Chihiro Ogino

**Chihiro Ogino**, also known as **Sen**, is the main protagonist of the *Spirited Away* anime film.

Chihiro is a young girl moving with her parents to a new home and not too happy about that fact, having to leave behind her friends. On the way to their new home, she and her parents explore an abandoned park and she’s accidentally trapped in the spirit world, only just able to survive by working in the amusement park’s spirit bathhouse with the aid of benevolent spirits like Haku and Lin.

In the AWA fics, Chihiro is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Chihiro/Sen is a 10 year old who has chocolate brown hair, brown eyes, and rosy cheeks. She is very petite and has a childish appearance, and a quite-pudgy face. Her attire includes a white medium-sleeved T-shirt with bright green stripes, bright red shorts, white socks and sunshine yellow sneakers. While working in the bath house, she is barefoot and wears a bright light red and white work uniform with a tasuki cord for tying her sleeves up.

## **Personality**

Chihiro's growth into a capable individual is a core factor to the movement of Spirited Away's plot. During her adventure in the Spirit World, she matures from an easily-scared girl with a child-like personality to match her age to a hard-working, responsible, and brave young girl who has learned to put her fears aside for those she cares for. To protect her friends and rescue her parents from a spell that has turned them into livestock, Chihiro sheds her former personality and adapts to her environment to become a courageous, quick-witted and reliable girl.

The strength of her bond with Haku as the story progresses eventually evolves into a very sincere form of love that dispelled Yubaba and Zeniba's respective curses on Haku.

## **Trivia**

* The name **Chihiro** means "thousand" (**chi**) and "search, seek" (**hiro**).
	+ Part of the name **Chi** (in **Chi**hiro) and **Sen** both use the same Japanese kanji, which means '1,000', but are different readings of the same character.
* Chihiro's surname **Ogino**means "reed, rush" (**ogi**) and "field, wilderness" (**no**).
	+ In some countries, Chihiro's surname **Ogino** was changed to **Senko**, so that viewers who do not have a deeper knowledge about the Japanese language wouldn't be confused when her name in the bathhouse was changed to "Sen".
* In an interview regarding Chihiro's character design, Hayao Miyazaki informs the audience that "[He] created a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathize. It's not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances. [He] wants [his] young friends to live like that, and [he] thinks they, too, have such a wish."
	+ Chihiro was based on a ten-year-old girl: the daughter of a friend of Miyazaki's. This girl also made Miyazaki continue working after promising retirement from filmmaking after *Princess Mononoke* (1997).
	+ One of the main character of Chihiro is similar to the one of the main characters of Belle from *Beauty and the Beast* (1991 Disney film) shared with the same character and design alike.