Anime: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) is one of those smaller factors that contribute towards a great childhood. Being the first Studio Ghibli movie I saw, as well as possibly the first anime-focused product in general, I am always more than happy to hear about it at any given time. After rewatching it so many times that I've long lost the count on the matter, but having everything it presents carved splendidly inside my head, allow me to share my humble thoughts on this piece of art.

Overflowing fantasy done right. I believe those four words would examine Spirited Away the best. Starting off with the main point, I must heavily compliment the imagination used in the movie, as well as connecting just-that with some elements from the real world. By doing so, we are shown something totally new through the story, but we aren’t completely lost while doing so. We can follow the entire thing easily, and experience it in a unique way.

If perhaps you did not know, Studio Ghibli is known for the creations of whatever comes to their minds, and that is good, really good, since their minds are awesome. You won’t see anything mainstream if you give their works a try. In fact, you’ll get quite the opposite. I’m pointing this out since many like to connect the genres they see with some mainstream fan-service series that are rubbing the same things over and over again. I would like to call that a taste killer. One thing that has to known by any anime watcher out there is that some quality series should be the object to judge other things from, not some random mass-product money-draining releases.

If we go back to Spirited Away, it is a movie. A stand-alone movie, with no sequels or prequels. Such types usually express the creators’ thoughts to the maximum, since there is quite a limited time in which they have to present what’s on their minds, and if there is a lot of it, you can expect something massive, for the better or worse. This movie goes for the better. What many creators and producers forget is the pacing in such 1-2 hour presentations. Spirited Away does that amazingly well. Starting slow, suddenly experiencing a whole fantasy drop, flying up and down through the new world in order to achieve a goal, meeting many new characters and experiencing many new things, as well as performing that finish, it rounds the entire ride up greatly. Yes, we could call Spirited Away a ride, since it is an experience that you simply love to follow from one act/scene to another. Intensive as it is from time to time, you get to adore it and its supreme, as well as a tad silly fantasy.

Complexity done right equals quality. Spirited Away has it.

I’ve mentioned childhood in the beginning of my review. Indeed, you might see the movie as a completely different experience if you watch it as a kid, a teen, or later as an adult. Regardless, the quality stays in any case. I can safely say so, since I’ve seen it around 10 times, the first time being around 10 years ago, and the last time being fairly recently. It is far from being the final time seeing it, though, I’m sure times will come when I’ll want to be taken through the ride again, like a little kid wanting to go on the roller coaster over and over again. If you’re discouraged to watch it because the main character is a 10 year old girl, then I must tell you to drop that idea right away. You get to sympathize with her, regardless if you are in the same age and gender group or not. Furthermore, being all honest, it’s not her that makes the show, but the story and the presentation. It is one of those rare cases in which the characters only spice the entire thing up, but the story delivers the main blows. That itself is one more factor of a quality-made product.

For a 2001 movie, I must compliment the animation as well. Although nothing mind-blowing, it does a more than splendid job at presenting us these fantasy wonders. The sound isn’t half bad, either. The voice actors as well as some OSTs fit with the mood perfectly, contributing that much more towards the overall whole. We get to sympathize with the characters fairly easily, and want them to experience only the very best ending. The negative points of some side characters are shown nicely, such as greed, hold of a grudge, and so on. On the other side, the main leads are well-gifted with some positive treats, such as guts, dedication, being ready to assist at any moment, and so on. Basically, by having the purely good vs purely bad style, it is that much easier for us to decide on whose side will our rooting go to.

Spirited Away has been and continues to be a beautiful experience. No matter how many times I rewatch the movie, my score for enjoyment hits the maximum possible. Rounded up point: This movie is simply a must-watch, regardless of your age and gender. Even if you are not a fan of fantasy in general, you might just change your opinion after you see this movie. However, if you are always up for some wide open fantasy-like experience, then I can assure you that you will simply love Spirited Away.

The very facet of childhood can be boiled down to the very definition of mysterious wonder and awe-inspiring imagination. We’ve all had those moments where we would go off into our own little world of childlike imagination and try experience an entirely new reality different from our own. Films have tried to recapture the atmosphere that resembles this nostalgic feeling of experiencing the journey of childhood that either succeeded or failed. It just takes a man like Miyazaki to do just that flawlessly.

Miyazaki isn’t a stranger to making movies about childhood and things similar of its nature; Totoro would be an obvious example to this fact. He certainly has an eye of making these kinds of stories that could be reflected to everyday childhood experiences that we have since grown out of and are now living in a realist way of life. The fantasy elements that are a constant staple to the Miyazaki lore is what has made most of his movies so special to a lot of people, including myself, because of their originality and inventive folklore. Now, that isn’t to say that I’m the biggest Miyazaki fan as much as the next person. However if there is one film that could never lose its imaginative and beautiful vision in his filmography with each passing viewing, Spirited Away would win at no contest.

