I grew up watching movies from Studio Ghibli, and out of all of them, I think Spirited Away might be my favorite. For anyone reading this post who hasn’t seen it, I would highly recommend it. The story follows a girl named Chihiro, who stumbles across an abandoned theme park with her parents as they are moving to their new home. While there, her parents start pigging out at an abandoned restaurant (which is always a great idea), and things go downhill from there. It turns out that Chihiro is trapped in the spirit world, which is centered around a bath house run by a witch. Chihiro has to find a way to free herself and her parents with the help of a boy/spirit named Haku. It’s a wonderful coming of age story that also deals with themes of environmental destruction, identity crises, and capitalism gone out of control — yet it still remains an uplifting watch. I cannot say enough good things about it, but there are a few things in particular that stand out about Spirited Away.

To begin with, the world-building of Spirited Away is incredible. The spirit world that Chihiro finds herself in is full of references to historical, religious, spiritual, and cultural elements fairly unique to Japan. On top of the elements that might be unfamiliar to an international audience, the world Hayao Miyazaki created is complex and full of magic. Even for a domestic audience, the story requires a lot of world-building in order to make sense. Despite these challenges, the world of Spirited Away ends up feeling comfortable. And the writers don’t accomplish this immersion with massive amounts of verbal exposition. What Chihiro (and therefore the audience) needs to know, other characters explain to her at natural times. Even though the spirit world is complex, it’s introduced quietly and in a way that makes sense.

One aspect that really helps with this world-building (and another reason why I love the movie so much) is the high-quality animation. The animators of Spirited Away clearly did not cut corners. There are so many little sections of the movie that zoom out from the plot and just depict the scenery, people, or buildings of the spirit world. Though not strictly necessary to the plot, they help to create a sense of the space the story exists in. This use of “extra” animation to flesh out the setting is also used to flesh out the characters. In one scene, an over-worked spirit in charge of the bath house’s boiler room pauses in his work to take a sip right out of the spout of a tea-kettle. This little detail is only seconds long, probably required a lot of extra animation, and again, wasn’t extremely necessary to the plot. At the same time, it non-verbally gives us information about his “cups-are-for-the-weak” personality. The movie is full of these little non-verbal moments — in fact, the lack of dialogue in Spirited Away is comparable to movies with live actors. While we are used to seeing actors react to information purely with facial expressions, this eloquent silence is harder to pull off in animated films. Spirited Away does so with surprising realism.

The thing I think I love the most about Spirited Away is the way it captures reality — and not just through the animation. This is a bit of a strange statement, as the movie falls quite firmly in the fantasy category. I believe any good fantasy, however, has to reflect reality in some way. One of the scenes I especially love is one in which Chihiro has to make her way down a flight of rickety stairs suspended over a plummet down to a train track below. It’s dark, the wood creaks, and Chihiro sits and scoots down the first few steps before one of them breaks and she runs the rest of the way down. I’ve always so empathized with her in this scene; her reactions seem so like the way I would behave in a similar situation. Chihiro herself feels like a real girl. Her arc isn’t one of a noble heroine coming into her own or of a spoiled brat remedying her ways. She starts out as a slightly whiny, generally kind-hearted, and fairly ordinary girl and becomes extraordinary because of her extraordinary circumstances.

If you ever have the chance to watch Spirited Away or any other Ghibli movie, I would highly recommend doing so. The amount of care and originality put into the animation, plot, and characters of this film have made it one of my favorite movies of all time.