Spirited Away - The great anime move of all time?!

**Last Exile** · 31st December 2002, 06:37 AM

I saw Spirited Away yesterday and I was absolutely blown away! The quality of the animation was amazing and better than anything I've ever seen, the characters were flawless, the voice dubbings for the English version were all well chosen, the world was unique and for once the story wasn't about the apocalypse. It was just a tale, and that's what anime has really been needing. Hopefully this movie will bolster anime's profile in the Western World, it deserves to. It won 3 awards at the Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated for several Golden Globes, hopefully it will also be nominated for the Oscars.

What was really impressive though was that the cultural and social aspects of the movie were not altered for once. The Japanese aspects were left in and the movie is much better for it. It was quite interesting to see the importance of the baths. One interesting thing that happened while I saw the movie was that every time Chihiro cried, a Japanese couple nearby couldn't stop laughing. I later learned that in Japanese society, showing one's emotions in public is not considered appropriate. It's considered normal yet laughable if females do but unacceptable for males to.

I can't fault this movie. It is everything the critics said it was. See it if it is the last thing you do. I IMPLORE YOU!

PS. I swear the actress that did Chihiro's voice sounds familiar. Does anyone know who she is and what she's done in the past?

**SAMAS** · 31st December 2002, 08:39 AM

Daveigh Chase.

She was also the voice of Lilo in "Lilo and Stitch," and was also in The Ring.

**Roarkiller** · 31st December 2002, 09:31 AM

I thought it was Kirsten Dunst who did the voiceover. Oh well, i just watched Anastasia anyway, so sue me. And its great, yeah. Of course it is, its from Ghibli. Watch the sub though, u'll find more emotions in the voices.

Btw, impossible as it seems, not many ghibli fans put Spirited Away as the best movie produced. Almost all agree that there r better ones. Strange but true, and u might wanna consider imagining the quality of the ones that r better. Namely Castle in the Sky

p.s. Spirited Away juz won another award not too long ago for best animated film from the NYFCC. Here's a list if ur interested http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/sen/credits.html.

Anyone notice im always here to post if its about ghibli?

**dienamight** · 31st December 2002, 10:42 AM

No, the Cowboy Bebop movie is.

**RedStarWarrior** · 31st December 2002, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by dienamight
No, the Cowboy Bebop movie is.

There is a CB movie? I thought that they only had the the six DVDs out of all the sessions.

I have yet to see Spirited Away....I will reserve judgement until then.

**dienamight** · 31st December 2002, 12:30 PM

Originally posted by Modern Casualty
There is a CB movie? I thought that they only had the the six DVDs out of all the sessions.

I have yet to see Spirited Away....I will reserve judgement until then.

A Cowboy Bebop movie was released in 2001. It's 2 hours long and by far the best anime movie I have ever seen, and I've seen all the popular ones(Mononoke, Ninja Scroll, Spirited Away, etc).

Last time I checked it was scheduled to be released in the US around Christmas time... meaning it should be available now.

**RedStarWarrior** · 31st December 2002, 12:41 PM

Oh, I haven't seen it in any of the stores. Maybe they delayed the release? Thanks for the info, diena!

**Lightning** · 31st December 2002, 02:54 PM

Is Spirited Away still playing in theatres? ;_; I can't find it in Toronto and my mom promised she'd take me. -_-

It looks so good.

Bai,
Lightning

**Roarkiller** · 1st January 2003, 04:03 AM

Originally posted by Lightning
Is Spirited Away still playing in theatres? ;_; I can't find it in Toronto and my mom promised she'd take me. -_-

It looks so good.

Bai,
Lightning

I dont live there, but i think thy're done with Toronto. The main site has a cinema search engine though, u might wanna check it out.

**Ninetales3001** · 1st January 2003, 04:46 AM

I actually have to say that the Escaflowne movie is the best anime movie out there... ^^; I am not a big fan of the style of anime the creator of Spritied Away uses..

I'm probably bias on my opinion though because I haven't seen many anime movies, and I am a huge Escaflowne Fanboy. ^^;

**Eyedolize** · 1st January 2003, 05:24 AM

I haven't heard about this film. I would like to however, watch this film. I've also heard about the Cowbow Bebop Movie, as Dienamight mentioned before, even though I haven't seen it for sale, perhpas its release date might've been delayed.

**Lightning** · 1st January 2003, 01:12 PM

._. I should've known not to trust my mom's promise to take me to a movie. She never keeps them. =\ *Sighs* Anyone know when it's coming out on DVD?

