Spirited Away-Wonderful Japanese Comic

The Japanese comic Spirited Away is a good movie. It tells a story as follows. A ten-year-old girl, came to a strange world of bizarre creations, and deduced a story of looking for love and trying to find the way home. In this world, there was a stocky woman with a huge head and even bigger hairdo. She lived in a bathhouse, and the bath house itself was stocked with all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures. The only way to survive is to get work in the bath house that dominated the town.

Miyazaki’s animation is always beautiful and, in places, breathtaking. Locations are atmospheric, details are immaculate, and characters are diverse in his works.

Miyazaki’s work always has the power to transcend culturally specific elements. Although he insists it’s not his role to be didactic, all of his work has strong messages about ecology and the human relationship with the natural world. And he’s also fascinated with coming-of-age stories, notably about how girls (many of his protagonists are young females) can not only face up to adult responsibility, but also how they can become strong, principled members of society.

It’s no wonder the likes of Pixar’s John Lasseter (who executive produced the US dub) are so full of praise for Miyazaki. He’s a true genius, an artist and great filmmaker who happens to work in animation – a medium often belittled as childish in the West. Spirited Away is wonderful.