Spirited Away Discussion & Review | Anime Watch Club
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Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Anime Watch Club, a bi-weekly group discussion and review where the hosts of the What You Say Anime podcast nominate and vote on shows either we haven't seen or shows that hopefully lead to a great discussion. On today's episode, the watering phantoms of the What You Say Anime podcast will be reviewing the 2001 Ghibli film, Spirited Away. Let's meet today's Porky boys. First up, he ha-cooed on that thing. We got Jay. Jay, how's it going?

oh i don't even know how to respond and that was our episode today everybody please tune in next week i told you i had a banger intro i told you i'm so proud of that one sorry jay it's okay i mean i would so good to hear good to hear our first moderator night he tried to eat what the parents ate and then got spirited away to the nearest toilet we got miles miles how's it going

It's going well. Yeah, fair enough. And Pat. Yeah, yeah, there we go. Easiest intro every single time. But yeah, as Pete said, we are watching Spirited Away, a movie from 2001 done by Studio Ghibli, sourced originally. That's a very weird way to put it, but we'll just say that. And then...

Source by Ghibli. Ghibli. Yeah, exactly. Genres of adventure, award-winning as a genre. That's interesting. Fantasy and themes of mythology, rated PG, just over two hours long. So yeah, let's start with our first impressions. Obviously, since it's a movie, we won't do like...

Too late into the movie, but what do we think going in? Maybe, I don't know, maybe a couple of us have heard of this movie before we started it. What do we know about it? How many times have we watched it? All that good stuff. Miles, what have you got? Sure. This was my second time watching the film. My first time was last year at basically this time.

because Kayla and I were binging some Ghibli movies before we went to Japan because I hadn't seen a bunch of them. So I watched a lot of them in quick succession. And so I must say my first impressions of this is that this sure is a Ghibli movie. It's got a lot of the Ghibli movie things, which is this. This might sound negative, but it's not because the Ghibli movies are good. But, you know, it's especially like, I don't know, you're

My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle sort of vein Ghibli movies for this more so than like Grave of the Fireflies. But, you know, it's pretty whimsical and fun. It has like

a very obvious transportation into like a magical realm sort of scene where, you know, you go through a tunnel and all of that, which is pretty common and stuff. It was nice. I don't know. I liked it. I had a good time. I was expecting good things because, you know, it's so acclaimed. You know, it was the best anime movie until Moog and Train came out. Most profitable. Yeah. Yeah. And as we know here on this podcast, we believe that earning money is the purest form of what

qualifies as good art and success yes so yeah that is uh i don't know those are those are my my first thoughts would i recommend spirited away i'm gonna have to pass hard pass yeah okay there we go you would recommend it good to know uh jay what about you

Yeah, I mean, what is there really to say about this movie that hasn't already been said by somebody? It's spirited away. This is the first, like, Ghibli movie that we really had pushed over here by Disney in the United States. It's just beautifully done. This is something, like, one of the first animated movies, I think, that was ever out where if a whole family watched it, everybody is getting something out of it. The kids are going to love it. The adults are going to love it. The story is...

Easy to follow for people who are either like, you know, children or maybe aren't super into anime or something like that.

but deep enough to where people who want to sink their teeth into it, like our watch club might want to, are able to really dissect it and pull a lot out of it. I think that, honestly, this is just a perfectly crafted movie that you can recommend to anybody, regardless of if they like anime or even animation at all. I think if somebody's not into animation in general, this is something you can recommend to them to get them into animation to see what makes it special.

I think that the dub of this is fantastic. The sub of this is fantastic. Just it's, it's the ultimate anime film in my opinion. And I do not say that lightly. It is not necessarily my favorite Ghibli.

uh just on like in terms of personal levels but in terms of just sheer importance and how much of a necessary thing i think it is for anybody who wants to call themselves an appreciator of the medium as a whole it's important so to long rambling way of saying yes i recommend this if you're somebody who has any interest in animation at all this is a must watch

That's why it took so long for some of us to watch it, right? You know, smile.

but yeah perfect pete what about you yeah this is like the eighth time i've watched spirit away it's my favorite ghibli film it's one of my favorite films not even anime just films in general that i just thoroughly enjoy first impression so it's like every time i re-watch this i find something new or i find something i'm entranced with that was different than the last time i watched it and it's been a few years since i've watched it and as i watch more and more anime i start like

liking newer things and different things in anime whether like lately i've been like really into soundtracks and like really into like directing and sort of seeing how spirit away puts that together is just like there is a reason why this is like i think it's considered his magnum opus i i feel like just because you know he won an oscar like we said with before money equals success this is the second highest grossing anime film of all time now

And just, just so many things that go into it that I just thoroughly enjoy what Ghibli, what Ghibli films do the best is there's so much that goes into it. And if you want to completely ignore all of it, you can, and still have an incredible time watching their films. And this is no exception. It's way easier to consume than something like the boy in the Heron. That's for damn sure. But yeah, just, just a great film with so much that goes into it. And yeah,

Oh, something I say for first impressions is a lot of times with Ghibli films, there's a huge setup getting into the story. Spirit of way starts really fast and never lets go of the break. And that's something I really enjoyed about spirit away versus other Ghibli films. So first impressions, incredible. Like the only, the only thing I would, would recommend something different to somebody else is if you're looking to get into a Ghibli film and you're like,

a young girl i would watch like my neighbor totoro first outside of that spirit of the way i think is the number one go-to for um getting started in your ghibli adventure so absolutely recommend that every single person small big man woman doesn't matter go watch spirit of the way i have some bad news it's third now oh did doraymon pass it or something

your name oh that's a yeah that's a popular movie i've heard of that one pretty good one pretty good movie yeah for some i don't know if you're looking at but like doremon like the his like latest movie made like 300 million dollars or something ridiculous so i thought that maybe i love that guy i should wear my dream on shirt i'm looking on are you sure it wasn't 300 million yen i don't know it was a lot okay uh

I found a Doraemon here at 42nd in the highest grossing Japanese films of all time. Okay. I'm just probably lying, but fuck. Oh, damn. Now we're going to get exploited on Apple podcast. Pat, what are your thoughts? You should have not worn a Toronto shirt. Bro, it's like two days after. It's freezing. I grabbed my first sweatshirt.