In describing what kind of story Spirited Away follows, coming-of-age would be the most logical way of putting it. In that, we follow with our main protagonist Chihiro and how she handles certain situations that would prove to be difficult for any other young person such as herself. When she first encounters this Spirit World she is lost, hopeless, and confused. Not knowing what is going to happen to her or her parents, after they’ve been turned to pigs, she finally finds help with other characters that are willing to help her be acquainted with this world that is unlike her own. Once she is acquainted with the Spirit world, we now see her as a strong individual once she is more aware of her surroundings and is able to take care of herself without the help of Haku. It is by the end of the film the most essential point to what makes not only Chihiro a wonderful character but also how Spirited Away paces its story structure.

Art and animation are nothing but superb in Studio Ghibli’s legacy in how they incorporate more emphasis on impressionist inspired backgrounds with traditional hand-drawn animation. The scope of Miyazaki’s artistic vision is vast and organic in each of his films that some other Ghibli films sometimes lack in minimal detail. Spirited Away may not have the biggest scope in terms of scale such as his previous films such as Nausicaä or even Princess Mononoke, but I would argue the minimal scope works magnificently with the show’s structure. From the wonderfully drawn buildings to the tiniest detail of rust and wood splinters to the hypnotic waters that surround the spirit world, it complements extremely well with Miyazaki’s ascetic vision and Ghibli’s artistic talents.

With regards to Art, the one aspect of it that Spirited Away shines the most is its creative art designs of the characters of each spirit you come across. Every single one of them looks absolutely original and not thought of from previous animation, despite most of them obviously inspired by Japanese folklore. It’s not as if most of them are forgettable the minute after you see them. They all stick with you as you go along with the film and even years after you’ll finish it from how memorable and imaginative all of them are from the amazing art designs.

To describe how the character Chihiro is treated, as in how she is portrayed in the film in her own personality, would come to the conclusion that Miyazaki approached her in a realistic fashion. You’ve often seen kids before that behave like Chihiro, or you may have been like her in her age, and that behavior would be considered “bratty” or “immature.” But these shouldn’t be seen as negatives since realistically that’s what kids are at her age, as you see Chihiro before she goes to the spirit world. We see Chihiro go through hardship when she arrives through the spirit world and then we have this sense of hoping for her to succeed due to bravery and strong courage to help her parents. It gives her a sense of humanity that could make you feel so much empathy for her as not only just some drawing in motion, but as a human being in the flesh in some ways.

Other characters such as Kamajii, Lin, Kaonishi, and Yubaba fill in the cast quite nicely. Kamajii and Lin filling in as nice slight comic relief character give Spirited Away a nice needed level of charm from the voice acting and dialogue. Yubaba at first does seem like the villain of the movie but from how you see around it, there really isn’t a villain in this movie. She’s nothing more than just a woman who just wants to run her bathhouse in a very authoritative way that has no ambition to do anything evil in nature. Kaonishi, the spirit that follows Chihiro in the bathhouse, gives the film a vulnerable side to it from his troubles of being alone, all through no dialogue at all, at least from his own voice so to speak.

Now we come to music. Composed by Joe Hisaishi, who has been Miyazaki’s main collaborated in almost all of his films as composer, it is pure excellence in Hisaishi’s backlog. This shouldn’t really be surprising considering how so well he composes his scores. From listening to his songs on how they interact not only with what is going on currently in the film but also how it leads the story from each scene to another just from how Hisaishi makes the songs so vibrant and adds a whole new way of looking at the films he scores. I guarantee that there is not one person in the world with a clear conscience to listen to “One Summer’s Day” and not burst into tears.

It is with utmost sincerity that Spirited Away is Hayao Miyazaki’s magnum opus. Though many will claim this to be his most “accessible” film in his filmography, especially the Miyazaki “purists”, it is, for me, the film with the most heart out of the rest. It’s the type of film that almost hurts to love, in that you feel so vulnerable watching this yet you feel a sense of awe because of how your absolutely mesmerized by how much sublime creativity was put into making Spirited Away. From all of its likeable characters, its brilliant pacing, its memorable score, and great coming of age story, from what little minimal flaws there are to be found in the film, it is all worth while to take in what is grandeur and admire it wholeheartedly. Just as with its atmosphere, nostalgia plays a part in how special Spirited Away is. Not nostalgia in the sense of how you were a kid when you first see it, but from how it invokes nostalgia from the film’s ambiance itself of showcasing childhood curiosity and adventure. Something of which more kids films really need to learn from in future generations.

