The story of spirited away begins with Chihiro, the protagonist of the story moving to a new house in a country town. Initially Chihiro is stubborn and reluctant about leaving her friends and old life behind. Later on the family runs into what seems like an abandoned theme park, but is actually an entrance to a spirit world and more specifically a bathhouse for gods.When Chihiro is helpless of the circumstances of loosing her parents and the recent transparency in her skin a boy with the name of Haku comes to comfort and rescue her. Haku informs Chihiro that the only way she can remain in the bathhouse and save her parents is to get a job and make herself useful. Chihiro following Hak ...view middle of the document...
Meanwhile Sen find Haku, the white dragon being attacked by paper birds, Haku rushes into the top floor where Yubaba is. Sen follows him, unknowingly also being followed by a paper bird.Sen attempting to hide from Yubaba meets Boh the giant obnoxious baby who fiercely insists she must play with him. Sen finally manages to escape to Haku who is badly injured. The paper bird transforms into Zeniba, who wants revenge from Haku for stealing her seal, she casts a spell on Boh and Yubaba's flying assistant turning them into a mouse and a tiny bird creature. Haku and Sen destroys the paper bird and falls into Kamaji's room.Sen sets out to Zeniba's cottage accompanied by the mouse, small bird and No-face, after letting Haku and No-face eat the magical cake given to her by the river spirit. When Yubaba finds Boh is missing she becomes furious. Haku manages to make a deal in which if he find the baby she must let Sen and her parents free.Haku finds Sen and everyone else at Zeniba's cottage. On the way to the bathhouse, Sen remembers that Haku is actually a river spirit of the Kohaku River but now the rivers drained and built. This frees Haku from the control of Yubaba. At the bathhouse Sen has to perform one last task to free her parents: she has to pick them out from a group of pigs. She correctly answers that none of the pigs are her parents. As a result she and her parents are set free and return to the human world.I would class this film along the lines of Fantasy and Adventure since most of the scenes contain out of this world characters and magic. As nearly all anime films 'Spirited Away contains both Adventure and a lot of Fantasy. At the beginning of the film Chihiro is already involved in the adventure of moving to a new place, as her mother would put it, but her real adventure starts when she and her family enter the fantasy world hidden inside an amusement park. Chihiro's main priority is to save her parents and escape the bathhouse, this in itself is a whole adventure, but to make it more interesting different sub quests are added which eventually all lead to Chihiro's escape and liberation of her parents.The movie involves fantasy when Chihiro enters the Amusement park and nightfall comes along. The first indication of a fantasy world is when she encounters the moving shadows and Haku. Haku, Yubaba and Zeniba are the only ones that use magic in the fantasy world but the characters inhabiting it obviously are farce and created such as the three giant heads assisting Yubaba. The clever mixture of fantasy and adventure is what makes Spirited Away an award-winning movie.THEMES and ISSUESIdentity And the Power of wordsIdentity is one of the major themes incorporated in the story. The theme of identity is put forth into the story by the use of names. Sen's real name, Chihiro, is what grants Sen her freedom and the freedom of her parents. Haku is an example of the loss of identity and the dangers that come with it, without his true identity H...
