The Deeper Meaning of Spirited Away — 20 Years of Chihiro’s Journey

Theory: All the characters are mental abstractions of one individual.

Illustration by Jaya (Arianna Lusardi)! Check her out. If you need illustrations just message her — as I did!

Spirited Away (2001) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

If you never watched Spirited Away before: Stop;

Watch it now and return to this page after.

If you have seen it before and kinda understand the movie, then I recommend that you rewatch Spirited Away after you finish this text.

I want to thank you for reading this.

This is the work of months of organizing my ideas and unraveling the movie Spirited Away in a way that makes sense instinctively.

To understand the perspective I offer you don’t need to know any obscure symbology, keep track of Japanese history, or anything of the sort. You need to watch it from a certain point of view.

To me, Spirited Away is one of those movies that only makes sense when you look from a certain point of view.