L plus ratio to the Leafs. But yeah, my opening thoughts. Yeah, I had never seen Spirited Away before this watch through of it. And yeah, good movie. There you go. You know, I also felt like I had already seen the movie when I first started watching it, not necessarily in the first 10 minutes, because I agree with what you said, Pete. It actually does start off very quickly. And I appreciated that. I guess just after watching so many other Ghibli films first, I

it does have that feel. I think Miles, you said it felt like a Ghibli movie right off the bat. I agree with that. I almost wonder if I would, and this sounds like it's roasting it, but it's like, if I had watched it first, I might have been more entranced by it, I guess, versus watching the other Ghiblis first.

I was blown away by all the hand-drawn animation. It's truly wonderful. And now I finally get what people are talking about with those... According to this, they're called the Makuro Kurosukes or whatever. The little, like, coal... Oh, the suit...

The soot or whatever? The soot. Yeah. Like I was like, oh, now I know what people are talking about with the boy and the heron. The warawaras. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Warawaras. Thank you. Yeah. I was like, oh, made that connection finally. I thought it was very like clearly a kid's movie, but like in a very enjoyable and consumable way for the adults as well, which I think probably contributes a lot to its enjoyability to watch. You know, there's

There's like the Clear Kids movies, and then there's family movies. And I think that this falls into more of a family movie as well. And I'm excited to talk about it and see what kind of stuff I might have been missing just as a first-time watcher or as a not-ball-knower, I guess, a not-ghibli-knower. I would recommend this to almost anyone. And I really like the point.

Jay, you made about how you would recommend this to people, even if they say they don't like anime, like if you don't like this movie or at least can't appreciate the artistry behind it, then you're never going to like any sort of animation at all. I feel like, uh, so I, I can, I concur with that statement as well. And, and yeah, I think that that's, uh, that's all I've got for now. Again, I'm, I, like,

Yeah, I don't know. I'm just excited to talk about this because I'm curious to hear what like very obvious symbolism I just missed because I didn't think that the plot was too crazy or difficult to follow. I'm sure there were little things or specific things that people have deduced after how many years has this been out? 24 and a half at this point, almost 25 years. I'm sure there are some people who have been smarter than me.

that have studied this film. So, yeah, let's get into it. So spoilers going forward for Studio Ghibli. Spirited away.

studio ghibli spirited away you're right yes thank you spoilers going forward for every every film in theory in theory yeah fair enough thank you god can you tell i took a nap between watching and then coming here so yeah spoilers going forward uh for spirited away and pete i hear you've got the first talking point today i do have the first talking point today so i want to get your guys's thoughts

And so with Ghibli films, a lot of the times that they have a very forward message to it, where it's something you watch Princess Mononoke. It's very like the environment is like the main focus of the show. And it's pretty in your face with Spirited Away. I didn't necessarily feel like there was a singular message or theme or anything that went with it. I feel like it was like accumulation of a bunch of stuff. So I want to get your guys's thoughts. What was your like?

Things that you took away from the movie or a theme or a message that you got from it that maybe stood out to you because what I got, I think, is a little bit more on the silly side versus to what I think that there are some more serious messages in the show. Just want to get your guys' thoughts on what you took away from it. Sure. You know, I think...

you know, at the beginning of this, I said, Hey, it's a Ghibli film. And like, I think the themes are still there. Like your, your, your normal Ghibli themes, you know, like environmentalism is obviously one with the whole thing of like, yeah, well like Haku being a river spirit whose river was like dredged and now is a shopping mall or whatever that, and then you sort of have like the fact that these spirits are like reclaiming like a,

an old amusement park, right? So you had this area that was like abandoned by people that was sort of built up in such a way, but it's now, you know, being slowly taken over again by like the supernatural traditional elements and all of that, you know, more Ghibli stuff. There's some stuff on like greed and all of that there, like her,

Her parents turn into the pigs because they're eating all of that food and stuff. There's all those scenes with like the gold and how people get distracted by that. But like Chihiro is different from that. She does not care about the gold, right? And she's able to like navigate this, this world and everything pretty successfully. There's, there's a few different things that I think are in there, you know, sort of,

that we do see in, like, Mononoke, and it's not, like, as in your face, you're, like, right about that, right? Because, like, in Mononoke, there's, like, they're literally fighting each other, right? Like, it's very obvious. But, like, in this, you know, I think that Chihiro just sort of experiencing this natural, yet also supernatural side of the world, and...

Seeing how she fits into it, you know, now that her family is sort of moving back here is part of those themes and stuff. Jay, you have a you have more to add to this?

yeah interesting way of saying this miles i just yeah i don't know why that i did that but i did tennessee miles came out miles was in the holler for a second there i think that honestly something i didn't really understand too much as a kid but watching it in the in recent years a theme that's really stuck out to me is like

It's really kind of in your face about saying like working, like valuing money over everything and working for only money instead of like passion and capitalism in general. Like capitalism bad is a way to oversimplify the message, but it's more so like

It's meant to just specifically show you, like, this is, the bathhouse is a world, and I say the bathhouse as a world, I just mean, like, the spirit world we see in general is very much like a meeting of Japanese culture with, like, Western ideals as far as capitalism and, like, the love of money goes, that sort of thing.

I mean, you can see it in how, like, all of the, like, in the no-face scenes where he's just giving people gold and then devouring them. Like, I feel like that's kind of about as on-the-nose as you can get when you see these people, these noble spirits debasing themselves for gold, something that doesn't even really, like, mean anything to them. You never see them actually spending any gold or anything like that.

Yeah, I don't know. It's pretty blatant to me. I feel like nowadays watching it and like Chihiro, I feel like she just kind of like no face like I say loves no face kind of like I guess wants Chihiro because she is pure of heart and doesn't accept.

gold she does things just because she has a kind spirit and wants to help that sort of thing and that's also another part that i find really interesting about watching it is jihiro's character arc is like pretty subtle honestly you don't really super notice her change but she starts off being so pouty about bullshit basically and flower like not getting flowers and that sort of thing and then she ends up

giving away the one thing that can save her parents in her mind to try and save somebody she doesn't even know. So I think that what I came across as it was, yeah, greed and capitalism is terrible and you should seek to do things because it is the right thing to do and it can help others. I like that. And save the environment.

