Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s and studio ghibli movies, are profound and complex, they are much more than meets the eye, hence is not possible to grasp the amazing wonders of them by watching them only once, and spirited away is not the exception.

Although is not one of my top favourites, like Howl’s Castle, Nausica of the Valley of the Wind and Grave of the fireflies - the last one specially is my achilles heel, Spirited Away has that je ne sais quoi, that manages to captivate me into its wonderful world every single time.

But to not extend this too long, I will dive right into it.

I think Spirited Away is a metaphor on the obstacles we face and the feelings we encounter on our way to adulthood, whilst facing society and their expectations, and maintaining our morale throughout these obstacles.

What allows me to think this is for instance, at the beginning of the movie Chihiro’s parents disappear to eat food, to then be turned into pigs after eating too much foods - this to me rings a bell of greed, and how we never stop wanting more as we grow up, losing ourselves in the process of wanting more and more, since her parents have no recollection of their time as pigs.

It is at this moment that Chihiro must fend and care for herself, therefore she seeks work in the bathhouse, and the one to give it to her is none other than a representation of a spider.

As a symbol, the spider represent a wide variation of meanings, such as weaver of life, power, growth and the dark aspects of one’s personality, and in this case it suits the context perfectly.

Kamaji, being the spider, is the one that grants Chihiro the job in the bathhouse, thus opening the door to adulthood.

Before that, Haku, the dragon, a symbol of unfathomable power, authority and growth; See how the symbol of growth appears again - is the one that not only warns Chihiro to not eat the food offered to her, but also the one that sends her to the bathhouse.

So far, the dragon has shown the way and the spider makes the web; a web in which Chihiro will meet new people, such as her roommate, coworkers, the customer’s bathhouse, her no face ally, and her boss the witch and villain in the story.

When Chihiro encounters Yubaba the first time, the witch tries to frighten her to run away, I think it meant to test her resolve to find her way home and to work in the bathhouse, which Chihiro succeeds as she was not scared.

This part reminds me of Ursula taking the precious voice of Ariel as a way of payment for her services, because Yubaba makes a contract with Chihiro, in which her name is taken, a symbol of dehumanization.

This tactic was commonly used during WWI and WWII in the concentration camps. Germans assigned numbers to prisoners and were called by the number, making the effect of slavery much more heavy than it was, as this was the last straw to demoralize the people to avoid revolts, and to denounce that Jewish and supporters were not humans, they were cattle - farms brand their cows with tags and numbers.