Grade: A+

Overview:
The mopey Chihiro is throwing a small tantrum in her parents' car as they're on their way to their new home. Understandably for a young child, she hates the idea of leaving her friends and adjusting to a new environment. Little does she know just how different her next environment would be when an ill-conceived shortcut leads the family to a mysterious bath house for the spirits. Her parents transform into pigs, and it's up to Chihiro to make do on her own while she finds a way to undo the spell.

Story & Characters
Spirited Away is a window into Miyazaki's imagination. Chihiro's journey takes us at first to the Japanese-lore inspired bathhouse, ruled by (oddly enough) a western looking witch, and eventually to a place reminiscent of a European country side, with walking lamps, bouncing heads, and plenty of other wacky creatures in between. This is far from a trippy, scene-to-scene spectacle though. The story is grounded by and centered around the unlikely perseverance of Chihiro, who seems at first overly dependent, panicky and clumsy.

Reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, the fantasy world that appears as if it could not be further from reality actually has numerous parallels to our own lives. There is room to pick each bit of symbolism apart, but the beauty of this film is that such a cerebral understanding isn't necessary to really get this film. The transition between the awe that the magical world inspires at first to the familiarity we feel for it towards the end is so seamless that it is only after the film is finished that the metaphors for humans and human society become apparent.

At the end of the day, Spirited Away will very much be a recognizably Miyazaki film with a little environmentalism, and plenty of the sweet innocence of youth. It starts off though, on a bit of a heartbreaking note. Chihiro goes through bouts of despair for losing her parents and as painful as it is to see her sink, it is equally inspiring to see her pick herself up again and continue clumsily at whatever task was occupying her. Unlike most of Miyazaki's female leads who tend to be beautiful, pretty, or cute (depending on the age group), Chihiro's chubby cheeks and messy hair make her unmistakably plain. Neither is her personality bouncy as is the case with the vast majority of girls in animation. Other than her listlessness, there isn't much to describe about her. It is her unremarkable nature that makes her so adorable as the film develops the earnestness in her character that is deeper, and more essential than her personality. Where the earnestness makes her admirable, the plainness makes her genuine, and lovable. We might laugh at her expressions when she touches something vile, or an instance of complete physical ineptitude, but in an affectionate way, not unlike how you might laugh at your niece for tripping over herself.

Visuals
Most critics acclaim Miyazaki for the whimsy in his animation, but equally remarkable is the detail that conveys humanity. Chihiro physically expresses herself in more ways than most animated characters. To start, her repertoire of facial expressions is more compete than most, but more importantly, it's the conscious effort made to put both personality and realism in her movements. One example is when Chihiro must walk down a steep staircase along the side of a tall building. Instead of conveying her terror with a facial expression and ginger steps down the stairs, she gets on her butt and essentially crawls down the steps feet first, treating each rung like a near death experience. It takes some creativity to think up such an extreme, yet human manifestation of fear. The animation shows a layer of humanity that dialogue can't approach. Regarding the backgrounds and overall visual theme, it is gorgeous and also quite expansive. There are images of luscious greenery, bright and extravagant decor in the bath house, and the serene, pastel-y colors of the countryside.

Sound
Piano and string centric pieces go nicely with the downbeat scenes in the film. The antics are accompanied by bright, stop-and-go pieces and the more dramatic scenes get the full orchestral treatment. It works well, but is largely unremarkable. The voice acting is wonderful on both tracks. The English voice actors capture the same essence in the characters as their Japanese counterparts with the exception of Chihiro. Chihiro's Japanese performance makes her sound older than her age, but fittingly in the dumps, while her English voice is brighter, faster, but more believably childish.

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Spirited Away spans moods, settings and emotions in a way that no other Ghibli film does. More so than even Princess Mononoke, this film is epic. This time, it manages to balance the typical innocence associated with the studio to create something that is intelligent, but also tugs at the heart strings in the most primal way.

A good family movie, and an interesting watch, but Spirited Away is simply not as powerful or moving as other anime epics, such as Princess Mononoke.

The story was very jumpy, though a bit of the eccentricity of the plot and characters was both confusing and interesting at the same time. The lack of background on some of the characters and lack of knowledge about the workings of the world was a hinderance to the understanding of the whole movie, but the plot did move forward without much filler.

Overall, while I enjoyed the movie and recommend it to others, it isn't a movie I would watch again, though the animation was suberb.

Heya, lots of reviews in here, but I can't resist adding my own.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is most certainly a masterpiece from the animation point of view. Taking advantage of the ever growing CG techniques, these guys have actually managed to make me watch through the whole thing without a growl. I HATE CG most of the time, yet the ones they've used in this movie are superbly blended with the more traditional style of animation, leaving us with no clash of textures. Pleasure sigh.... and the superb lush colors, highly detailed animations, and great direction are definitely worth a 10. Ghibli scores again in the area :)

The BGM is also superb and movie quality, easily supporting the mood of the story and its characters, and the only reason I can't give sound a 10 is because there really are no tunes, no song that I could remember after watching the movie. I usually enjoy a recurrent motif, especially a musical one, to provide an overall support to the movie, but I just can't remember one here, which tells me they failed somehow...