And don't be a klutz like Chihiro started in the movie, too. That's definitely a character trait that she fixes by the end of it. I noticed that, like myself, right off the bat. I was like, damn, she's falling down all the time. She's dropping it. She's just like me, for real. She's dropping everything and slipping and tumbling around. I thought that that was really fun, and it was a cool way to keep scenes more...

I guess, engaging with animation, obviously, as well, and different animation. One more thing, I'm sorry, just while it's on my mind. I will say that I don't think it's necessarily saying all Western influence is bad, because if you look, like, the two places that we primarily see Western influence in the films are Yubaba's quarters and her sister's cottage, and both of those are places that...

While obviously Yubaba is kind of like a morally gray villain, she does very much like care about her son. So we see that at like comfort in that as well as like obviously her twin sister is kind of like a good fairy godmother more or less. And she has a completely Western style cottage.

So I don't know. I think that it shows like it's kind of saying like, yeah, we get this element of capitalism introduced with Western society, but there's also like a sort of warmth that gets added to Japanese culture as well, which I, you know, obviously I'm not Japanese. I can't necessarily comment on it, but that is a vibe that I often get from themes of Japanese works. Fair enough.

The only thought that went into my head was just based on when this movie came out, and I kind of touched on this in our pre-club chat, but it makes a lot of sense for this anti-capitalism and greed and obviously environmentalism aspects, too, to be so highlighted in this movie following the lost decade or the 90s, early 2000s of Japan, where

They had severe deflation and economic collapse following a couple of legislation changes. I thought it was very cool for it to take place in an abandoned theme park because there are a lot of sounding signs to a recession. But the first one, or one of the first ones by most economists' standards is inflation.

theme parks shutting down or theme parks not having people attending and or lower attendance everything along those lines it's the same uh it's uh usually it's not a red herring because it's actually a herring but it's a canary it's the canary in the coal mine for sure thank you yeah not birds why are birds always used as signals you know like um sensitive lungs fair

I'd be a good canary then. It's a red herring. It's a fish, right? Red herring? These are two of things I'm getting into. Birds and fish. Anyway, it doesn't matter. The point is bird and fish. Yeah, anyways, and that's why it's the boy in the fish. Miles, the fish and the herring. Oh, shit. I fucked it up. Never mind.

We're all just. That was a Josie, the tiger, the fish, the fish. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Why are we talking about Tora door? No, nevermind. All right. Uh, we're the tiger, the tiger. Yeah. That's that was Fishburne out there. That's what their names mean. We figured it out. Are we good? Are we, are we ready to lock back in? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

Lock it in. But anyways, the amusement parks are like, so like I said, they are usually a very key indicator. And I thought that this taking place there on top of all the other aspects, like what Jay mentioned about Haku being a river spirit and there being a literal, it being a bathhouse for these poor, you know,

customers that are suffering and are clearly not being treated well like or they're going there for purification right so what makes them impure in the first place though like like mistreatment right when you say or it's nasty that's fair oh she nasty their very nature makes them impure yeah that's wow okay yeah p why don't you expand on that take a bit yeah please p me

Yeah. You want me to expand on it? I was just bullshit. Yeah. The take that miles quoted of you saying earlier. Yes, yes, yes. That we, we a hundred percent heard you say that's it. I think it's a really good point though. Pat, like they're in a bath house. We see like that sludge monster get cleaned and everything. Right. And so I think that like ties into, you know, the slow recovery of,

of these natural elements right like the return of nature like when people are able to like i don't know where they can't spend money on everything all the time right like i guess it's sort of weird because like is it then like the recession is actually kind of good because it let us refocus like is that part of the messaging i don't know like it might be but

you know, but now that there's like amusement park is like shut down some of these spirits that have been negatively affected, you know, forgetting their names being covered in sludge or whatever can go there and be cleansed, which is, you know, pretty, pretty good. And I think, yeah, it's interesting because Pat, you had said something early on about how like this, I don't, you know, that, that it was like pretty simple, but like,

I think this sort of just goes to show how you can have a very simple story about a girl who goes on a little fairy tale adventure, but it also can be packed...

uh with you know depth and stuff right so we have all of these different messagings and everything that we can we can take take from it and pete let's circle back to you for your own question my own question yes yeah because i like what everybody said is like those things are there and prevalent in the story what i took away from it on my eighth time watching it was more of like

the spirit of being like a child, uh, seeing like through the eyes of Chihiro, where, uh, you mentioned it with like people losing their minds over gold and the, the, the necessity of getting money. And Chihiro is just like, but I care about my friends and my family more than getting a bunch of loot. Like,

I thought like that was like really prevalent with like, cause when you're a kid, you don't, I mean, you may understand what money is, but you don't understand like the importance of it. And sort of like the whole idea of adulthood of Chihiro in order to advance, I'm going to put this in quotation marks, advance inside the bathhouse. She had to get a job, uh,

And I feel like that's like a lot with like adulting where it's like, if you want to be an adult, you got to get a job, you got to get a career or something like that. And so like what I took away from it this time was more of like just the overall childhood spirit of being somebody that age is just like, it's just so pure. It's like, it's like you see like the comparisons of like the river spirits being polluted. And then in this world, they're like the stink, whatever they were, the stink spirits.

And that's from like being, having toxic things happen in your life over time, they grow and you become that. But with Chihiro at her age, it's just like, she's just so pure. And like, that's the driving force of being a child. And like, she saw what's important.

in the story. So she's able to cleanse that, right? Like she's able to do this task that they sort of set her up with to be mean. And then it's like a, yeah. And then, and then how do they like, like fix the issue with the stink is they all work together to pull out the, the thorn. And it's just like, it's, it's like little things like that where, uh,

if i don't know it's just like chihiro like really resonated with me this time around like when i was like trying to focus through her eyes it's like okay i see a different side of the story that i didn't see the other times which makes me kind of want to like if i ever re-watch again try to even though like she's clearly the main character it's hard to view the lens through another character but it would be fun to like try to like dissect that and that's kind of like what i took away from the story itself and just it's just really enjoyable

I have a question for you, if you don't mind, and anyone else can chime in too, but Pat's sort of the one who I sort of associate this more with, like having an issue with some of the elements that are in this story, because this, like a lot of the Ghibli films, is very fairytale-esque. And in that nature, there are a lot of plot contrivances, I guess, where...

uh you know she she's like oh like what's what's this what about this thing and like haku is like oh don't worry when you were while i was off screen i cast a spell and now that thing's good and now we can go home you know it's just sort of like yeah and let me cast my spell so that your stomach or your legs work again by the way that for whatever reason stopped work yeah there's a lot of that going on but that's like

It's a kid's movie, so, you know, like... Yeah, I guess that's what I was wondering about. Because, like, to me, if you have this sort of, like, fairy tale structure, that's just sort of, like, part of how these types of stories are told. You know what I mean? Like, the plot and, like, the mechanics of it are secondary to...

