History Anime / SpiritedAway

* FoodChains: Chihiro's [[GenreBlindess parents]] wind up making a big mistake by eating food that isn't for them. Chihiro, contrarywise, must eat a morsel of the spirit world's food in order to avoid fading away.
* FoodPorn: Typical for films directed by Miyazaki; this one ''begins'' with a suspiciously delicious looking banquet waiting in the empty amusement park, which is designed to make viewers' mouths water.

** [[spoiler: The cleansed river spirit moves in a sinuous, looping way that is reminiscent of flowing water. Haku's dragon form emulates this style of movement in flight, because he himself turns out to be a river spirit as well.]]
*** [[spoiler:When the Stink Spirit first appears, Yubaba finds its behavior familiar and suspects there is more too it than it appears. She's proven correct when its MuckMonster body is revealed to be an outer-shell for a dragon-like River Spirit. This makes sense because she has encountered a very similar spirit before: Haku.]]
** Chihiro's father can be heard snorting as he eats English dub, which works as subtlety foreshadows his and Chihiro's mother's fate.

** [[spoiler: Chihiro's parents and the other humans turned into pigs. They show no sign of being anything more than mud-rolling animals after.

* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler:Haku, a river spirit, saved Chihiro when she fell into his river as a child. Chihiro remembers this as they're [[FlightOfRomance flying back to the bathhouse together near the end of the film, recovering Haku's full, true name.]]
* FrogMen: Yubaba's male servants range from somewhat froggish-looking humanoid men to complete frogs.

* {{Geas}}: Yubaba swore an oath that binds her to employ anyone who asks her for a job. She doesn't like it. And, as detailed in LoopholeAbuse below, tries to weasel her way out of hiring humans, but eventually concedes when Chihiro insists.

* GentleGiant: The Great Radish Spirit is gigantic, but also seems gentle and supportive. Even without words.

* GhostTown: At first. By day, the bath house and surrounding village look like an abandoned amusement park. The spirits appear at night.

** [[spoiler:Haku in dragon form and the purified river spirit]] are huge, serpentine dragons that can fly through the air the way fish swim through water. [[spoiler:Haku is big and strong enough carry Chihiro back to the bathhouse.]]

* GiantSpider: Kamaji's eight limbs make him reminiscent of a spider, or opilione, also known as harvestmen or daddy longlegs.

* GoldFever: All of the employees at the bathhouse go crazy trying to scoop up all the gold that No-Face drops. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, it wouldn't have been enough to cover the damages he causes, even if it hadn't been made of dirt.]]

* GrayAndGrayMorality: One of the main themes of this movie is the blurred line between good and evil. People who seem good have flaws but even Yubaba, the closest thing the film has to a villain, is just trying to seem fair and dearly loves her son, Boh.
* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: After Chihiro's parents are turned back into humans, they have absolutely no recollection of what happened and thus have no idea what their daughter went through in order to save them. Chihiro might have kept her memories and be the only one (in human world, at least) who knows the truth, and even if she does, we may safely assume that nobody is going to believe her.
* {{Greed}}: The greed for gold from the bathhouse employees caused No-Face to become consumed to eat as much as he wants. They get their comeuppance when the gold turns out to be just dirt.

** This movie has an unusually subtle one for Miyazaki: a "stink spirit" comes to visit the bathhouse, and the bathhouse workers try to turn him away because he is so rank. [[spoiler:The "stink spirit" is actually the spirit of a polluted river, and after Chihiro gives him a bath and, with others' help, de-pollutes him, Chihiro is rewarded with the medicine that later helps both Haku and No-Face.]]
** Also, the spirit of the Kohaku River ([[spoiler:Haku]]) was enslaved and forgot his identity after that river was filled in by humans.

