Ugh. Is it just me or did this film make no sense at all?

Rating: 4/10 (15 June 2003)

I might have a thing with anime. I have never understood / appreciated it. Ghost in the Shell, Akira, and now this movie... I can't seem to like it.
As a matter of fact, I find the movies visually stunning - for a framed portrait, that is. Try to make the elements move, and you are greeted with the worst animation since "Speed Racer". It's a jarring thing, watching smooth CGI against badly animated characters and elements. That's something I'm willing to ignore - IF the story is compelling, that is.
Akira and this movie (and Ghost, to a lesser extent) share a terrible characteristic: they both can't make themselves tell a story with any consistency whatsoever. As in Akira, where the filmmakers were unsuccesful trying to tell a multi-volume story in 2+ hours, it seems Spirited Away tries to hard to tell a deep story - one that has so many dead ends you end up thinking either every small story is a metaphor about something the filmmakers didn't feel the need to tell you, or that this movie is just a collection of beautiful sketches.
As an example - why did Sen parents were turned into pigs? And why was she able to find them at the end of the movie? Why didn't she try earlier to do so? Why did Haku try to attack Sen? What was the importance of Sen knowing Haku from before? Why did Sen thought it was a good idea to return the seal to the witch' sister? And why was No-Face introduced as a character when he didn't add anything to the story? and...
Maybe it's just me, and the story does make sense once you think of it, or get to know the rest of the directors' output. As it is, I find it hard to understand just what the movie was all about.
Which is sad, since, in a way, I was really expecting to like this movie.