The magic of the world, you know what I mean? But I know sometimes you get hung up on things like that. And so I was just wondering how you dealt with that and

I feel like Jay could talk about how he really liked the relatively soft magic in this new world. I don't even think it's soft magic. I think this world just uses dream logic. Yeah, that's fair. I was about to say, I agree with that entirely. I mean, obviously, it felt like a dream, so it wasn't as noticeable. And again, like I just said, kids movie didn't bother me nearly as much. I...

I did, or like I noticed it, but I'd just be like, eh, whatever, you know, like just keep it moving. It doesn't matter, which maybe that's character growth for me, but who knows? You're going through your own Chihiro arc. Yeah. Even Chihiro thought it was a dream. Like she, right. She thought she was in a dream. Yeah. And I can't blame her because there's a lot of weird shit happening. One thing that I was annoyed by that, unless I missed it, I didn't like that.

She apparently knew Haku or fell in his river once back in the day. And that's how she remembers him or whatever. He remembers her or the other way around. I thought she remembers him too. At the end. Oh, at the end. Yes. Yeah. He's like, I'm this river. She's like, oh, I remember this river. That's you.

I remember you because yeah. And you don't forget anybody. You just, it just takes a while to remember them or whatever, according to Haku or who was it, or was it the grandmother who said that either way, like the whole point at the end there, I was kind of like, so you didn't show us that, or you just expect us like, you know, you just expect us to believe it, but kinda, you know, like we just have to take it for face value because they just say it to us. And I was kind of like,

about that because that's a pretty pivotal moment I don't know falling into a river as a child you know what I mean like that feels a little hard to it was already a pretty long movie yeah it was okay maybe when they're driving along the mom can mention oh well

We're staying away from that place. Don't worry. You know, we're still here. She's going to stay away from that mall where you almost drowned. But you know, like, like that's what I'm just like,

It was just a weird thing to just retcon in that, oh, by the way, they know each other or met, which, of course, that's a very quoted. I guess like I like is very like at the beginning. He's like, I know who you are. Right. Yeah. That like when they first meet. So I don't really view it as retconned.

As much as, like, we now know why he's, like, a nature spirit. And she used to be more connected to nature. And now she, like, is again. Maybe a retcon might be the wrong word. But, like, yeah. Like, I just was like, okay, cool. He knows her. But how did he know her? And I guess that explains how we knew her. But I was just kind of like, eh. You know, about that. I didn't, like, destroy the movie for me or anything. I just...

to answer your very specific question that was targeted to me to get everyone mad at me. Uh, you know, I, you know, yeah, I thought that was weird. I thought some of the spirits, uh, why does she leave the door open for a spooky ghost? I guess she's just a naive child. I don't know. Yeah. I believe that honestly to her, everyone there is a spooky ghost. It's like, she was just like, I thought that was normal. Yeah. Fair enough. And,

And like, yeah, there's just a lot of, it's very clearly like, yeah, a dreamlike place. So the, the most of that is very easy to look past. I did not like Kamaji or the, the Cole, the Cole daddy. He was, I don't like, I don't like when humanoids have multiple arms. I find it very, very, very off putting work, man. Pat, you have multiple arms. You know what? You,

You've got me there. You've got me there. I'm about to go and take Pat's fucking arm. I'm on my way over. I'm taking that shit. Multiple sets of arms. Tatum's fucking Achilles tendon. Yeah, too soon. You wanted to hate on the Canadians that

You know what? All three Canadians who listen to us, they're cheering for me right now. No, they're not because no one likes the Maple Leafs. They're rooting for me, I think. The Leafs! We know so many people from Toronto. See, I even say it right. Toronto. Yeah, they don't like the Maple Leafs there. Leave a comment if you care about hockey. Um...

spoiler alert i guess no shit i think every canadian in our discord doesn't even watch hockey nope i don't think so am i more canadian than zig

I think so. I'll start a poll. Minnesota is pretty Canadian. Yeah. Yeah. As far as states go, they might even be the most Canadian. It's up there. Maine's pretty up there. Like Michigan. I mean, come on. That's like backwards. Maybe the UP, but not the mainland. Yeah, UP maybe. Technically, southwestern Louisiana. Cajuns are literally from. That's so true. Good point. Quebec doesn't count.

Quebec is not in Canada. They're from Nova Scotia. That's close to the Quebec, right?

No, it's much further east, right? Damn it. I mean, you know, cosmically, yes. It's more or less the same spot. It's all relative, right? Yeah. They're right next to each other. We just keep zooming out the map. They're right next to each other. Atlanta is closer to Toronto or the Canadian border than it is to Miami.

So basically, people in Atlanta are closer to being Canadians than they are. That's insane. If that's true, I hate people. It's sort of like the the Africa thing where it's like every 60 seconds a minute passes in Africa. No, it's something about like how because of the curvature of the earth, like Florida is like closer to like one of the coasts of Africa than Canada.

you know like boston or something i don't know maine is the closest state to africa okay maybe that's what i was trying to remember isn't that cool nothing about florida yeah geography podcast hey guys what is the furthest east and west state in the united states alaska um banger

okay uh i don't even remember what we're talking about check out manga melee uh for orb episodes and you can learn about the curvature of the earth in those probably um miles yeah pete yes you had thoughts about what we were talking about before that tangent you don't remember that i i did have thoughts

Now I don't know where they went. Okay, this is good. This is the theme here, right? This amnesia that these people have. They cannot remember who they are. I'm liking what you're bringing to the table, Pete. That was funny because we were just talking about this pre-recording how I can't remember shit at all. And I was like, I can't remember what I was thinking. The only thing I could remember was like,

We made a point, I want to circle back real quick, about the dream magic and the logic with that. And whenever we talk about Shonen and Saiten and whatever, it's like the demographics. Oh yeah, these are meant for 12 to 14 year old boys. But sometimes there's material in them that would probably say it's not for them. There is nobody more...