** [[spoiler:The silent spirit No-Face is shunned by everyone else except for Chihiro, who treats him with kindness. He later begins swallowing up spirits, which bloats him into a disgustingly obese, multi-limbed creature. Only medicine from Chihiro appeases him.]]
** The Radish Spirit is a big, floppy, vaguely obscene-looking example of this trope -- as well as TheSpeechless and GentleGiant. On the other hand, he doesn't suffer the social ostracism usually associated with TheGrotesque.
* GrowingUpSucks: Subverted. Chihiro acts sulky at first, then becomes mature and resourceful as the film goes on. Or as the film goes on she is revealed to be more mature and resourceful than she appears.
* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: A non-lethal example; when Dragon Haku destroys Zeniba's enchanted shikigami, her projection cartoonishly splits in half before fading away.
-->'''Zeniba:''' Ow, a paper cut!
* HandsLookingWrong: After Chihiro has been in the spirit world too long, she starts to vanish, noticing that her hands are becoming translucent. Naturally, she starts to panic about this before Haku arrives and gives her some spirit food to insure that she won't disappear.

* HeroicBystander: Believe it or not, the Soot Spirits get to be this! When [[spoiler:Yubaba's]] cursing slug tries to escape, the little balls of soot team up to block their tunnels, keeping the creature from getting away and allowing Chihiro to kill it.
* HighPressureBlood: A small amount spouts out of the River Spirit after Sen pulls the last of the junk out of him.

** Both of Chihiro's parents, (her dad in particular,) develop ravenous appetites when they discover the food in the abandoned amusement park.
** Boh, [[spoiler:or rather the three heads transformed to look like him,]] who wolfs down chocolates.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: [[spoiler: Yubaba]] is eventually revealed to have a twin sister named [[spoiler:Zeniba]]--while look exactly alike, they are the closest things that the movie has to a BigBad and a BigGood, respectively.

** All the bathhouse workers are animal spirits. The frog spirits are particularly common, and easy to identify by their upturned lips and wide eyes.
** [[DeadpanSnarker Lin]] is a fox spirit who has a knack for getting out of trouble and nabbing food.
** Yubaba can turn into a giant corvid, a family of birds that has a reputation for being cunning, ominous omens of death and destruction. As corvids can prey on the dead, Yubaba takes advantage of people in the spirit world by stealing their names and "killing" their past selves so they can't remember who they are and thus are enslaved to her forever (unless they remember their name).

* TheAssimilator: After No-Face [[spoiler:eats a frog bathhouse worker,]] he is able to speak using the worker's voice and even gains a pair of frog legs. He later loses these attributes after [[spoiler:he river spirit's medicine causes him to barf the frog back up.]]

** Miyazaki also loves his environmental messages, and this film has two big, though subtle, examples. The first is when [[spoiler:Chihiro heals the river god after their river was heavily polluted and filled with garbage.]] The second is after [[spoiler: Chihirio remembers Haku's full name, when they both to realize he is the spirit of the Kohaku River, which had been built over years ago.]]

* BadBlackBarf: [[spoiler:No-Face]] starts coughing up and drooling black barf (among other things) after [[spoiler:Chihiro gives him medicine.]]
* BaitAndSwitch: When Chihiro's parents cross through the tunnel and come out on the other side, there is a not insignificant emphasis placed on the empty amusement park that they find there. (Mrs. Ogino explains that the park was probably made before the Japanese recession and thus quite old, but Chihiro isn't impressed because this whole place is giving her bad vibes.) However, once the plot really kicks off, the bathhouse that Chihiro stumbles upon serves as the focal point for most of the adventure.

** Both of Chihiro's parents, (her dad in particular,) develop ravenous appetites when they discover food in the abandoned amusement park--they are [[spoiler:(appropriately) transformed into pigs to represent their gluttony.]]
** Boh, [[spoiler:or rather the three heads transformed to look like him,]] eating chocolate. [[spoiler:Clearly taking advantage of their transformation.]]
** No-Face, who devours a ludicrous amount of food at the bathhouse and [[ExtremeOmnivore swallows several people whole.]] When Chihiro finally faces him, it's in a room filled to the brim with mountains of food.

