Spirited Away

“It’s fun to move to a new place. It’s an adventure.”

Chihiro is not at all impressed with the idea of moving to a new place. She is leaving behind her best friend and everything she knows, and it is clear that the family is moving to a remote town with few people or things to do. Chihiro’s mother attempts to change her daughter’s attitude toward the move by calling it an adventure. Ironically, the family ends up going on a much more spiritual sort of adventure instead.

“They’re shrines. Some people think little spirits live there.”

Chihiro and her parents drive past a pile of discarded Hokora, or miniature Shinto shrines. Each is built to house a spirit, and they are usually crafted and placed meticulously. In this case, the shrines are thrown in a pile as if they do not matter, indicating humanity’s lack of concern for nature or the spiritual. Chihiro’s mother comments that some people believe in spirits, which implies that neither she nor her family is spiritual. She scoffs when she sees them as if thinking more about how ugly they look in a pile instead of worrying about why they are being left to rot.

“Dad, I think we’re lost.”

Chihiro gets her second intuition that something is wrong. Her father makes a wrong turn and ends up on a heavily forested and overgrown path. He remarks that he has four-wheel drive, so there is no reason for Chihiro to worry. However, this does not prevent him or his family from entering the spirit world and becoming trapped there. As the car passes through the woods, Chihiro sees various shrines and guardian statues, indicating they are heading toward a spiritual place. Her parents take little or no notice of this fact.

“I want to see what’s on the other side.”

Chihiro’s parents are curious to know what else is in the amusement park. When they cross the dried-up river to enter the street filled with restaurants, Chihiro’s father makes this ironic remark. The family is crossing over to the other side, or the spirit realm, when they step across the river. None of them know this yet, but this is a particularly significant moment of foreshadowing the spiritual journey they are all about to undergo.

“We must be near a train station.”

When the family enters the amusement park, Chihiro’s mother hears the sound of a train whistle somewhere in the distance. She assumes they must be near a train station and thinks nothing more of it. Chihiro is a curious child, so when she moves toward the bathhouse, she peeks over the ledge and finds the train tracks below. Chihiro realizes this must be the same train her mother heard before, foreshadowing Chihiro’s later journey with No-Face to see Zeniba, Yubaba’s far less antagonistic twin sister.

“Did you hear that building? It was moaning.”

Chihiro is still a child; thus, unlike her parents, she is receptive to supernatural events. Her parents dismiss the sound as just being the wind, but Chihiro has felt like something was wrong since the moment her father made a wrong turn on the road. She has continuously asked and tried to convince them to turn back, but they ignore her. When Chihiro hears the station entrance to the amusement park moaning, it foreshadows the supernatural events that are to follow.

“Don’t worry! You’ve got Daddy here. He’s got credit cards and cash.”

Chihiro’s father seems to think that he is invincible and that nothing could possibly go wrong. He drives his car recklessly, enters the amusement park with his family despite not knowing what might be living there, and follows his hunger to the smell of food in the distance. All the while, he pressures his wife and daughter to join in. He does not think or consider possible consequences. Furthermore, due to his lack of spirituality, Chihiro’s father believes they will be fine as long as he has money. Ironically, his human money is of no use in the spirit realm.

“Chihiro, you have to try this. It’s so tender.”

Chihiro’s parents are led by their gluttony and greed to the food in the restaurant. They are unsure whether anyone is working there, how to pay, or even what most of the food is. Despite this, they indulge on everything they can see. Chihiro stands by, watching as her parents—who are supposed to be much wiser and have more self-control than she as a child has—gorge themselves on food that is not theirs. Chihiro’s mother pressures her to join in, but Chihiro refuses.

“That’s weird…It’s a bathhouse.”

Chihiro does not want to partake in the indulgence that her parents are pursuing at the restaurant, so she explores and inspects the area. She comes to a large bridge that leads to a massive red bathhouse. Chihiro is not yet aware that spirits live there, nor has she met Haku. She also does not know that her parents have turned into pigs. In this way, this moment signifies a calm before Chihiro’s world turns into chaos and confusion.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

The story’s tone turns ominous after Chihiro and her parents make a wrong turn down a forested road and end up in an amusement park inhabited by spirits. In this quote, Haku finds Chihiro at the bridge inspecting the train tracks below and immediately warns her that her presence is not wanted at the bathhouse. At first, Haku seems as though he might attack Chihiro, but he just wants to help her. He grabs Chihiro by the hand and takes her away from the bridge, telling her to head back to the river as soon as possible before darkness falls.

“It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream. Go away. Go away. Disappear.”

After Chihiro sees her parents have turned into pigs, she is in shock. She tells herself she must be dreaming because the events taking place are too out of the ordinary and cannot possibly be real. Yet, soon she realizes that she is not dreaming at all. Ironically, Chihiro wishes that the dream will disappear; as she does so, her body begins to vanish. Only when Haku provides her with food from the spirit world does she regain her full form.

“You have to eat some food from this world or else you’ll disappear.”

When Haku finds Chihiro alone and afraid, he wants nothing more than to help her find safety and rescue her parents. He gives her some food from the spirit world, and when she consumes it, she regains her full form and a sense of calm. Food is a key symbol in Spirited Away; in this instance, it represents the connection between the spirit and human worlds. When Chihiro’s parents eat the food without permission, they are turned into pigs. Because Haku gives Chihiro the food willingly, she is not.

“In the name of the wind and water within thee…Unbind her.”