profile then Hayao Miyazaki specifically making his creations for children like he is not thinking of their parents the he is not thinking about anybody else in mind except making them for kids so when I give a pass to like some logic in it Miyazaki gets it every time because it is specifically made for 10 year olds so I wanted to make that that note and

And then, yeah, I don't know. Other than that, I don't remember what we were talking about beforehand. That's about what we were talking about. That's good. I guess what I would say that, I mean, I do agree with that. This is like 100% for children, but I think that

I mean, you just watched for your eighth time and took some new stuff out of it, right? Like, I do think it has in the same way that like good Pixar movies would or whatever. There's like, yeah, the themes and stuff that like parents or whoever can enjoy from watching these and like the sense of wonder and magic is is something that anyone can enjoy sort of at any age, you know? I don't know because I view something that's like just made for children is like

Like, Cooper's been watching a lot of Mickey Roadster racers lately, okay? Can he even drive yet? Does he swerve? Bend that corner low? Can he drive? Okay, so his godfather, my best friend, Derek... It's a yes or no question. Yes. Oh. Wow. If I had to choose one... I was going to call him a fucking poser. Yeah, no, he has like a bluey power wheel.

thing or whatever they are like Louie and like so he like drives around on that but he hasn't figured out how turning works so he picks it up and turns it himself um Fred Flintstone's a god yeah um so he can drive in a straight line um in his little school little

bluey car. Anyways, Mickey Roadster Racers, 100% made for kids and only kids. And there's nothing you can take out of it, really. Whereas something like this, I think, is meant for kids, but then so well-crafted, right? That anyone can appreciate it. Which I think is a valuable thing, right? I think it shows...

That, you know, and not that everything meant for kids needs to be like a fucking masterpiece, like Spirited Away or whatever, but like it shows that that is possible, right? Like that is what you can achieve when you're making a movie for children. So like what's that movie Inside Out, right? Yeah, that's an example. Toy Story, right? Like any of those things. Lion King. There's a bunch of them.

I wouldn't know. I haven't seen the Lion King. Damn. That's crazy. Do we have anything else to talk about on this subject? No. Do you have another? Anyone else have another topic?

They want to get to I was wondering if anyone dived into like the folklore and anything like that with that within the story because I thought it was really interesting that every character like every non-human character is based off some form of folklore except for no face that Miyazaki created no face which I thought that was crazy.

Yeah, but it's like I thought it was really cool to see like you Baba is a Slavic folklore. Kamaji is Slavic folklore. What about Lynn?

Lynn is so non-humans. I thought she wasn't a human. It's up for debate if she's human or a spirit from what I understand. Because like what I took away from Lynn was she made a comment about how people can smell humans. But like, you know, after a week or two, you won't be able to smell her anymore. That's why I feel like Lynn is where like she doesn't smell like a human anymore. So people like don't smell her. But they didn't have like the same reactions that they did with Chihiro.

And that's sort of what I took away from it. But I don't know. I thought it was really cool that like they took all these different like folklore. We mentioned it earlier about the bathhouse and that's a Shinto reference with all the spirits, I guess, in Shinto folklore.

the the main person in the shinto religion after he escaped hell essentially purified himself in water and so that's what the spirits do because there's a bunch of other different shinto references throughout the story but i guess do you guys check out any of the folklore any of the stories was that cool was it not cool what are you guys thoughts on that i'm doing it right now okay lynn is apparently a slug woman and i'll get back to you on what that means is she single

Yeah, it says she's also, wait, ready to mingle? Yo!

I'll go to her because she's a slug woman, so I'll take her a while to come. Well, actually, she is not. A lot of the other women are. She is a spirit of the White Fox, apparently. Let me look at the source for this. Interesting. Okay. And some people describe me, actually. So she's the spirit of... Wait, no. Steins Gate wasn't... It was Cloverworks, right? Or was it White Fox? Which one was it? White Fox. I'm joking. Yeah.

Yeah, so this is sourced from the Art of Spirit Away, page 120, so I guess we believe that. I like Yubaba having a bird that had her head. I think that if I was rich, I would also invest in that. That form of her is also Slavic folklore. That makes sense. That's a very Russian-esque creature to have, is like an old lady with a bird body. Yes, that's...

i mean that makes sense though because how's moving castle is also based off of baba yaga's hut yes there's a character named um and like baba yaga in a different ghibli film yeah and i mean obviously you baba and her sister look exactly like the old lady yeah 100 percent

I noticed that too. I was like, wait, why am I associating them together? And then I was like, oh, because they look almost the same. So there you go. So No-Face, apparently, according to at least this Mal character description, his mask, movement, and names share many similarities with the Japanese Noh Theater, N-O-H Theater, which it seems very similar to Rakugo, this character.

Like, whatever no is. I haven't done much reading on it yet, but I'm probably going to after this because it sounds very interesting. Buddhist themes. Interesting. And Shinto, too, apparently.

Yeah, I definitely see that. If our listeners were to... If you look up Noh Theater, you can see the masks, which are similar to the face of Noh Face, which I guess makes sense, right? He has the... And then, actually, his name in Japanese is Noh Face. So there we go. I thought there might have been...

uh the word for mask because that's cock out but it doesn't i never noticed his little invisible legs when he's moving yeah and the past times i watched it actually that was so fucking creepy actually when i saw it oh it has legs yeah um just real quick for a plug

There's a YouTuber named Storydive who does, he did like a great, he did this for Princess Mononoke as well. He does great videos on breaking down symbolism and folklore in anime. And if that's something you're interested in, definitely check out Storydive. Cool. No Face was voiced by Bob Bergen. What a name. Do you have more examples that you looked up that you thought were interesting? I thought it was interesting that literally every single character is from

either Shinto, the religion, Japanese folklore, or some version of folklore, except for no face and the human characters, essentially. We found out that Lin is actually spirit. So I just, I think it's super interesting when you go out of your way to create characters like this, this cast is humongous, like all the different people walking around the

the back house those are all different like folklores from different regions i just think it's like the same thing when i compare it to like neon genesis or something where if you want to just watch it on the surface level this movie is great if you want to deep dive into some of the things that the story does

it's all there for you to find these, the stuff it's hard because Miyazaki never confirms like his, you know, like what he does. Cause like every movie that he does has like airplanes in it or something like that. But he'll never say that he purposely puts airplanes in movies type of thing. This is like the same thing where like he'll hint that,

at stuff and he'll do it all the time in his movies but he'll never publicly say like this is true so like i said before if you go watch story dive he does like this breakdown of like all like he probably does like 20 different folklores are in spirited away and i just think that's awesome i just yeah i'm like that shit looking through like the cast and there's just so many things that like i just

