Spirited Away is best Studio Ghibli movie to watch right now—here’s why

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May 25-30 is Studio Ghibli Week at Polygon. To commemorate the arrival of the Japanese animation house’s library on digital and streaming services, we’re surveying the studio’s history, effect, and most significant styles. Follow along via our Ghibli Week page.

Early in our preparation procedure for Studio Ghibli Week, we asked the Polygon personnel to pick their favorite Ghibli movie– “No caviling, no wishy-washy ties, you only get one.’” And a clear favorite emerged. Around half of the staffers surveyed determined Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away as the best Ghibli feature, the one that a lot of satisfied and spoke to them. That’s a common viewpoint: Ghibli’s movies have actually been consistently chosen for Best Animated Feature Oscars, however Spirited Away is the onlywinner And apart from My Next-door neighbor Totoro, which provides Ghibli much of its marketing iconography, it’s the Ghibli title Americans most appear to acknowledge.

However why is it such a dominant favorite? 3 of our most significant Spirited Away fans hash it out.

Is it the story?

Chihiro and Yubaba waiting for the stink spirit to emerge from the bath in Spirited Away

Image: StudioGhibli

Tasha Robinson, film/TV editor: For me, at least, Spirited Away is one of the most quickly available Ghiblimovies Not that the studio’s other movies are nontransparent or baroque, however Spirited Away’s opening, with a shy, sulky kid thrown into a terrifyingly alien circumstance, is interesting and especially extreme. We know from the start that Chihiro is dissatisfied with her life, and quickly frightened by new things. And after that all of a sudden she’s deeply immersed in an environment where whatever’s new, and mysterious, and apparently hazardous. It’s a tempting story hook.

Susana Polo, comics editor: It’s paradoxical that Spirited Away has lots of more apparent trademarks of Western fantasy stories than the Ghibli movies that directly adjust them, like Shout’s Moving Castle, or When Marnie Existed. Wonderful agreements that bind the soul, the tremendous power of understanding something’s true name or denying something of it, time streaming in a different way in the world beyond. They ‘d know that you never ever consume the food in the fairy world if just Chihiro’s parents had actually checked out enough fairy tales!

Karen Han, home entertainment press reporter: These story tropes aren’t unique to Western media. They crop up in a lot of Eastern media, too. A lot of Japanese folk tales have to do with not messing with things that aren’t implied for you.

Susana: Fair point!

Karen: I also concur with Tasha in that I believe it’s the most available, and it feels more open since there’s a lot to takein There are many various kinds of animals in the bathhouse where Chihiro ends up working. And audiences, like Chihiro, all at once have to find out the rules of the place and the rules of the spirit world ingeneral It’s all interesting, and it does not harm that there’s a love story combined in with all of it, too.

Tasha: That’s an especially good point– Ghibli movies are generally focused around big feelings like solitude or desperation, however because many of them center on really young lead characters, they do not constantly have a romantic angle. And this one is an especially fandom-friendly angle: 2 young people from various worlds, however with a secret psychological connection that makes the heroine ready to consistently risk whatever. These are the kinds of big, stuffed tropes that got a subset of fans so invested in Reylo shipping, or Twilight.

Okay, I just squicked myself out a little, however it’s true that there’s no love so engaging as prohibited love. And here, you have a secret love built on shared need and regard and nerve, full of frightening and hazardous fights, and culminating in the most wondrous reunion in the Ghibli canon. It’s tempting.

Is it the characters?

chihiro runs across a bridge as her spirit friends cheer

Image: StudioGhibli

Karen: I believe no one thing in Spirited Away can be taken individually from the other parts of the movie, however the characters are certainly a substantial part of why it’s so impacting. Like a lot of other Ghibli movies, this movie does not have a straight-outvillain Even characters who appear like villains, like Yubaba or No-Face, end up being less scary and more considerate when you find what’s going on with them.