Bai,
Lightning

**kalad1** · 1st January 2003, 09:47 PM

No, i don't know when it is coming out on DVD, but I have "aquired" the japanese version with subtitles with an "alternate method" anyway, the thing that amazed me was that the vile "Disney" didn't butcher it like i expected it to.

**Fox8642** · 2nd January 2003, 01:34 AM

IMO Spirited Away was one of THE BEST anime movies ever! My fave of all time will always be Princess Mononoke. The style and animation, not to mention, the voice dubb was incredible.Ash- i- taka is one of the coolest anime heroes.

**Last Exile** · 2nd January 2003, 02:14 AM

MC, for Christ's sake, if you didn't actually see Spirited Away, why the hell did you reply? Couldn't you have asked dienamight about the Cowboy Bebop movie via PM? This is a topic about Spirited Away. This forum is not a place to gather up replies. You've been warned before.

**dienamight** · 2nd January 2003, 03:04 AM

Originally posted by Citrus Crush Chikorita
MC, for Christ's sake, if you didn't actually see Spirited Away, why the hell did you reply? Couldn't you have asked dienamight about the Cowboy Bebop movie via PM? This is a topic about Spirited Away. This forum is not a place to gather up replies. You've been warned before.

It's funny because you're being a hypocrite. Couldn't you have PMed him about this too, I mean, you're not adding anything new to this thread; you're just cluttering it up... I'm doing pretty much the same thing right now but my post is intended towards anyone who "warns" people about spamming when they're doing the same thing, and not you specifically.

**Last Exile** · 2nd January 2003, 03:31 AM

Actually, it is relevant. This is a topic about Spirited Away, so reminding people to actually discuss Spirited Away when replying was the point of my post. If I wasn't clear enough then, I am now. Keep all posts relevant and provide some reason as to why you did or didn't like Spirited Away. Saying no and that something else is better without saying why is verging on SPAM.

**Blue Hiker** · 2nd January 2003, 04:32 AM

Okay, I saw Spirited Away a few days ago.

It rocked, pure and simple. It's the most original movie I've seen in a long time.

I'm going to go see it again soon.

**Roarkiller** · 2nd January 2003, 08:23 AM

Whle we're at it, i do have one question that i have yet to find in any spirited away websites, official or non, english or any other language.

What exactly does the hair band Zeniiba gave Chihiro do? Its only connection with the story i can gather so far is either to allow Chihiro keep her memory (her parents had their wiped clean), help her in getting out of the world, or to contact Zeniiba if she needed help ever again.

The last one juz had me thinking of a fanfic. Hmm...

**kalad1** · 2nd January 2003, 11:15 AM

It was just a little momento from Zeniba, trust me.

**Roarkiller** · 3rd January 2003, 06:11 AM

Originally posted by kalad1
It was just a little momento from Zeniba, trust me.

Funny, she said it would protect her, or that's what the sub said. Maybe i should watch that part again. Or maybe what the thing was was cut from the final scene. Whatever, all it did was sparkle at the end of the movie.

**Last Exile** · 4th January 2003, 06:11 AM

Zeniba's memento was to protect Chihiro. Maybe from any spirits that may have tried to keep her in their world. or maybe it was to preserve her memory of what happened.

**Andrew** · 7th January 2003, 07:34 PM

Well I went and saw Spirited Away yesterday at a wierdo Hoytes Cinema on Brissy Mall, it was like really really wierd, you know with dark place, lotsa marble, painting on the wall, roof that's like all intracately carved and stuff. Anywho Jenna and I went to see it, she was whingy bitchy Flo from the Amazing Race and I was the ever nice Zack, dragging her along ever so nicely. My friends and I sometimes roleplay for a day. Like Tara and I were a stuff old brittish couple only married for land and money and we had small fat rabid corgis. lol...

"But Zack! I don't wanna walk to the escalator! Carry me!" she moaned all day long. BTW I all Flo - Scow = Cow+Scowl lol..

Anyway I read the reviews and saw it had a swag of awards and it was like 5 Stars and all so I went to the counter and produced my old School ID so I could scam student discount but was embarressed when I found out it was cheap day regardless lol..

So we get in there and are FREAKED OUT, cause well its a small screen, and there's like a GIANT EYE on the roof and the walls are all wierd and Flo starts whinging that she wants to be at the shiny new Birch Carroyl and Coyle ones.

Anyway we see the name - Disney and are instantly calmed. Yada yada yada. From there Girl and Greedy insensitve parents do stupid thing and I have to go - YOU IDIOTS! IDIOTS! You deserve what you get now, but leave the girl out of it! And then I'm like... don't you have a small cute sidekick character?