You know, you watch it, but you, like, sort of forget all the little things that are in, like, one or two scenes. Like, those three head guys and stuff. And, like, that big baby has to be from something. Like, that's a big point, right? Like, the large baby. Like, he's not a small thing, but, like, I bet that's from something. And he just had the word for increase on his chest, which is kind of fun. Just...

but yeah there's a lot of really neat things there and it's something that you can definitely like really get into and like learn all the folklore and I think what's useful about that is if you watch a lot of anime it'll it'll help you understand other things like you know how often does like red oni blue oni come up right like it's like a Japanese folklore story and like yeah yeah you know so like this helps you expand to be able to

learn, you know, what their equivalent of like Bigfoot or the Jersey devil is or whatever. Yeah. There might be people on the pockets. I don't know. Red Oni, Blue Oni. And I'm pretty sure we've talked about it on watch club. He doesn't know about red or blue Oni. I know it. Okay. Just check.

Okay. Darling in the Franks too. Yeah, I'm not saying Dave's. I was just like surprised. I was like, well, there's two other people other than the people that you're talking to, the person you're talking to right now. And like we reviewed Darling in the Franks together. Did we not? I don't remember. Did we? Yeah.

And maybe I thought we did. We watched some anime. It wasn't darling and Frank's cause I've never watched that garbage and I never will. Um, that just goes into red Oni blue Oni. Like we watched it at watch club. I don't remember which one. Yeah. I was like, there was like a diagram. Yeah. And it was like, Oh wait, now there's two blue Onis or something. I anyways, what fucking was that?

Oh, they're yelling at us in the comments right now. I'm yelling at me. Please comment below. Yell at Pete in the comments. What piece of food looks the tastiest to you? Great question. I don't understand. You know what my biggest personal flaw is? That I don't think anime food looks good. Wow.

rage bait twitter account i'm upset oh my god yo that's no i get it short right there let's go miles making content for me i also i guess the chicken the chicken looked good i got miles that's insane take you don't think the anime food looks good no i think it looks like drawings of food do you think normal food looks good yes okay i eat normal food

only if caleb reminds you to eat that's so true he needs coop to taste it for him first just in case i eat food under the guidance of my wife he's small so the poison will kick in quick that's why he's such a good tester it's metabolically efficient yeah um and if anyone is wondering um

I don't do that to my son. I do do that to my wife. Was it Helsing that had the blue? No, it was way before it was. Devil may cry. I don't fucking. We did it. I know it happened. That's all I know. When it happened, no idea. My head wants to say the one with the Nazi in it.

um you gotta narrow that down the literal nazi um tanya because no no no she's not literally a nazi this person comes in in a plane and is literally a nazi attack um there's also a samurai in it um drifters is it drifters is that what it is that sounds like the one i'm thinking of okay

jesus is in it and hitler is in it that's it that's the drifters we got there i don't want to say but i think that's wrong i also think that's wrong but we got there oh you might like drifters jay have you not watched it yeah you would like it it's pretty cool yeah it feels like you would enjoy it it kind of reminds me it's not as good so i'm not directly comparing it but it it has the same sort of

energy as um the hokkaido show that you hold in kamui yes oh you're talking about hokkaido gals i was also like hokkaido gals yeah like what yeah hokkaido gals are there's a large breasted woman there's a lot of guy

I think Golden Kamuy is a little better than Drifters. I did not like it as much. I made that very clear. But I do think I can see the comparison. I could see Jay enjoying it more than I do. I did not like Drifters and I did like Golden Kamuy, but I think Jay might like it. Yes, exactly.

What show was it? God damn it. I'm still looking. I'm still looking. I'm looking through every anime that has Red Oni, Blue Oni on TV Tropes. Was it Kill la Kill?

I don't remember that great audio content. I know. Well, look, Trent's going to have to murder this entire section, but we need to figure this out. Is it Uma Musume? No. Okay. See, that was funny, Pat. Trent has to keep the same. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. He can cut out some of the dead space. Yeah, some of the dead space or whatever. Oh, my God. Three, zero. No. It's going to drive me insane. I know.

Because there's like a lot of things that have like, okay, like Oscar and Ray, right? They do the thing, but it doesn't have the literal diagram.

Or it doesn't get explained in the show directly. It's just used for theming. In my head, I remember a diagram. I remember a little blue devil and a little red devil. Is it Sugar Apple Fairy Tale? No. Are you sure? We just watched that. Yeah. I know. I thought that that's one of the... Whatever I am remembering is from like...

four years ago i think we're what's the like mandela affecting ourselves now yeah maybe we did i just like create a shared memory amongst all of us we must have not me i don't remember it at all well yeah but it could have been pre j factor yeah a cursed time yes a dark time for in all of our lives really uh do you want to get the final thoughts yeah i guess so yeah damn it this is so yeah i'm

Let us know in the comments if you've watched any shows that did the red Oni, blue Oni, and just list them. And then maybe we've watched it, and then we can put the pieces together. But until then, let's talk about our final thoughts on Spirited Away. Yeah, let's get to closing thoughts, boys. Miles, what are your closing thoughts on Spirited Away and your final score? I enjoyed Spirited Away. I think it is very...

Yeah, charming. I think that it is very well made. I think Pete did a really good job of like looking into this stuff and having good like showing, you know, all the different themes and stuff we can have and all the different ways that you can.

all the different things you can like take out of it and how much like attention to detail is put into the show or the movie. There's a lot of things, you know, that I'm sure we've all missed, right? It's like when you have this like meticulously handcrafted animation with all these background characters and set pieces and stuff, you know, who knows if like the random clock on the background of the grandma's wall has some sort of significance. You know what I mean? Like it very well could. That's the type of show that we're, we're looking at here.