There’s also the fact that Chihiro is a young woman who is just as bratty as everybody else at that age. She grows as an individual to save her family and friends, however she begins out just like any person else. Being a Ghibli hero does not need superheroic deeds, which feels like a message that’s hardly ever seen, or succeeded, in a lot of media.

Tasha: Spirited Away also crowds the screen with considerable characters in an uncommonway Heroes typically have partners or allies since many stories highlight the worth of relationship and the rewards of appreciating other people, however they’re typically up against a single agent villain in order to streamline the inescapable final faceoff. Spirited Away is jam-packed with unforgettable characters– bad guys and heroes and animals that do not plainly fall on anyside Who besides the most significant players truly stands out for you? I have actually constantly been really fond of Kamajī, the infinite-armed boiler-room chief. I’m a sucker for soft-hearted characters who act brusque and hard when anyone’s enjoying, and turn to mush just when they’re securely alone.

Susana: Genuinely, whom among us does not want to be buds with the Radish Spirit?

Tasha: And the hopping lantern that makes squeaky-toy sounds when it takes a trip.

Susana: The Pixar light’s forefather.

Karen: Kamajī is certainly a favorite, particularly because he’s in charge of all those exceptionally charming, sugar-loving soot sprites. I also love the transformed kinds of Boh and the Kashira– enjoying them find out to support each other as a small bird and a purple mouse is so sweet that it’s nearly a pity when they return to their original selves.

Tasha: And shout-out to No-Face, who represents the approval-craving, lonesome side of all ofus I enjoy how spooky he is, however more so, how well he channels that everlasting sensation of just desiring a specific individual’s attention, and not being able to get it since they have actually got their own problems going on.

And After That there’s Yubaba the witch, who winds up sensation primarily safe, however begins out as one of the scariest things in the Ghibli canon– a roaring mouth the size of Totoro’s, huge scary glassy eyes, disproportional and bulging and predatory and inhuman, however with a nominally humanface She’s something out of an actual nightmare, the kind of dream where you see a regular individual and recognize she’s also scary in ingrainedways At the very same time, however, she’s a businesswoman who has to keep up on her documents. I enjoy her layers.

Is it the animation?

the river spirit in dragon form in spirited away

Image: StudioGhibli

Karen: As with all of Miyazaki’s movies, the animation is exceptionally meaningful, and movies like Spirited Away are quite conclusive arguments as to why the art of hand-drawn animation ought to continue. There’s also something truly wondrous about the character designs, as Miyazaki takes ideas that would recognize to Japanese audiences– yokai, bathhouses, calligraphy– and provides a spooky freshness by overemphasizing their features.

Tasha: It’s also just so detail-rich. As I have actually been going back and enjoying older Ghibli movies, it’s surprising to me how basic the character design gets in movies like My Next-door Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky, while still keeping the familiar house design. Compare those movies to Yubaba here, with her lace cuffs and fancy rings and overly in-depth eyebrows! The animation here is engaging and so sharp.

Karen: I end up considering the River Spirit a lot, too, when it comes to the animation. The minutes where Spirited Away blends in a little computer animation are so striking, in this case as a way to make it clear that something truly considerable is taking place as the water bubbles. The River Spirit’s dragon type is animated generally, however still appears special since it came from in something unusual. I also enjoy that, though it’s primarily been cleared of gunk, there are still some fiddly bits noticeable in the River Spirit’s body.

Tasha: Haku’s knocking dragon type is also so remarkable. The series including him getting away a swarm of shikigami, or attempting to cough up Zeniba’s seal, are so expressive and scary, since he moves so rapidly, and with such deadly function. It’s a fantastic visual design, and the way he “swims” through air is especially striking.

However like many later Ghibli movies, a lot of the marvel of the animation here is just in the use of color– the abundant, complicated darks of Yubaba’s lair, the bright basic sky, the washes of blue in the train series at the end. It’s a beautiful-looking movie that makes a lot out of the distinction in between jewel-toned claustrophobic areas and pastel wide-open ones.

Is it the feeling?

