Chihiro’s most powerful moments in Spirited Away

The year 2022, amongst many things, marks the 20th anniversary of the global theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki’s world-renowned animation Spirited Away (originally released in 2001), one of the most celebrated and critically praised films of the 21st century.

Produced by Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, the movie follows the story of Chihiro, a young girl who must navigate a magical yet eccentric world of dragons, witches and spirits in order to save her parents, who have been cursed and transformed into pigs. Across the decades, Chihiro has become an iconic female character, empowering girls and women the world over as she embodies hard work, perseverance, and relatable vulnerability. To celebrate her girlhood in honor of March as International Women’s History Month, here is a look back at some of Chihiro’s most powerful moments in Spirited Away.

Chihiro gets a job in the world of Spirited Away

In order to survive the wrath of the witch – Yubaba – who owns the bathhouse she has found herself in, Chihiro is told she must get a job or risk being turned into an animal. After being turned away by the bathhouse’s boilerman, Chihiro tries her luck with Yubaba herself, begging to be employed.

Chihiro demonstrates incredible strength in the face of a fairly terrifying witch, particularly when we remember that she is just 10 years old, alone in an unfamiliar new world. Although manifesting in a manner not dissimilar to that of a childish tantrum, she stands her ground, asking over and over for a job, even when it is revealed that she must literally sign her name away to Yubaba. She demonstrates power through stubbornness as opposed to rage, as is so often the case in Hollywood when depicting ‘powerful’ female protagonists.

Chihiro helps a Spirited Away creature

As her first customer in the bathhouse, a “stink spirit” provides another opportunity for Chihiro to grow, and another opportunity for a powerful moment. Despite the guest producing a smell that is rancid enough to be hair-raising, Chihiro wades through its mud and sludge in order to reach the bath and successfully do her job of cleaning the spirit (pulling out a bewildering amount of man-made waste as she does so).

This moment in highlights both her perseverance and her love for her parents, making her willing to do whatever it will take for them to return to their original human forms. Whilst this is perhaps Spirited Away‘s metaphor for the brutal, “hustle culture” of both America and Japan under capitalism, it alternatively offers a simply powerful moment of personal growth for Chihiro when compared to her lazy, timid personality at the very beginning of the film. Director Hayao Miyazaki explores this persevering, powerful moment of Chihiro in the following quote, extracted from an i-D piece by Zio Baritaux:

"“Many of my movies have strong female leads,” Miyazaki said in an interview with The Guardian in 2013, “brave, self-sufficient girls that don’t think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart.”"

Chihiro and No-Face in Spirited Away

Though Chihiro and the enigmatic spirit No-Face have a few mysterious interactions throughout the movie, one of the most powerful takes place towards the end of the film. In this scene, No-Face has become engorged after running rampant throughout the bathhouse, consuming endless amounts of food and even a few guests upon discovering the workers’ greed for his gifts of gold. No-Face meets Chihiro as she is on her way to meet Yubaba’s sister Zeniba; he tries to tempt her with gold the same way he has the rest of the bathhouse.

However, Chihiro proves she is not a greedy person (perhaps thanks to her youth) and instead prioritises doing what is right – she turns down No-Face’s gold and offers him a healing dumpling given to her by the river spirit she helped earlier in the movie. This allows No-Face to revert to his original form, whom Chihiro allows to accompany her in the journey to Zeniba, demonstrating a touching level of kindness. She produces a powerful moment in Spirited Away and arguably one of the most iconic shots in animated cinema.

Chihiro showcases power in unconventional ways throughout the Spirited Away film, challenging orthodox ideas of female heroism that are often influenced by and demonstrated through masculinised understandings of strength as physical.  She demonstrates persistence, courage, hard work, familial love, altruism, and kindness, all characteristics that can never be praised enough.

Spirited Away is available to watch now on Netflix.