by her job.
* [[Captain Obvious]]: Chihiro, particularly in the dub. Some of the dialogue, like "It's a bathhouse", are meant to bring western audiences up to speed with Japanese media conventions and culture.
** "Haku, you're bleeding!"
** "Wow, you're a BIG baby!" (dub only)
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|The medicine from the water god}} helps cure Haku from his injuries and free Noh Face from all the food (and people) he has eaten.
* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: No Face's first appearance is seemingly as just another "face" in a crowd of equally strange spirits.
* [[Closed Circle]]: The flooding of the plains where Chihiro entered the spirit world prevents her from leaving it. Even if she ''could'' leave, she still has to turn her parents from pigs back into humans.
* [[Come with Me If You Want to Live]]: Haku does this to Chihiro when she first enters the spirit world.
* [[Comforting Comforter]]: Kamaji does this when Chihiro falls asleep in the boiler room. Guess he's [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|not such a bad guy after all.]] D'aaaw...
** Have we forgotten when he covered for Chihiro, calling her his granddaughter when they'd only just met? Kamajii isn't a [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|bad guy]] at all, he's just gruff.
* [[Coming of Age Story]]: A major focus of the film is Chihiro's transition from a spoiled and complaining child to someone who genuinely cares about the people around her.
* [[Converse with the Unconscious]]: Chihiro tells the unconscious Haku that she was leaving for some time (to return the golden seal to Zeniba) and that he had to get better. Later when Haku wakes up, he reveals to Kamaji that he heard Chihiro's voice and he followed her voice until he woke up.
* [[Cool Big Sis]]: Lin, despite her initially cold reaction to Chihiro.
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* [[Different As Night and Day]]: Yubaba and her {{spoiler|less}} malicious twin Zeniba.
* [[Directionless Driver]]: Used by Chihiro's father to help start the movie.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: [[Exaggerated]], as it sets up the story. After eating some food being left out in the open, Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs. They don't intend to just ''eat'' the food, they intend to pay for it, but is never given an opportunity to do so. Sure, this isn't their food to eat, but no one has the right to turn people into pigs. This leads Chihiro to journey in the spirit world to find a way to turn her parents back, in addition to avoiding becoming a pig.
* [[Draconic Divinity]]: Haku is the most powerful spirit under Yubaba's employ, and can turn into a beautiful, graceful Eastern dragon. {{spoiler|His true identity is that of the Kohaku River's guardian spirit}}.
* [[Dude in Distress]]: Haku was heavily injuried from {{spoiler|Zeniba}}'s spell, needing both {{spoiler|[[Chekhov's Gun|medicine from the water god]]}} and Chihiro's [[The Power of Love|love]] to save him.
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* [[Down the Rabbit Hole]]
* [[Dragon Rider]]: Chihiro briefly got to take a ride on {{spoiler|the dragon Haku}}.
* [[Early Teen Hero]]: Chihiro is around ten years old, being a couple years behind the range for this trope. On the other hand, the male lead Haku fits this age, appearing around twelve in age and being capable of using advanced magic.
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: In order for her life to return back to normal, Chihiro has to work in the bath house, find a way to turn her parents back into humans, and {{spoiler|return Zeniba's seal to her, saving Haku in the process}}.
* [[Eccentric Mentor]]: Yubaba's twin sister Zeniba.
* [[The Elfman Effect]]: One of the Japanese trailers for the movie uses the song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2EDABZX_Ow "The Lost Paradise"] from ''[[Laputa: Castle in the Sky]]''.
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* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: Yubaba genuinely cares about her enormous baby.
* [[Evil Twin]]: Played with in the case of Yubaba and Zeniba.
* [[Expressive Hair]]: Sen's hair tends to spike up whenever something startles her, or just freaks her out in general.
** This is something that occurs is most Miyazaki movies, too. Look carefully!
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* [[Funny Background Event]]: Lin is a little annoyed that Yubaba doesn't compliment ''her'' after they help the stink spirit.
* [[Genre Savvy]]: It could be chalked up to childish fear, but unlike [[Adults Are Useless|her parents]], Chihiro can tell immediately that something is most definitely not right about the abandoned amusement park.
* [[Ghibli Plains]]: Used to bridge the gap between the human world and the spirit world. The main character Chihiro and her family walks across these lush fields to reach the abandoned theme park housing the spirit world, and Chihiro returns to the human world via these plains. At night, they are flooded so spirits can arrive on boats. During day, they are just another regular field. The plains provides contrast with the spirit world.
* [[Ghost Town]]: At first. Then the sun comes down...
* [[Giant Flyer]]: Haku in dragon form.
* [[Boy Meets Ghoul|Girl Meets Spirit]]: Chihiro and Haku.
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* [[Headbutt of Love]]: While free-falling through the sky.
* [[Holding Hands]]: Chihiro and Haku do a lot of this, complete with [[Intertwined Fingers]]. It's most appropriate considering their young age.
* [[Hypocrite]]: Maybe unintentional, but when Chihiro first goes to Yubaba asking for a job, she initially refuses, saying that Chihiro is, "A spoiled, lazy crybaby and you have no manners!" and shortly after this is interrupted by her baby, who fits her description of Chihiro pretty much perfectly.
* [[I Know Your True Name]]: Yubaba binds people to her by stealing their names, they can only get free of her if they remember their real name. The theft of her sister's gold seal is an attempt to steal her name as well.
* [[I'm a Humanitarian]]: Apparently, humans taste good to the spirits, though they're not inclined to eat them on a whim.
* [[Interspecies Romance]]: Chihiro and Haku.
* [[In the Name of the Moon]]: Haku does this once, although it is worth noting it does not serve as a [[Catch Phrase]] or [[Stock Footage]].