I had a, I, you know, I, I think it's a, you know, the quintessential anime movie for a reason. I think that there's a reason people who don't watch any other anime love Ghibli films, right? Like, I think it is just something that is for everyone, right? And it's,

message of you know sort of trying to like tone down your materialism in your life and the importance of nature and all of that is something that everyone who is in a fucking monster can appreciate to some level you know so I really enjoyed this for me this is a 9 out of 10 and I had a good time 9 out of 10 alrighty Jay what about you

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly with Miles. I think that this is a banger through and through. It's a masterwork of animation and storytelling. The OST is really good as well, something I can really appreciate. I loved just seeing the beautiful background landscapes that they had for a lot of stuff. I think that the flooded railroad track is perhaps the vibiest place that has ever existed before.

In anime, like it reminds me of like Minecraft or something in terms of how vibey it is, which is like a high compliment for me.

I think the character work in this is done really well. Like I said earlier, this is something that you can show to the whole family and everybody will get something out of it. I watched this movie for this review with somebody who had never seen it before, and they absolutely loved it, even though they're not a huge anime person. They still got quite a bit out of it. It's something that, like Pete said...

You can get something new out of it every single time you watched it, and there is a lot to dig into in terms of folklore and stuff like that in this.

But I also think that if you just want to have this as like a comfort movie that you watch because it's so magical and dreamy, sort of like, you know, never-ending story or something like that, I think that that's perfectly fine too. You can take as much or as little from this movie as you want to, and I think that it really showcases the beauty of animation as a medium through that. So, I mean, all that to say that for me, this is a 10 out of 10.

10 out of 10. All right, Pete, what about you? I mean, I've watched this movie eight times for a reason. One of the best just crafted films I've ever seen. Just the amount of detail that was it? Oh, no, no, no. It's seven, huh? Seven. Yeah. Yeah. Seven times. Something else. Loved it. Just every time I watch it, I just re fall in love with this. And yeah,

I think like one thing with like Ghibli films is I think we mentioned earlier is like sometimes it can feel a little samey, but so can what or what's his name? Who's the guy that did your name? Watanabe? Oh, the guy who makes the same movie every time. Yeah. Chikoro, Makoto, Makoto Shinkai. Yeah. We're like Makoto Shinkai films are like all very samey. Don't care. Love them. I don't get like if you're good at something, I don't do it a hundred times. As long as it's like how I really like flow right as one song.

Oh, yes. Whistle? Mr. Ryda. I was going to say, well, the joke was that they're all the same songs. Yeah. I feel you. But just like so well animated. It's crazy that Hiro's English voice actress, this is her only role. I thought, I mean, I guess she did when she was younger and she probably grew up, but like she is super talented in this role. Like

I don't know when I watch some sometimes and when you hear characters that are like children, they're like, as you see their voice actresses and they're like, you know, grown women, like I can kind of get that vibe. I really liked her performance. So I want to give a shout to her voice actress. Absolutely killed it. This movie is incredible. I love it. My favorite.

Ghibli film. It's probably top four or five anime films, period. I would have to think, but I mean, I would put this on, you know, perfect blue. What other incredible movies have I seen? This is going really look back. Josie, the tiger and the fish.

other uh millennium actress i'd put them all on the same level this is a 10 out of 10 for me i absolutely just adore this film okay we're not giving this actress credit okay she also voiced lilo in lilo and stitch oh shit let's go yeah i thought she sounded pretty familiar her only and she's anime voice actress role sorry she's the younger sister and donnie darko

never seen it but i know a lot of people tells them to suck a fuck yeah maybe i don't know she's samantha darko well she's great i'm a fan okay um oh and she's the child antagonist in the horror film the ring oh it's just a mirror he's putting up numbers

samara i can't remember which one yeah she probably hasn't been anything recently because she made a whole fuck ton of money on an island my bad i wasn't this is literally the shack i wasn't familiar with your game meme broke boys don't ever pretend that you know me i apologize if you're listening uh davy chase her name is all right good for her

Don't you give it a 10? Yeah, I don't know. I think she probably made a lot of money being Lilo and multiple projects for Disney. Right. That's what I would think too. I wouldn't think that she got a lot for this just knowing how horribly. No, but like good for her. I like to just have those two roles and kind of just go. Also technically a Disney role. So shout out HBO Max. No, no.

Disney too, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was kind of the joke. See, I can, I I'll make that joke. Disney pictures. So, yeah. Alrighty. My closing thoughts. I didn't really have much more to say. I think I, I,

Still want to know what other show does the blue giant thing or the red and the blue giant thing. But I am very, very glad I finally watched this movie. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed our discussion around it. Even if we got sidetracked, I think that

adding some more context to some of the different spirits and answering any general questions or thoughts I had about this. I feel a lot better about it. Uh, so I think I'm, I am going to bump my score up to a nine out of 10. I mean, I was pretty confident I would, uh, knowing that everyone else was going to also like it and be able to tell me what I missed that I, that I should have liked. And we got there. So, uh, so yeah, good. Good. Ghibli. Good. Ghibli. Good. Uh,

We end up with a total aggregate score of a 38, which means our average score for this Spirited Away is a 9.5, which is much higher than the MAL score of 8.77. I guess that's the law of averages, though, of course. But yeah, I guess that wraps up our Watch Club for Spirited Away and Miles.

You never sent me any updated voting, but what are we watching? I just got one. Cat voted. It changes nothing. Well, it gets one extra show up. And just so we don't pass it over, I'm pretty sure this is our second highest rate show of all time, though, or tied. It is tied with Girls' Bank. Hell yeah. That's what's up. What if Nina went to this world? Yo, that would be nuts. That would be... That is a crossover we need. Have, like, the other girls as spirits. Yeah, that's...

That would be so fun. Okay. We have a tie for third place with Magi Sinbad Show and Interspecies Reviewers. In second place, we have Scum's Wish. And in first place, Aka13. Let's go, baby! Yes, Aka13.

Uh, I have no background on this. A show everybody's heard of before. Yeah. I was about to say, I have. Yeah. I asked Pete to sell it for me during voting and he was like, oh, it's a mystery. And I was like, oh, well, I'd probably like that. Yeah. This was one of the show. I asked people what they thought, like their underrated shows, under watch shows were. And somebody, two people actually mentioned Aka 13. So I threw it up on a wheel and that was the show that won the wheel.

but on the initial you do yeah it's like adult cast mystery done by madhouse like i that seems like a winner to me even though they are currently doing an adult cast mystery show right now and it's really bad so is it the dinner table yeah that's not good it's not good i was so high on that show

It is real bad. You know, a show I was high on going into the season apocalypse hotel. You were right. Wow. Crazy. It's like my either number one or two show of the year. It is fucking incredible. Discord isn't letting me unpin a message. I've never seen that. You're not a mod anymore.