Haku utters a spell to unbind Chihiro when she cannot move her legs. She and Haku are trying to hide from Yubaba’s spy so Chihiro can make it to the boiler room and insist on being given work. When Haku unbinds Chihiro, she can run with him to safety. Because Haku is a river spirit, he calls on the power of water and wind to perform his spell. The importance and power of nature are part of the novel’s central theme, which examines modern humans’ disregard for nature.

“Even the tiniest breath will break the spell…And then everyone will see you.”

Haku is a river spirit who learned how to perform various magical spells under Yubaba’s tutelage. To help Chihiro cross the bridge to the bathhouse safely, he puts a spell over her so that the spirits cannot see her. The spell is only effective if Chihiro does not breathe, and she manages to hold her breath most of the way across. Unfortunately, she is startled by a frog spirit who jumps in front of her path and lets out a breath. The frog sees her, but Haku freezes it for a moment so they can get away.

“Do you smell that? There’s a human here. It reeks! Find it before it stinks up the place!”

Because Chihiro is from the human world, she is out of place in the spirit realm. She has a particular human smell, and all the spirits working in the bathhouse can smell her from a distance. They talk about Chihiro as if she is an “it” and a pest. To them, she is something that does not belong and should be dealt with in whatever way is necessary. The spirits do not like humans because of humans’ disregard for nature, and thus they do not want humans interfering with their sanctuary.

“Listen carefully to what I tell you to do. You can’t stay here. They’ll find you. And you’ll never get a chance to rescue your parents.”

Haku tells Chihiro what she must do to begin working on saving her parents and escaping back to the human world. He warns her that she has to act and can no longer cower in fear. If she wants to help her parents return to their human form, and if she ever wants to escape the spirit realm, she must obtain work at the bathhouse before another spirit finds her. Otherwise, Yubaba will hear that there is a human at the bathhouse and will transform Chihiro into an animal before she can ask for work.

“They did turn into pigs. I wasn’t dreaming.”

Chihiro finally realizes that the strange events she just witnessed were not a dream but actually happened. When she returned to her parents as they were eating, she found they had turned into large pigs, and she ran away in shock. As she crouched down in fear, she told herself she was dreaming. Now that Chihiro knows she is really in trouble, she takes Haku’s advice seriously. She listens to him attentively and seeks out Kamaji. This quote illustrates the magical realism of Spirited Away, showing how fantastical elements like humans transforming into pigs are blended with realism.

“There, you’ll find Kamaji…the boiler man.”

Kamaji is the eight-legged man who works in the boiler room. He is neither kind nor nasty but seems honest and unconcerned about much beyond keeping the boilers running. Kamaji is not directly introduced in Book 1, but Haku mentions him because Kamaji is the first point of access for Chihiro to gain work at the bathhouse. As Haku tells Chihiro this, he puts his finger on her forehead and places the vision of where she needs to go inside her mind. Kamaji’s boiler room is at the bottom of a huge flight of rickety stairs, which Chihiro must climb down to reach his door. Book 1 ends as she goes inside.

“If you don’t get a job, Yubaba will turn you into an animal.”

Haku knows Yubaba well as he has worked for her for many years. Haku is a Yubaba’s servant and her student. He lives at the bathhouse to learn from her and partake in secret missions. Haku is telepathic and already knows that Chihiro’s parents have been turned into pigs. He fears that a similar fate may befall Chihiro if she does not get a job at the bathhouse. He also knows that Yubaba will not be able to refuse Chihiro’s request due to a binding contract that she created.

“She’s the witch who rules the bathhouse.”

Haku describes Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. Yubaba is not seen in Book 1, aside from her spy crow with the same head as her. However, even before she appears, Yubaba is a significant character in the story. It is because of her that the bathhouse exists. She also enchants the food and entices humans to eat it, thereby providing pork for her hungry guests. Chihiro has much to learn about Yubaba and her bathhouse, but this is her first introduction.

“It’ll be hard work, but you’ll be able to stay here. Then even Yubaba can’t harm you.”

Haku instructs Chihiro to seek out the boiler man, Kamaji, to obtain a job at the bathhouse. He assures Chihiro that she will not be turned into an animal like her parents if she works there. Yubaba is a witch who lives by creating binding contracts, and in one such contract, she promised to give work to anyone who asked. As a result, Haku knows she will be obligated to give Chihiro a job if she insists. The work that Chihiro will undertake is not easy, especially for a young girl who has never worked before, but she does what is asked of her so she may save herself and her parents.

“And don’t forget, Chihiro. I’m your friend. I’ve known you since you were very small.”

In later books, Haku is revealed to be a river spirit of the Kohaku River. When the river was filled in and housing developments constructed above it, Haku was displaced. He sought a solution in the form of obtaining more magical power by seeking out Yubaba and learning from her. While Haku was still in this river, Chihiro dropped her shoe into it and tried to retrieve it. When Chihiro nearly drowned, Haku carried her to shore and saved her life. When Haku sees Chihiro years later, he knows she is the same girl and does what he can to help and protect her.

“It’s about my mission, right?”

Here, Haku foreshadows his position as a servant for Yubaba. He is repeatedly beckoned by the workers in the bathhouse, who demand he see Yubaba, and he must leave Chihiro alone to attend to this duty. When Haku was displaced from the river, he sought out Yubaba to learn her magic and become more powerful. However, Yubaba trapped him into doing her bidding. The exact nature of Haku’s mission is never revealed.