{{quote|'''Haku''': In the name of the wind and water within, unbind her}}
* [[It's All About Me]]: Yubaba. The other bathhouse employees have a touch of this as well, seeing as they'd rather keep around the sinister No Face and keep getting gold than spend any time wondering exactly who this guy is or where he came from or why he's so freaking creepy.
* [[Kamehame Hadoken]]: Yubaba attempts this on a rampaging No Face.
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* [[The Magic Goes Away]]: The spirit world, being mostly nature-associated, is being gradually hemmed in by redevelopment, with especially tragic consequences for river spirits.
** The after life express used to go both ways now it only goes one.
* [[Mama Bear]]: Yubaba flies into a [[One-Winged Angel]] on Haku when she discovers Boh is missing.
* [[Mayfly-December Romance]]: Human and {{spoiler|river spirit.}}
* [[Meaningful Name]]: Chihiro's name can be translated as "a thousand fathoms" or "ask a thousand questions". Chihiro's name is later "stolen" by Yubaba and she is given the more generic name Sen, which means only "a thousand." Essentially, Chihiro has been reduced from a person to a number in Yubaba's service, and according to Haku, she can only break free of it if she remembers her true name. Turns out Chihiro was the name of the real little girl upon whom Miyazaki based the character, like "[[Alice in Wonderland|Alice]]".
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* [[Muck Monster]]: The bathhouse is visited by an incredibly stinky spirit that resembles an enormous pile of sludge. {{spoiler|It turns out that the visitor is actually the spirit of a river that has been badly polluted by garbage.}}
* [[Multi-Armed Multitasking]]: Kamaji.
* [[My Beloved Smother]]: Yubaba to her child, Boh.
* [[Mysterious Protector]]: Haku for most of the film.
* [[Naive Newcomer]]: Chihiro to the spirit world.
* [[Nature Spirit]]: Many of the visitors to the bath house, such as the Radish spirit.
* [[Needle in a Stack of Needles]]: The test at the end of the movie, where Chihiro's parents are hidden amongst other pigs, {{spoiler|supposedly.}}
* [[Ocular Gushers]]: Chihiro cries quite a lot at first until she begins to grow up and take responsibility for herself.
* [[Older Than Feudalism]]: A lot of the elements of the story date back to mythologies set in stone millennia ago, to name just a few: the rules that can't be broken, eating food from a different realm, the onset of dusk as the transition point from human to spirit world, the [[Afterlife Express]] of course (with its ancient equivalent the ferry/boat), and the necessity of not turning back after being given an exit from said spirit world despite the temptation to do so. All of these have their roots in some of the earliest Celtic, Greek and Japanese mythologies. It's difficult to tell how much that has drifted down and seeped into different cultural mythos throughout the ages and was subsequently taken from modern fairytales and [[Youkai]] myth, or what was ripped straight from the history pages, but either way there is a definite [[Shown Their Work]] in the amount of involved ancient mythology that played the setting for this film.
* [[One-Winged Angel]]: Yubaba transforms into a terrifying form when she's angry.
* [[Opposite Gender Protagonists]]: Haku and Chihiro. Haku helps Chihiro navigate the perils of the spirit world, and helps her get a job, find her parents, and avoid being turned into a pig. In return, Chihiro helps Haku remember his true name, and to help him move on from being Yubaba's apprentice. A romance between the two ensues, resulting in a [[Free Fall Romance]] when Chihiro informs Haku about his true name as the two start [[Holding Hands]].
* [[
* [[Parents Know Their Children]]: {{spoiler|Inverted: in this case, Chihiro has to lead and help ''her'' parents.}}.
* [[Perpetual Molt]]: A variation: ''dragon scales'' fly in the air when {{spoiler|Haku reverts back to human form upon remembering his identity}}.
* [[The Power of Friendship]]: When Chihiro is leaving Zeniba's house she is given a ribbon to protect her that "was woven from threads made by your friends".
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* [[Spoiled Brat]]: Yubaba's baby.
** Yubaba calls Chihiro this when she first asks for a job.
* [[Spirit World]]:
* {{spoiler|[[Take a Third Option]]}}: At the end, Chihiro is given a pen of a dozen pigs, and has to choose which two among them are their parents in order to free them and herself. Her choice?
* [[The Stoic]]: Haku, when he's not with Chihiro. He doesn't even bat an eyelid when Yubaba breathes fire at him.
* [[They Should Have Sent a Poet]]: As Chihiro walks into the bathhouse.
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* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: You can't tell in English, but Chihiro's parents should really have known better than to eat in a "park" where the signs advertise such foods as "dog" and "[[I'm a Humanitarian|eyeball]]".
** Most of the bathhouse employees, who cheerfully serve No Face without even questioning where he's from, even though he just pops up in the middle of the night and mysteriously speaks with the voice of another employee. Yubaba later curses their stupidity over letting No Face in, suggesting that they ought to have recognized the threat he potentially posed.
* [[Trapped in Another World]]: The spirit world, in this case.
* [[Uncomfortable Elevator Moment]]: The scene where Chihiro is riding with the Radish Spirit just ''screams'' awkward, especially since Lin warns Chihiro not to look at it, and the thing takes up most of the elevator.
** The awkwardness is, however, somewhat lessened by the fact that the Radish Spirit seems benevolent and is sort of cute in a weird way. If you like really fat things that squeak when they walk.
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{{Academy Award Best Animated Feature}}
{{Films associated with Studio Ghibli}}
{{Hayao Miyazaki}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Anime]]
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[[Category:Essential Anime]]
[[Category:Anime of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Witch Works]]
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