Oh well, the father finding the food with his nose. Can you say - IDIOT and well PIG! Meh, at least he got what was deserved. But I felt sorry for the mum, before she got bitchy that is. Idiots.
But poor Jahiro poor lass, she was stuck in that crap of a world. And around shadows nonetheless.

Nice bit of action as Male Sailor Saturn rescued her and gave her that berry or something, and his psy powers were rather cool ^^ And yada yada.

The water dude, hee, he was UGLY! But then again, that was the same deal with lots of other things. But with like 6 stretchy arms ew. And those Soot things were cute and their reactions - Classic lol!

And what's the bitchy girls' name? Ling meh. I can't remember. She was a total witch (Replace W for B) and ew to Turnip Man. Ew. He had the biggest manboobs in the history of manboobs. It was sickening. If I were Jahiro, I would've swam across teh eternally long river thing. It was damn freaky.

Then the witch who ran the place. Lets call her Wrinkly. Wrinkly, god, doesn't she know about her really bad mole/pimple/growth on her face. And if she's got magic, why not use it to make her look better ew. Wrinkly was a cow during this movie. Wrinkly 2 though....

Anywho, being put into Slavery and being called Sin. Oh god. And doing demeaning jobs nonetheless. And we saw NoFace. Loser.

Seems like Sin put in a lot of effort in helping the Stink spirit eh? And god. I'd be wanted to scrub my body clean, starting with say... a removal of my top skin cells. And in return she got a disgusting green mould ball. Poor lass.

This entire movie felt really hinged on morals such as Gluttony = Pigs, Child Slavery = Good, Nastiness = Bad. It really was um... morally. But then again, what child's movie isn't? Ok. That's a stupid statement. Don't you dare say Home Alone.

NoName, what a pushy bint. God, poor old Jahiro's niceness came back at her didn't it. And I was so happy to see that Frog dead. But this was quickly saddening when he wasn't. And well that spewing up of eternal sludge. What was with this movie and SLUDGE! Come on, was it saying pollution is bad? Meh.

Meanwhile Flo's next to me desperately playing on her Mobile, trying to escape and keep from looking at the evil eye on the cieling that would destroy us.

And those pieces of paper... errr.... riiiiigghhtttt... So Male Sailor Saturn suffered from a LOT of paper cuts. And I think all that blood was icky. Icky. And he vomited up sludge too ew.

I had to say - How many times did Jahiro slam her head, poor lass, maybe she suffered some brain damage. But that baby. Ew. I liked it better as a mouse/rat/blob and that bird with the face of wrinkly. EW. This movie was wierd.

Ect ect fast forward, I'm sick of winging, but I must say that Ling did a much better job of steering the round boats that Flo did in the Amazing Race lol. And with a lot less whinging too.

Basically when it comes down to it I felt this took elements from other Disney Movies or Kiddies movies. Such as riding on a Dragonny thing, The Never Ending Story. Flying with a person, Peter Pan. Dragon Ride in pipes, Carpet Ride in Aladdin. Being sucked into another world *Shrugs* Labrynth? Meh maybe I'm drawing too many similarities here.

And I found an error people! ERROR! OMG I feel so good. At the end there wasn't a space long enough to turn the car around yet somehow the dad did. IRL He'd have to reverse all the way out. And that walking through the tunnel - Reused footage! REUSED! lol...

Overall it wasn't bad.. it wasn't particularly good. It needed more comic relief I found because it dealt with particularly harsh issues such as isolation, child slavery, paper cuts and all the nasties of real life in an icky wierd package.

Overall Flo Said this - ZAAACCCCC Why'd you take me to that movie! It was crap! And I missed 3 calls! I was SO BORED! It was SUCH A RIPPOFF! I WANNA GO HOME!!!!! CARRY ME! ect ect...

So there. lol.

**Roarkiller** · 7th January 2003, 08:31 PM

Um...

;o

For the confused souls:

Jahiro: Chihiro
Male sailor saturn: Haku
Ling: Lin
Wrinkly: Yubaaba
Water dude (water?!): Kamajii (i think, no one else has EIGHT arms)
Turnip man: Oshira-kami, god of radish (as said by official site)
Sin: Sen (meaning thousand, which is the 1st Kanji of Chihiro's name)

Now that i helped other guyz, help me: Is Oz being sarcastic or is that the plain bare truth?