The story a la Alice in Wonderland / Labyrinth is your usual fairy tale with witches, strange creatures, and its own "castle" (a bath house in this case), with the female heroine who must rescue her parents and return to her world. All the pillars and familiar elements are present to put up a good fairy tale, and although Ghibli does deliver great stuff, I must say this one was not quite up to it compared to other productions of their own. The story is catchy enough to hold your attention, yet at the end you feel there could have been more to it.

This is probably due to the lack of character development. Chihiro must learn to survive with her wits and innocence, yet at the end it feels she hasn't learned much except to live with the strangest creatures ever. The same applies for Haku. It really feels like they rushed his own story at the near end of the movie, leaving us clueless as to his motives and feelings for most of the time before. Not helpful a bit to makes us grow fond of him.

A few other characters are interesting enough, like Yubaba, No Face and Baby, but they too would need some touching up in the script to be truly memorable characters we could grow fond of. We need to know more about them to understand why they act like they do in the movie.

Overall though, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is a great movie that did earn its own Oscar. Its great that finally Japanese animation of this quality gets to be known in America and the wide public, because I believe we truly were missing something out for many years. People need to know there is more to it than "Disney style" in the animation world on the big screen. Most symbols in the movie are strongly tied to the Japanese folklore and culture, and they may seem strange at first to the Western eyes, but they are the special ingredient that make the Ghibli movies seem so much different, yet attractive, to the West. This movie is certainly filled with such symbolism, and they are yours to demystify :)

You will also recognize the current Ghibli features in this one too: the glue-like character is back, strange gods and statues, furry creatures (we especially love those black chibi dustballs), more ecological messages (although those are more subtle than in Mononoke Hime), female heroine, values like friendship and trust overcoming all difficulties, great BGM, awesome animation.

Not the overall best from this studio, but one that deserves attention.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, translated as the Mysterious Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro, is a must-see. This story of kindness, love and courage is brilliantly woven into the fantasy world of spirits. Spirited Away brings back the child in every adult and gives dreams and adventure to every child. A masterpiece of its era.

After Princess Mononoke, one would think that there’s nothing out there that could surprise us. Then Spirited Away came along and blew us away. The rich backgrounds, the colors which define the moods, the details giving life to creativity and fluid animations all combined to make the worlds of Chihiro and Haku alive. It is difficult not to just sit back and get lost in the graphics and sceneries and then having to watch the second time to take in the story. I salute Ghibli Studio for their imaginative characters, particularly a big, fat, white creature wearing a red loincloth :)

As always, the music for every Ghibli movie is a pleasant delight and suitable for the theme. The soundtrack for Spirited Away did not disappoint me and carried the moods well. The Japanese voice-acting brings out the personalities of each character perfectly from Chihiro’s young determination to Haku’s cold and gentle attitude. Even the sounds made by the Faceless Spirit expresses its emotions well. The English dub is surprisingly good with a lot of attention paid to the emotions, but still lacks in expressing the adolescence of the feel of the movie. Still, this is a big leap from other not-so-professional dubbing and allows audience to enjoy the show without groaning at the stiff dialogues.

The story of Spirited Away is actually very simple. A girl from our world walks into the world of Spirits and struggles to find a way to return. Meeting new people in this world allows her to grow from a selfish little brat to a considerate friend. This magical journey is what many of us dream of as children brought onto the big screen. Romance is kept subtle, but plays an important role in the story. It’s the innovative scenes and events which make this show refreshing and delightful, taking us on a ride through imagination and fantasy. Even the conclusion gives a little hope and opens a door to endless possibilities.

The main character is portrayed very realistically and allows us to feel sad, happy, scared along with her. Chihiro develops the most in the movie and she has the most depth. Other characters are strong too, but perhaps the lack of screentime has diminished their existence a bit. Each character is carefully designed and given a personality that one wants to know more about. A pity the length of the movie does not allow that. This is probably the only regrettable issue.

One will not feel bored watching Spirited Away for a few times. You will always discover some new detail that you previously missed out and enjoy the show over and over again. Whether you download or buy, it is definitely worth the keep. I suggest getting the Japanese version though.

Initially I dismissed this show as a kids’ show, a bit like many of Ghibli’s previous works (Totoro, Kiki), but I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered this little beauty. This is Miyazaki’s best work yet.

Side note: I really look forward to his latest work based on Dianne Wynne Jones’ “Howl’s Moving Castle”. Hope it will be as good as always.