I'm kidding. I was like, what? This is how you find it. I'll also make a joke, but okay, I'm not going to do that. I was just like, oh no. Well, shit. I don't know what's going on. The look on your face was incredible. Go back and watch that. What's that? Not pog champ. Shocked. What's the shocked pog? Spranker Z.

frank is the ear monk ass maybe i don't know no no franker sees a dog monk monk ass is the one i'm thinking of yeah that was a very monk ass moment pete thanks buddy uh no uh but yeah what shows are we nominating miles what have you got for watch club two weeks from now jay are you nominating uh interspecies is cat trying to nominate it he never messaged me what i told him to

That kid. Are you going to nominate if I don't? No, I'm deciding if I'm going to nominate Scum's Wish because anytime anyone nominates Interspecies reviewers, I specifically will attempt to punish Cap. Okay, yeah, I'm nominating Interspecies. Okay, then I'll also nominate Scum's Wish. Yeah, cool.

very fun all right well so we got two of them done pete what have you got there's show let's do a movie i'm going to nominate the movie mind game oh nice mind game yes interesting that's um tone dog yeah it's the tone dog well no it's a you've you've nominated it before right i don't think i've done mind game i think i did dead leaves i want to say maybe something like that something that looks like mind game

I think I nominated Dead Leaves once. Guys, if Interspecies wins, what should I do on my week off? I can't say it on the pod. Spend some time with Jay. Fortunately, the time is... I won't be watching Interspecies for years. I'm unfortunately trying to not watch that during that. Mind games. Just mind game. Just mind game. One game. Singular game.

Okay, yeah, you've nominated this before. Have I? Alright. Or maybe someone got it for... It's on my plan to watch, so maybe I didn't hear it. We're a very organized group. We had spreadsheets where we used them. Well, I've started collating who nominates what and when and stuff, but like all of my stats, they have a time that is not the beginning of when we started doing this that they start. That's why I appreciate about you.

Love Letter Kenny. Good reference. Thanks. So by the time we watch whatever show we nominate, it would be the 17th of June. Will Lazarus be done airing by then? Do we think? No. The end of June. End of June. It's one of those. Oh, yeah. It started in April and some of those damn seasonals. No. Well, yeah.

Okay. Fair enough. You know, I thought for whatever reason it started like a month late or something, but yeah, no, it is just a seasonal. Damn. All right. I'll have to hold off. I don't shoot me though. There are some shows that start like midway through or

Right, exactly. Especially because this one was airing on like a month early sometimes too. It's like really, yeah, it's dumb. I'm excited to watch it though. So I will eventually nominate that for watch club, but not quite yet. We'll just stick with princess principle. We'll take my last place votes and take it to the ground. Please put in the effort here. Look, we're trying to not watch the hentai. Okay. We're trying to not watch this.

I have so many things on my hand to watch. It's essentially hentai. Will I be watching the hentai version of it yet? I was going to say, there's an uncensored version of the show. It's definitely hentai. Well, then you have to watch that. I can't believe it's not hentai.

All right. Fine. I'll nominate something else. No, no, I got you. I'm going to nominate a show that I think is underrated and slept on that we didn't talk a ton about. Yeah, no, thanks. Thanks. Yeah.

Stand up for yourself. Yeah. No, it's Irodoku, The World in Colors. Right on. Done by Studio PA Works. I really enjoyed this show when it came out. I think a lot of people will like it and it is absolutely gorgeous, this show. So I say it's underrated as if I didn't give it a seven, but-

I didn't really enjoy it. I really did enjoy it. I know. That's such a pat move though, right? But it is fun. I, my enjoyment of it was higher. I think people might find it boring as shit, but I also, they look like Tomozaki characters. People might find it boring as shit. You're really selling. No. Well, we wouldn't find it boring as shit. There's a lot of cool stuff going on that you just need to have a big brain like me to understand, such as giving a show that you think is underrated a seven. Um,

I, I, I, slightly under its mouse score. Right. That is a very, um, I have to say it has some pretty fuck it. I'm voting for this pretty high. It has love polygon school, whatever time travel, urban fantasy, visual arts. I'm about all of those tags. It's got witches. Uh, it's pretty cool. It's magic. Yeah. There's a little bit of magic going on. Hopefully. Have you seen our, our,

bottom tier character tomozaki kun no dude the cast looks identical they look the exact same they they do look very similar this came out first though i think did it not it did yes so maybe uh maybe served as some inspiration when the light novel came out oh the light novel came out before iruduku oh

Uh-oh, and this is an original work, so uh-oh. But yeah, it's got some fun little aspects to it, and I think it'd be a cool show to talk about, unironically, even though I say some people might find it boring. That's because there's a lot of dialogue. There's not a lot of gun-gun pew-pew.

it's, it's a lot of dialogue, very bunny girl ask in that regard, at least. But yeah, that's, that's my little pitch. And I think that that wraps up watch club. Thank you guys for listening and Pete, take it away. Yes. If you have made this far and you want to support us the best way to do so like comment, subscribe, leave a review, whatever platform you were watching or listening to us on next week, we are going to be talking the aftermath of the crunchy roll awards. Very nice of them to do their 2024 anime awards and,

in almost June. So we'll be talking that and we'll be talking a lot of soul leveling and Kaiju number eight since it was nominated for literally every award possible. Not literally, but I voted solo leveling for best romance. So

I didn't meet myself in time, so you guys get a sneeze at the end. I tried. I really did try to meet my mic and I missed. We saw him go for it. That's so good. Anyway, otherwise,

Otherwise, if you're here for one, you're like the Leafs. You're like the Maple Leafs. That's what's going on. Yeah. How did Boston do this year? How did they make the playoffs? We rebuilt. We rebuilt. Oh, yeah. How's Tams Achilles doing? Oh, that's what I thought. Yeah. It's in the process of healing better than it was weeks ago. Boston sports in the drain. Otherwise. Weeks ago, Pat. That happened like seven days ago. It's because he's wearing those Tim. Okay. Let me finish this. I got to go watch my basketball game. If you made this. Yeah.

In two weeks we'll be watching Aqua 13. Thanks, so we'll see you next time. Peace. Bye-bye!