Edit: sorry, fogot this. Oz, most of the similarities u saw r by coincidence. Everything u see is inspired by japanese folklore. And the car thingy. C'mon, u cant expect them to draw smthng as trivial as backing up a car, do u?

**kalad1** · 7th January 2003, 10:38 PM

Actually a Sen used to be a unit of money tha was like either a huindredth or a 1000th of a yen, thus the name could indicate that she has "little value"

**Roarkiller** · 8th January 2003, 12:20 AM

Originally posted by kalad1
Actually a Sen used to be a unit of money tha was like either a huindredth or a 1000th of a yen, thus the name could indicate that she has "little value"

No no, that's the official explanation given by ghibli. Yubaaba rules over others by stealing their names. Ogino Chihiro is 4 kanji, so she takes 3 and leaves 1 as her new name. If ur explanation is true, i cant make sense over what Haku (meaning white) means when taken from Nigihayami Kohakunushi.

**Andrew** · 8th January 2003, 01:02 AM

Me! Sarcastic! Never! Heheehehehe, just ask some people and ask what they think.... Oh well I thought the animation was good in some places, but in others I'm like errrr... k.

And taking NoFace along after he tried to kill you. You idiot. Absolute idiot.

**SAMAS** · 9th January 2003, 02:40 PM

And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why we don't let ID10Ts make movie reviews. That was the most incoherent thing I'd ever read.

And you missed the point entirely. Chihiro considered No Face a friend, especially since he was the only person who helped her when that Great Unclean One-- I mean Polluted River Spirit came in. That scene is similar to the practice in many Japanese bathhouses and brothels of making the new girls take on the more... disgusting... patrons. No Face was the one who got her those tokens when the foreman refused to give any to her.

Chihiro realized that the bathhouse was a bad place for No Face to be, and so after she cured him, she helped him leave the place by taking him with her. If she hadn't, the whole situation may have started up again.

That's what true Friendship is. Not letting little things like Temorary Insanity stop you from helping someone in need.

**Roarkiller** · 9th January 2003, 11:34 PM

Originally posted by SAMAS
And this, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why we don't let ID10Ts make movie reviews. That was the most incoherent thing I'd ever read.

And you missed the point entirely. Chihiro considered No Face a friend, especially since he was the only person who helped her when that Great Unclean One-- I mean Polluted River Spirit came in. That scene is similar to the practice in many Japanese bathhouses and brothels of making the new girls take on the more... disgusting... patrons. No Face was the one who got her those tokens when the foreman refused to give any to her.

Chihiro realized that the bathhouse was a bad place for No Face to be, and so after she cured him, she helped him leave the place by taking him with her. If she hadn't, the whole situation may have started up again.

That's what true Friendship is. Not letting little things like Temorary Insanity stop you from helping someone in need.

I more than whole-heartedly agree. These kind of movies r supposed to make u think. They aint gonna spoon-feed u with all the info and explanations. Thats why its great. And prolly why u didnt enjoy it.

I think im beginning to feel hatred for Oz, so i'll stop b4 it turns into a flame war.

Incidentally, my opinion was that Kaonashi (NoFace's japanese name) was disallowed into the bath house for so long that when u finally got in, he literally had as much fun as he could, at the same time trying as much as possible to repay Chihiro, albeit excessive.

**Gavin Luper** · 10th January 2003, 08:00 AM

Let's see here ... Oz Andrew gave a movie review, a type of review which is meant to be filled with the author's BIAS and therefore Oz Andrew is entitled to express his point of view without having to worry about other people trying to correct him. Roarkiller, if I may say so, I think Oz Andrew was giving a humourous, lighthearted review which really didn't need to be picked at. And saying "I think im beginning to feel hatred for Oz" wasn't necessary to say in a post. You can surely keep that to yourself.

Besides, you'd have to agree that Spirited Away is a very weird movie ... if you can call it a movie, that is.

Cheers!

**SAMAS** · 10th January 2003, 10:41 AM

The problem with the review was that it was, as I said, incoherent. If you're reviewing the movie, you don't spend two thirds of the review talking about the theater and your own companions. Your audience doesn't care if the ceiling has a picture of Belldandy in a loving embrace wilth Cthulhu. They're here to know your opinion on the movie, not the place you saw it at.

Secondly, The review spent more time ragging on Yubaba's mole than it did commenting on the actual story. Other characters recieved similar treatment, with more comments on their appearance than their character. Critical plot points were completely forgotten, oftem complaining about not understanding things that were clearly explained, often in dialogue, later in the movie.

Overall, it feels that the reviewer spent more time looking at the movie, rather than actually watching it.

