r/SpiritedAway

Hello, my name is Douglas Campbell, I review movies and occasionally TV on YouTube. This week I let my subscribers suggest some films for me to cover, and ultimately Spirited Away was chosen.

I love various forms of animation, Anime however is an area of media I haven’t explored much of. I was excited to finally see Spirited Away because I’ve heard so many good things about Studio Ghibli. The film was good, I’m glad I checked it out finally, but there were a few things I was surprised about while watching the film and doing research after the fact.

If you are interested my latest video is here:

https://youtu.be/9dhdezHpdPE

If you’d like to check out my channel in general, the link is here: https://youtube.com/@wearefilmstash?si=Bd_-j6KGq-N3kNwW

It kinda dawns on me that Yubaba is literally Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob.

Greedy (CHECK)

Somewhat reasonable (CHECK)

Has an offspring twice her size that she spoils relentlessly (CHECK)

Will take charge and does a pretty good job of it (CHECK)

She's just Studio Ghibli Mr. Krabs.

I am doing this post because I see so many people online analyzing No Face character as a representation of just a weird predator guy and I don't think this is really correct, cause Miyazaki would have never decided to make them a support character until the end if it really was the case, and I have another interpretation for this character, I think they are actually one of the most human ones, and really depicts how constant rejection from society can mess up with one's mind.

We know that people in the bath house have a rule not to let No Faces enter and I think this is not only here because in the beginning each time we se them, they are alone and seemingly ignored by people, even having the capacity to make themselves invisible. The only person letting them enter was Chihiro, because she was new there, did not know about No Faces creatures and saw them standing outside in the rain. Does it mean she wanted to be their friend ? Of course not. She was just being polite, offering someone to protect themselves from the rain by entering a public covered space. Nothing wrong with this. But can you imagine this is probably the first time in their life that someone is being polite to them ? When you have been excluded for so long like Kaonashi, it becomes so hard to interpret social behavior in the right way, and they probably start believing Chihiro is their friend, or even if they don't, they get over-attached to her, because she gave them something that looks like kindness, which they never received. This over-attachment is quite noticeable in the token-scene for example. Chihiro needs bath-tokens but the guy distributing it does not want to give her, and Kaonashi ends up coming to Chihiro and giving her so many of them, appearing from their hands. To my mind this represent the fact of giving too many efforts and energy on someone. At first I thought it was just thankfulness coming from them, but there is definitely something wrong starting here : they give way too much tokens. But Chihiro doesn't understand this, she knows nothing of them, so again, she just thanks them because they gave her something she needed and she is polite.

Also I'd like to point out interesting things about their design and concept art. First, their shadowy figure and ability to get invisible can symbolize the way they are ignored but perhaps also a feeling of being inconsistent in the real world. The inexpressive mask they wear is also a key element : it can be representation of having poor non-verbal communication skills, but also perhaps themselves don't even know who they are, so just put the inexpressive and neutral face and keep it all the time. The voice also is interesting because I see many people saying it disturbs them, sounds like l3wd noises... I think this is important to notice that before starting to eat other characters, they can't talk. And this is not because they don't like to talk. Actually, the noises they make is a sign that they would like to talk, but don't know how to. So No face probably represents someone who is constantly ignored if not rejected, don't know who they are, don't feel like belonging anywhere, and have troubles to communicate both verbally and non-verbally.

After entering the bath house, No Face starts giving gold to the employees here, and despite having originally rejected them, they all start to worship them, giving them ridiculous amount of food, serving them, etc. This is corruption of both the employees and No Face's mind, because the bath house workers don't really like No Face, they only serve them because they promise gold, and No Face is just here giving more and more because they got addicted to the attention and validation they never received before. Here, the gold does not necessarily represent money. Yes it can be money, but it can also be something No Face can do, or anything they have that can interest people around. And all the food that is given to them is not only food, it represents the love-bombing from fake friends who covers them in overloads of fake affection just to receive the thing they are interested in. But No Face does not recognize this. Because they've been excluded from society and lacked attention for so long time that they cannot recognize when people are genuine or not. So they become addicted to this love-bombing and just want more and more. But the paradox here is that No Face probably believes that now they are happy, loved and stronger than before, but they are actually so vulnerable to emotional manipulation from the people around that pretend loving them, and they would do anything to have more and more.

