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Spirited Away

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Spirited Away

Spirited Away is a 2001 animated movie by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki.

Spirited Away was named Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the first anime film to win an Oscar. It is ranked among the top 50 films at Internet Movie Database, where it is also the top-rated animation title.

Chihiro is the 10-year old protagonist of the movie. Chihiro is in the process of moving to a new town when her family stumbles upon the entrance to the bathhouse. During her adventure she matures from a whiny, self-centered, and pessimistic child to a hard-working, helpful, optimistic young girl. She is re-named "Sen" by the proprietor of the bathhouse, Yubaba.

A young boy, Haku, helps Chihiro after her parents have transformed into pigs. He helps prevent her from becoming a spirit and gives her advice on getting work at the bathhouse in order to survive to see her parents again.
Yubaba is an old sorceress with an unnaturally large head and nose who runs the bathhouse. She also appears to be extremely intuitive. She reluctantly signs Chihiro into a contract, taking her name and re-naming her "Sen" in order to hold power over her for the duration of the contract.

Yubaba has an over-bearing and authoritarian personality, but she does show a soft side through her love for her giant baby, Boh. In contrast to her simple and hospitable sister, Yubaba lives in opulent quarters and is only interested in taking care of guests for money. Though she is very intuitive (she senses the approach of No Face and realizes that the River God is not a stink spirit as he appears), she doesn't notice that her own baby is gone. When Haku prompts her by telling her that something she values is missing, her first reaction is to scrutinize the gold. Her name is similar to that of another legendary witch, Baba Yaga.

Haku works as Yubaba's direct subordinate, often running errands and performing missions for her. He has the ability to fly and become a dragon. Toward the end of the story Chihiro recalls falling into the Kohaku river, of which Haku is the spirit, and she thus frees him from Yubaba's service by helping him remember his real name. While he seems often cold, and is not terribly popular with the bathhouse staff, Haku is unfailingly kind to Chihiro, perhaps because of his experience with her in the past. (He remembers her name, though not his own.)

Haku is probably only cold to Chihiro at certain times because he knew Yubaba was watching him and that they both could be punished if she knew that he helped Chihiro get into the bathhouse, or even that Chihiro might remember Haku (as he recognized her from the start) and remind him of his real name. Yubaba seems to care about Haku only as a magical errand boy: when he is dying in her quarters because of the seal she ordered him to steal, she is mostly concerned about getting rid of the body before he bleeds on more of the carpet.

Kashira are a trio of heads living in Yubaba's office that move around by bouncing. They do not speak except in small grunts when they bounce about. They are later changed into an illusion of Boh by Zeniba in order to trick Yubaba.

Kamaji is an old man with six arms who runs the boiler room of the bathhouse. A number of Susuwatari (Soot balls) work for him, by carrying coal into his furnace. Also, he has a large cabinet where he keeps all the herbs that are used in the baths. After some persuasion, he allows Chihiro to work at the bathhouse and even pretends to be her grandfather to protect her. He also takes an injured Haku into his boiler room and cares for him, while Chihiro, given train tickets by Kamaji, journeys to Zeniba's cottage.

Lin is a worker at the bathhouse who becomes Chihiro's caretaker. Although cold at first, she warms up to Chihiro and grows a strong bond with her. She warns No Face, who had previously gone on a rampage, not to harm Chihiro or there would be trouble. At the end, she is very happy for Chihiro when she finally manages to find her way home.

No Face is an odd spirit that takes an interest in Chihiro. Chihiro lets No Face into the bathhouse through a side door. At first he is a strange cloaked and masked shadowy thing that merely breathes and smiles.
No Face is a lonely being who seems to feed on the emotions of those he encounters. He is helpful to Chihiro since she helped him. After observing the bathhouse staff's reaction to gold and attempting to win them over with more gold, he reacts to their greed by becoming a grotesque monster and eating lots of food and some of the staff. He calms down and reverts back to normal after he leaves the bathhouse's influence, and at the end he stays with Zeniba as a helper. No Face's mask, movement and name share many similarities with the Japanese Noh theater. He also assumes the voice(s) and personality of those he "eats".

River God is a customer of the bathhouse originally thought to be a "stink spirit" who is assigned to Chihiro and Lin. Yubaba suspects that he may be something more than a stink spirit, and when Chihiro helps him by pulling trash that had been dumped into his river out of his side, her suspicions are proven correct. He is in fact a famous and wealthy river god. As a reward, he gives Chihiro a ball of plant material which we are told by Kamaji is a "healing cake." He just states that it is medicine from the river god. The "healing cake" is later used to heal an injured Haku through ingestion and to cause No Face to vomit the people and vast amounts of food he ate during his rampage.

Boh is Yubaba's son. Although he has the appearance of a young baby, he is twice Yubaba's size. Yubaba spoils him and goes out of her way to give him whatever he wants. He believes that going outside will make him ill; Sen tells him staying in his room all that time will make him sick. Later, Zeniba turns him into a mouse. Though the spell wears off, Boh stays as a mouse simply because he doesn't want to change back. He becomes good friends with Chihiro while in his mouse form and eventually stands up to Yubaba to protect Chihiro. Boh tells Yubaba he had a good time when he was with Chihiro. His little adventure may be seen as an analog to Chihiro's adventures and growing up. This idea suggests that Boh is so overgrown because he has never really matured under Yubaba's doting care.

Zeniba is Yubaba's twin sister and rival. Although identical in appearance, their personalities are almost polar opposites. At first she appears no kinder than Yubaba when she becomes enraged at Haku for stealing her magic seal and threatens to take it back, regardless of what happens to Haku. Hoping to gain Zeniba's forgiveness, Chihiro journeys to Zeniba's cottage to return it and apologize. It is then that Zeniba reveals her true character as being a kind, grandmotherly figure not at all like Yubaba. She even tells Chihiro to call her "Granny", makes dessert and tea for her and No Face, and does her best to help Chihiro while realizing that there are limits to what she can do. She forgives Haku for stealing her seal saying that she no longer blames him and sees everyone off, assuring Chihiro that she will be just fine. She also takes No Face in as a helper, giving him a place to call home at last.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Spirited Away".

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