I don't get it.

Rating: Null/10 (26 October 2004)

Maybe it's just that I am not a fan of anime. I'm not saying I don't like it; I just haven't seen enough of it to make any comparisons. What follows is based on that background.
I have seen a few small anime bits in the past. The Matrix short they were doing in the theaters before movies, and the little bit in Kill Bill come to mind. Those two were incredible to me. Maybe they aren't true anime, I don't know, but they were good. The scenes were smooth, the characters were clearly done, and, while short, everything seemed to fit together well.
'Spirited Away' doesn't seem like that, to me. The drawings are good and, at times, excellent, but the rest seemed sloppy. Unique plot points and characters often seemed stretched and arbitrary, there are scenes about 'love' that don't make a heck of a lot sense, and the characters were often schizophrenic, even those that weren't supposed to be.
In short, I'm not sure why this made it to feature-length. I'm not sure why fans of anime find it so intriguing. I wouldn't watch it again unless I had to. I'm not saying that it was incredibly stinky; rather, it just isn't enough to claim the title of 'great' or even 'good'.
If you are an anime fan, check out other user comments--they might make more sense to you.