Another interesting point you may have all noticed, is how No Face can eat people and start copying the voice, gestures, words, behavior of the people they have eaten. This is just a depiction of how in order to fit in, one just end up copying the codes of people around. But this cannot end well if the surrounding is unhealthy and toxic. No Face turns more and more monstrous the more they eat and absorb, but they are a reflection of all the people surrounding them and feeding them with their fake affection, a reflection of who they are inside. It's just like they absorb people's inner venom and became a monster among monsters.

When No Face asks Chihiro to stay with them, she refuses because she has to take care of Haku, who REALLY is her friend, and No Face just breaks out at it, their mind just snaps because all this time they thought Chihiro was their first friend, because they naively mistook simple politeness for genuine care and friendship, so they feel betrayed, and also I think it brings them back to the person they used to be : rejected and unwanted. The person that they are so afraid to become again.

After Chihiro cured No Face with the medicine, she brings them with her in the train to Zeniba's house. This trip is often interpreted to include the characters who need to evolve, and I think this is what happens with No Face : they need to see the world, discover more places and people, and learn, in order to find places where they won't be rejected and will be respected and welcomed. At this point, No Face grew back to their former form, the translucent simple one that cannot speak. But it is way better to search for people who will accept you for who you are, even if you don't know who you are, even if you have troubles expressing yourself through words or gestures and expressions, rather than being given fake friendship for a monster you pretend to be, and wasting more and more energy and emotions on people who don't really care about you.

Through this character, Miyazaki showed how rejection and emotional neglect can create illnesses, but he also showed one can heal from this.

Thanks for reading. I hope this made some sort of sense and it was not too boring or anything ^^ This is the first time I try to resume character analysis I am still learning 🌻

⚠️ Spirited Away Spoilers ⚠️

• “No one’s gonna catch us now” —> Chihiro’s dad trying to convince her that going down the alleyway was perfectly safe.

• “You said something dumb again” —> Her dad said something dumb since it wasn’t actually safe.

• “She’s mad” —> Chihiro was annoyed at her parent’s, both for moving and for going down the alley.

• “I’ll settle for two birthdays” —> Perhaps a bit of a stretch but could symbolise how Chihiro exists in two alternate realities.

• “Devil Town is colder in the summertime” —> Portrays the fantasy world she now has to live in.

• “I’ll lose my mind at least another thousand times” —> She’ll keep forgetting more about her past life (losing her mind).

• “Hold my hand tight, we’ll make it another night” —> Haku and the green haired girl helping her out + her reassuring her parents that they’ll make it out.

• “But i feel a little safer when i’m with you” —> Her relationship with the characters growing.

• “Falling doesn’t feel so bad when i know you’ve fallen this way too” —> Her gaining trust in the characters and how she was brave enough to walk across the wobbling pipe.

• “We’re all dead in devil town” —> Metaphor for how their old lives are now ‘dead’.

• “That’s fine, cause nothings gonna scare us now” —> Chihiro becomes less scared than she ever was before.

• “We’re all in our dressing gowns” —> The robes they had to put on.

• “I forgot my name again, I think that’s something worth remembering” —> Literally the whole movie, how Chihiro is made to forget her name and gets renamed to Sen as well as the others, but Haku (?) tells her she NEEDS to remember.

• “Spiders in your favourite shoes” —> Refering to the soot sprites that went in Chihiros shoes and looked after them.

• “Just leave them be cause they’re more scared of you” —> She was scared of them at first be let them be amd realised that they’re actually very kind and helpful.

❗️I haven’t watched the movie in a while so i might be misremembering things.