**Gavin Luper** · 11th January 2003, 08:17 AM

Samas, you kinda said it yourself. A movie reviewer doesn't watch a movie, he LOOKS at it. That's the idea. Thanks for helping me along there!

**Roarkiller** · 11th January 2003, 09:23 AM

Im the frank type of person and i speak my mind. It hurts ppl, i know, but u dont know how much it hurts myself knowing that it hursts others. There's a lot of things about me u dont know, and if i were to summarise it, u might say that i am a complete opposite of a normal human being.

On my side of argument, like SAMAS said, it was incoherent. One would go as far as to call it annoying, even spammish. It could, of course, be light-hearted, why did u think i asked if it was serious or juz a joke?

In any case, this is going nowhere. So stop this whatever, an argument if u want, so that everything will be fine again, no hard feelings.

**Ninetales3001** · 11th January 2003, 01:25 PM

Originally posted by SAMAS
Overall, it feels that the reviewer spent more time looking at the movie, rather than actually watching it.

When a movie is horrible to someone, they tend to just look at it then watch it. If you enjoy the movie, then you tend to look deeper into what's happening. Is OzAndrew a famous and professional movie review author? No! He is just giving his opinion of his experience of a movie he didn't enjoy. It is his opinion.

For example. To a hell of a lot of people, Sprited Away is a lot better, and a lot deeper than other anime movies, let's say Escaflowne, A Girl in Gaia. Do I think that? No! I find Sprited Away to be a bad movie. One thing, the animation style is not one I prefer to watch. Actually, it's my least favorite style. Escaflowne, the animation is beautiful in my eyes. The music in Sprited Away, it's all right but I've heard better. That better is Escaflowne's music. Storyline, I didn't like it in Sprited Away. Character Design, same thing. Escaflowne, I love the storyline and adore the characters. (BTW, I saw the Escaflowne movie first, before watching the series, so I'm not compairing a movie from a series to just a movie here.)

I bet you can reply, and give me 1000 reasons why Sprited Away is better, and that's your opinion. I can give you 1000 reasons why I think you're wrong, and that's my opinion. We all have our own personal preferences in what we like, and dislike, and we all should respect that.

**Pacific Pikachu** · 21st January 2003, 10:47 PM

Erm... I'm not here to argue with anyone, or say why this-movie-was-better-than-this-movie, but my opinion (no, I do not consider my opinion ultimate set-in-stone fact or anything) is that Spirited Away was a beautiful, meaningful, well-made movie.

I thought that the art was fantastic, and, as much as CGI can look very spiffy, I thought that the hand-drawn animation in this movie not only fit the movie better, but it was intricately done and incredibly, subtly beautiful.

The plot was amazingly deep and symbolic, while also being completely original and enjoyable to watch, even when not pondering the meaning of all of it. Miyazaki's spirit bath house was so diverse and strange, it definitely kept me on my toes and wondering what could possibly happen next.

To be honest, when I first got out of the theater after seeing it the first time, I though it was a very cool movie, but it seemed a little too strange and hard to swallow, with how incredibly imaginative it is. But, after a few days of contemplation, I found myself irrefutably drawn to it's naive, magical beauty as a movie. Now, I'm pretty much obsessed with it, and it ranks as my third favorite "world" (1st being Pokémon, 2nd being The Last Unicorn.) I'm ordering the soundtrack tonight.

I think the best part of the whole movie was just the overall feeling of that childhood magic. I'm addicted to that nostalgic, naive magic that inhabits only the most delicate and tender of movies, and causes me to feel a natural high when I think about it. That's why I've become so devoted to Pokémon, I find it littered with that subtlety that is so rare and pure.

My favorite part was the train scene. It was so sad, but in a settled, mournful, lonely way, like wind on an autumn evening, rather than annoyingly blatant, obvious emotions that are so prevalent in animated movies. The animation was gorgeous, and the shadowy passengers on the train seemed so lonely. That part was heartbreakingly poignant, IMO.

Anyway, as much as I admire Spirited Away, I can see why some people wouldn't like it much. It's very different from Western animated movies, and Miyazaki doesn't make any attempts to tame his imagination or tone it down. Also, the symbolism and depth is very fine-toned, and is not likely to be noticed by a lot of people.

You're right, Ninetales3001, everyone has their own opinions, and those opinions deserve to be treated with respect, because they are something personal, and are not based on fact, but instead on preference. That's why I think arguments on good music/bad music, good movies/bad movies, etc. are completely ridiculous. People like what they like, and no one has the right to tell them that their opinions are wrong.

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