Spirited Away

Despite watching anime for quite a long time now, I still hadn't seen arguably the most iconic anime movie of all time. Due to me having in possession the first volumes of Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä from when I was kid, I was a little familiar with Miyazaki's works. His artstyle and technics absolutely blew my mind away and the worldbuilding was out of this world.

And those precisely are my two favorite things about this movie

VISUALS

Needless to say, the animation is incredible. Everything looks so organic and nothing goes by the wayside. It is super detailled and by that I don't mean the artstyle itself but rather how each piece in [x] scene is animated. I'll take a spoiler free exemple even though it's probably not needeed. When Chihiro meets Kamajii for the first time, the way he moves his arms is uncanny because of how much motion there is. It feels like each arm has a personnality and move for an actual purpose, no arms just stands there, the character design is actually used and it feels accurate, like, if a 6 arm creature were to appeare, I'd assume it'd move it's arms like this. What is impressing is that while one character has a lot of motion, other "pieces" in the scene also have their own unique animation. Even when there's one character that is clearly the focus of the scene, the other background characters are well animated as well. There's always so much motion it makes the characters feel very real. When Chihiro runs, walks or pretty much does whatever, it feels so natural and human that this is legit as good as well done rotoscopy. There's many beautfiul shots and the artistic direction is just something else.

WORLD

I talked about the worldbuilding but for this movie I guess the word immersion would fit better. This is largely due to the animation but let's not forget about the storytelling. You don't know where the story goes and you're trapped in this world with Chihiro. The atmosphere settings scenes are by no mean rushed. Chihiro has to go to a location so that the plot moves forward, that makes you think the least important thing is going to be the processus of getting to that destination and that's where the immersion starts. There's a few minutes scenes of Chihiro just passing through the stairs. This creates a "hold back" because technically this scene isn't necesary to the plot but that's exatcly what makes it so captivating. Despite the objectives of the protagonist, the world exists of it's own and that's beautifully done.

SUBSTANCE

Last but not least, my personnal interpretation of the movie. To me, this is mainly a coming of age. You see Chihiro in low spirits because she has to move out. She's attached to the past, scared of the future and uninterested by the present. The only way we perceive her in the beginning of the movie is as a scared girl. She's scared of the unknown and she'd rather stick to what's conforting. The only way she can face her fears is with the help of her parents. They take her by the hand and lead her through the dark alleys of life. Unfortunately, growing up precisely mean letting go of those conforting hands and face situations without always relying on your parents. And that's what the story forces her to face.

CONCLUSION

Great watch, mainly due to what I said in "World" section, I think this is one of the most unique anime I've ever watched. I felt really immersed and intrigued throughout the whole movie. I also like how many characters are a parallel to Chihiro in their arcs of growing up and letting go of their
past fears. The narration is vastly unconventional, making the message much more interesting to comprehend than it would have been with a more regular aproach to storytelling. This movie has a solid identity and the art direction is peak. I absolutely don't fail to see how it obtained it's legendary status and I'm glad I could actually connect with the movie at, more than an artistical level, an emotional one.