The Big Picture
- Spirited Away is a coming-of-age film that explores the fears and anxieties of its young protagonist, Chihiro.
- The movie focuses on Chihiro's journey to save her parents and how it represents her transition into adulthood.
- Through symbolism and fantasy elements, the film tackles themes of identity, selflessness, and the fear of the unknown.
Hayao Miyazaki's mystifying animated film Spirited Away made its debut over 20 years ago. Written by Miyazaki and inspired by the 10-year-old daughter of a close friend, Spirited Away follows Chihiro, voiced in the original Japanese by Rumi Hiiragi (Netto Koshien) and in English by Daveigh Chase (Lilo & Stitch), down the Japanese Shinto folklore spirit realm known as Kami. To save her parents from the powerful witch Yubaba, voiced by Mari Natsuki (Nobuta o Produce) and Suzanne Pleshette (The Birds), Chihiro will face more than any story's typical trials along the way: She will face herself.
Spirited Away (2001)
PG
Anime
Adventure
Family
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and spirits, a world where humans are changed into beasts.
- Release Date
- July 20, 2001
- Director
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Cast
- Rumi Hîragi , Miyu Irino , Mari Natsuki , Takashi Naitô , Yasuko Sawaguchi , Tatsuya Gashûin
- Runtime
- 125 minutes
What Does the Symbolism in 'Spirited Away' Mean?
Spirited Awayis a manifestation of fears and anxieties as seen through the lens of its young lead female character, Chihiro. How Chihiro chooses to react to the ever-changing circ*mstances around her, even the most horrifying ones, defines this film's central moral. It’s the terrifying fear any child could have, perhaps their biggest fear of all: being separated from her parents. However, it’s conquering that fear and finding her parents that spur Chihiro's journey into adulthood.
Disregarding Chihiro's warnings of eating food not meant for them, the powerful witch Yubaba punishes her parents by turning them into pigs. Chihiro must venture into the bathhouse and overcome the reality of this new child/adult role reversal to save them. She is not so much tested as she is provided the space to resolve her anxieties about moving to a strange new town. Mostly, it’s concerns of the unknown that prompt Chihiro’s journey and metamorphosis — personified by the aberration of finding herself trapped in a spiritual realm that could eventually keep her there forever.
'Spirited Away' Artfully Tackles a Child's Transition to Adulthood.
When Chihiro first works within the bathhouse under Yubaba to free her parents, she is overwhelmed with doubt. In some of the first few scenes, we see Chihiro trail after her parents, clutching her mother's arm with a firm grip in terror. In the end, it’s Chihiro who leads her parents out of the bathhouse, across the bridge, and back to the human world. The in-between, the journey there, makes Chihiro brave enough to cross that metaphorical bridge from childhood to adulthood.
With the help of Haku, voiced by Miyu Irino and Jason Marsden, Chihiro realizes that growing up is not about your age but about how you love, understand, and show compassion to others. Chihiro’s love for Haku is what saves them. She defies Yubaba, risking her own life, by returning the magical seal she stole from Yubaba's twin sister Zeniba, voiced by the same actress who voices Yubaba. Spirited Away anchors adulthood in Chihiro’s acts of selflessness. In doing so, she overpowers those same anxieties that once rendered her powerless to Yubaba.
Despite being an animated film centered around the practical issues of a young girl’s moral ethics and fears, Spirited Away isn’t afraid to use horror and fantasy elements to expand these issues. Likely, the most terrifying manifestation of these anxieties is the spirit of No-Face, voiced in Japanese by Akio Nakamura and English by Bob Bergen. No-Face is a multifaceted entity representing so much of Chihiro’s fears of abandonment, loneliness, and identity. It is, in its vacant form, and need of friendship, that No-Face mirrors Chihiro’s crisis. No-Face begins a rampage that consumes both food and people with the promise of unlimited gold as a symbolic parallel to Chihiro’s own need to feed her loneliness.
'Spirited Away's Audience Embraces Chihiro
While Chihiro rejects the boundless gold No-Face offers her, she expels the fear of being alone on a deeper level, of being unknown to herself and others. By the time the film ends, Chihiro not only saves her parents but gains a sense of selfhood and belief that wasn't there otherwise. Yubaba, herself a double as a twin, uses the threat of identity to control Chihiro and everyone who works at the bathhouse. As her last act of resistance and love, Chihiro gives Haku back his identity. Recapturing her and Haku’s identity from Yubaba becomes a symbol of autonomy and maturity that crystallizes Chihiro’s turn into adulthood, a release from both Yubaba and Chihiro’s fears.
What drives Spirited Away is not just the fantastical nature of the narrative but also wanting Chihiro to triumph despite her circ*mstances. Her resilience is the true driving force behind the film that has withstood the test of time. People go back to this film because it takes them back to their childhoods, where the anxieties of being unloved, abandoned, judged, and criticized were always present. Chihiro is not that different from the child everyone once was. As the weight of Chihiro’s ever-changing world festers her anxieties, audiences are invited to that feeling through the nature of their own world. They feel comforted in Chihiro’s triumphant final moments, as she crosses the bridge and never looks back.
Spirited Away is currently streaming on Max in the U.S.
