Berthier - Spirited Away

            Spirited Away is arguably one of Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest works of all time. The story and artwork bridged gaps between American cartoons and Japanese anime for all generations, which is what we’ve been talking about all semester. It’s about a girl named Chihiro who is about ten years old and her family is moving away from the home she’s lived in all of her life. Needless to say she’s not happy about it, but this original theme of dealing with change and adjusting to the new ways of things is set up by this instance of Chihiro moving. She crosses a bridge with her parents and then something magical happens where she crosses into the spirit world and meets a boy named Haku. There are to be no humans in the spirit world so when Chihiro sneaks in after dark and can’t get back into the real world, Haku takes care of her, gets her a job at the bath house and introduces her to some interesting characters. One of these characters is named Yubaba is technically the antagonist of the whole story because she gets in Haku’s way of trying to help Chihiro get back to her world. In the end of the story Chihiro gets back to her world and reunites with her parents and both Haku and Chihiro learn to love each other and learn the meaning of friendship together. Not exactly the typical type of anime we’ve been watching for the majority of the year but this is definitely one of my favorite anime’s of all time. The artwork and the way the story is laid out for the audience is extremely surreal, yet the emotion that is evoked through the characters is extremely compelling and is something that the whole family could enjoy. Then again, Disney is extremely good at making “feel good” films that lure people into watching over and over again. I think the main reason for this is because in every Disney movie, the characters are extremely lovable and the audience can relate to the personalities of the characters. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves anime or just interesting plot lines in general.