Spirited Away Reflection

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Spirited Away is a Japanese anime movie by Hayao Miyazaki and produced under Studio Ghibli. The film was first released in July of 2001, and became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $274 million dollars worldwide. The film was so successful, it even overtook Titanic (top grossing film at the time) and because the highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a total of $229,607,878. (Johnson, G. A.)
The story follows a 10 year old girl named Chihiro who, upon moving to a new neighbourhood, gets lost in a spirit world. She must figure out how to get back to the world she once knew, along with saving her parents who have been transformed into pigs as a consequence of eating food that was meant for the spirits. She discovers a bathhouse that the spirits go to, and is approached by a young apprentice named Haku that she must ask the boiler man, Kamaji, for a job. Although Kamaji turns her away, he leaves her with the advice to ask the witch Yubaba for a job, the witch who also owns the bathhouse and is Haku’s master.
Yubaba grants her permission to stay on the terms of signing a contract that allows Yubaba to take Chihiro’s name, take three characters from it, the only character left is “sen” as well as “chi” (as in Chihiro), and thus her new name is Sen. (Abe, N.) She befriends Haku and through helping her find her way around, she finds out Haku is really a dragon. This complicates their relationship as dragon spirits are not allowed to talk or have contact with humans. Through determined actions, Chihiro eventually frees her parents from the spirit world and the film ends.
Spirited away is composed of three main genres, which makes it easier to market to various audiences. Firstly, it is an adventure fi...

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...ve because of its high labor costs. Just as with other labor-intensive industries, technology seemed an answer to the rising costs of production.” (Spirited Away: The Death of an Artform.)
With determination through hardships, anyone can attain their goals. Whether it’s Chihiro saving herself and her family from the Spirit World, or Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli paying close attention to detail and thus staying late night after night to finish an animated film. At the end of the film, Chihiro’s parents are waiting for her and are slightly upset that she had wandered off, as they do not remember anything. They walk back to their car, which seems to have been abandoned for a long while. As they drive away, Chihiro’s dad says, “...A new home and a new school-- it’s a bit scary.” Chihiro, having matured since the beginning of the film, replies, “I think I can handle it.”

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