No-Face and Chihiro look at a dark spirit walking off the train

Image: StudioGhibli

Susana: When I believe of Spirited Away, the first scene that jumps to my mind isn’t any character or plot minute, it’s the “train montage.” It’s a sharp tangent from the rest of the movie, swerving from a world of dynamic fantasy to a large flooded plain occupied by shadowy, however reasonably modern-day, tourists. It’s nearly like a small speculative movie inside the rest of the movie, however still at peace with the entire.

I might joke around in the language of the Exceptionally Online and state that the entire scene provides me a Big Feeling, however it would not be a joke. No matter how lots of times I see the movie, this scene still strikes me with strong, nearly undefinable sensations. Familiarity? Loss? Yearning? Whatever it is, it’s skillful.

Tasha: I concur with you about the train series, however my key scene for feeling in this movie is when Chihiro and Haku are failing the sky together, and she’s weeping with delight– those substantial fat welling Ghibli puddle-tears that feel a lot more primal than common decorous weeping. There’s a lot sensation covered up in that scene: gladness, relief, love, enjoyment, and catharsis, all revealed in those huge tears. It’s like Chihiro is experiencing a lot, at one time, that she does not even discover she’s falling.

Karen: I believe this is the point where it’s difficult not to bring up Joe Hisaishi’s incrediblescore All of his music is quite romantic, however the score for Spirited Away in specific is sweeping and so lavish that it’s difficult not to get captured up in it. I’m particularly fond of the style that plays over the scene Tasha explains, as Chihiro and Haku fail thesky The feelings of the scene, increased by the music, make it difficult not to cry, too.

Is it something else totally?

Chihiro learns the River Spirit’s name in Spirited Away

Image: StudioGhibli

Tasha: I find a lot of appeal in the severe weirdness of SpiritedAway From the start, the magic that turns Chihiro’s parents into pigs isn’t just threatening, it’s awful and monstrous and odd. is the giant-headed witch Yubaba. Why does she have a hopping stack of family pet green heads? What the hell is up with that?

The fairy-tale components of this story recognize– it’s a timeless tale of a mortal kid being stolen away into the fairy world, which has its own wonderfullogic All the normal fairy-tale rules about the rewards of courtesy and selflessness still use: Whatever reverses for Chihiro when she naturally assists the black- soot animal with its heavy load, and her hard work in assisting the river god pays off too. The execution is unanticipated and still odd. Being kind and considerate to No-Face turns it into a ravening monster that feasts on people, for circumstances, and the animation that makes it a fat, blobby, many-limbed spider is just so enjoyably ugly. No matter how familiar the structure is here, it’s still a surreal movie, and I enjoy that mix.

Susana: Ah, however generosity isn’t what changes No-Face into a monster! It’s all the people who feed his gluttony in order to get his gold. He’s reversed when Chihiro decently declines his deal, and he’s required to find out a much healthier way to get people to like him.

A large part of the luster of Spirited Away is how it effortlessly mixes the universal fairy-story styles we keep pointing out– generosity begetting generosity, and rule- bound reciprocity– with that category’s evolutionary offspring: the coming-of- agestory Chihiro begins the story bratty and withstanding the adventure of moving to a newcity She grows with each act of hard work and altruism. There’s actually a huge ruined baby she has to compete with and tame.

Karen: And I believe it’s difficult to discount rate nostalgic worth here– what people bring to the movie, instead of objectively what makes the moviegreat My Next-door Neighbor Totoro is the first Ghibli movie I saw, however Spirited Away sticks with me since I found when I was around Chihiro’s age, and primed for a story about a woman who was like me. Whatever we have actually talked about up until now blends into it– I enjoyed the story, the characters, the animation, the feeling, the music– and made it particularly powerful for me, to the point that whenever I watch it, I’m taken back to that minute in time. I actually can’t listen to “One Summer Day” without weeping. It was a best movie that hit me at a best time.

Neela
Neela
I work as the Content Writer for Gaming Ideology. I play Quake like professionally. I love to write about games and have been writing about them for two years.

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