A wonderful masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (5 April 2014)

This show is very beautiful in both its art style and its story. I love Miyazaki's work and this was one of the very first I watched. The storyline feels as though it is a tale of growing up, facing your fears and learning how to take care of yourself. We start out with a girl sheltered by her parents slightly who doesn't want to move. She's grumpy, thinking that no one cares about her own feelings about the move and has some fears about going to a new place. Because of her father's stupidity (in a sense), they end up at an old abandoned gate in the middle of nowhere and go on in. Turns out this place is a gateway to the spiritual world and the family is swept away into a rather enchanting world where only Chihiro will remember. She is separated from her parents, forced to work in a bathhouse and learn what her own strength is.
In one of the reviewer's videos that I watch sometimes, JesuOtaku brought up the idea of the value of ones name. It is shown in many anime like xxxHOLiC and most importantly here. Chihiro's name is pretty much taken from her and she tries hard to remember it as the story goes on. There is a belief that your name is what makes you and weather you believe it or not, it's a belief I have. My real name is different then my name online and if anyone knew me in the real world, I am a little different then I am online. It is the thought that people do not know who exactly you are and as Chihiro seems to find out, she is a different person as Sen. She is a bathhouse attendant as Sen instead of the child Chihiro. When she becomes Chihiro again, she never really stops being Sen, showing the strength that she gained from her other side. It's a little heard to understand but I believe that we all have different personalities, though it depends on who we are around. When we are with friends, we are much different then when we are with family. When we are with older people like grandparent age, we are different then when we are with children. If you look at it this way, Sen was someone already within Chihiro. It just needed different people to show that it was there.
The artwork is astounding and you can really feel the love and attention that was given to this show. Even the detail of Chihiro putting her shoe on is done down to the small taps to make sure it's on well enough. When people say how beautiful this movie is, they don't exaggerate. I actually couldn't find any problems with it in consistencies or loops. It is what it is and its nothing more or less then what you would expect in a well made film. The character designs feel like they are out of a Japanese picture of demons but scaled back slightly for the children as none of the monsters have blood dripping from their fangs or wanting to kill anyone.
The voices are wonderful except for Chihiro, she just sounds a bit too whiny even when she grows up a little. She yells a lot and it pretty much throws me off when she is supposed to be gentler and thought full. I actually love how Haku sounds pretty young and gentle instead of harsh. Again, all the voices are the dubbed version since I have not seen the sub but they were still exceptional.