** The American ending hints that [[spoiler:Chihiro ''will'' remember some of her adventure; when her father remarks starting life in a new home and school can be scary, Chihiro replies, "I think I can handle it," suggesting that she's maintaining her memories (or at least the confidence she gained from her trip to the spirit world).]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: [[spoiler:Haku due to the effects of Zeniba's curse. Makes sense given he swallowed her crest;]] Kamaji observes he is bleeding from the ''inside''.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: A given, considering the [[{{Youkai}} setting]], [[TheFairFolk of the story]]. [[spoiler:Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs for the crime of eating food intended for the gods, if that's not just the result of humans eating such food.]]

* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with [[spoiler:Chihiro clutching her mother's arm as they follow her father through the tunnel. Her mother even tells Chihiro both times to stop clutching at her--that she'll make her fall.]]

* CainAndAbel: [[spoiler: Yubaba plays the Cain to her twin-sister's Abel. [[DownplayedTrope Somewhat downplayed]] in that, while she doesn't appear to want to directly ''hurt'' her sister, Yubaba does command Haku to steal a gold seal with Zeniba's name on it in order to gain power over her. Likewise, Zeniba isn't going to just let her sister get away with the attempted theft without retribution.]]

* CatharticCrying: When Haku reunites Chihiro with her parents after their transformation, reminds her of her real name and offers her something to eat away from the bathhouse, she eats and bawls her heart out, finally getting to react to her trauma. Notably she is mentally a lot healthier and hopeful afterwards.

** The shock of entering adulthood. Chihiro is introduced dealing with moving away to a new city, a dilemma ''dwarfed'' by being alone in a hostile spirit world.

* CharacterDevelopment: Chihiro inspires this in near everyone she interacts with. Kamaji is initially brusque with her, but becomes much warmer when she proves herself to him. Lin first sees her as a burden at best, but eventually becomes very protective of her. [[spoiler:She leaves No-Face in a better place than she found him, inspires Boh to become more independent, which plants the seeds for his and Yubaba's relationship with each other to improve. In hindsight, she even seems to have this effect on Haku. When she asks Lin about him, she describes him as cold and untrustworthy; one can infer that he ''was'' like that, but meeting Chihiro inspired him to be more open.]]

* ChekhovsGunman: No-Face's first appearance is seemingly as just another "face" in a crowd of equally strange spirits. Once he's let into the bathhouse by Chihiro, he becomes a much more relevant character.
* ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive: When Haku finds Chihiro again, he keeps her from disappearing and leads her to the bathhouse so she can procure a job and avoid a terrible fate.

* ComfortFood: Onigiri is Japanese soul food; Chihiro has some and cries to decompress from her incredible hectic and hazardous introduction to the spirit realm.

* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Chihiro tells [[the unconscious spoiler:Haku]] that she is leaving for some time [[spoiler:(to return the golden seal to Zeniba)]] and that he has to get better. Later when he wakes up, he reveals to Kamaji that he heard Chihiro's voice and followed it until he woke up.
* CoolBigSis: Lin, despite her initially cold reaction to Chihiro, develops into this as she warms up to the girl.
* CounterfeitCash: Once he's inside, No-Face uses an illusion of conjured gold to pay for service in the bathhouse, having witnessed the bathhouse employees scrambling over the [[spoiler:River Spirit's]] gold. After Chihiro successfully [[spoiler: manages to get No-Face out of the bathhouse]], all of the gold No-Face gave out crumbles to dirt.
* CultureChopSuey: The [[SceneryPorn bathhouse and spirit world overflow with every imaginable cultural and aesthetic detail, from [[FeudalJapan the feudal ages]] to mid-twentieth century Japan. (With the purposeful exception of {{Samurai}} or [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan soldiers]].)
* CuteClumsyGirl: Chihiro repeatedly trips, stumbles, and crashes around the spirit world, though she gets better over time. She all but ''flies'' down the wooden staircase to the boiler room at the beginning of the film, but she later manages to run across a ''pipe'' to safety before it detaches from the building almost under her feet.

* DarkIsNotEvil: Quite a few spirits are friendly to Chihiro initially--most notably Haku, Lin and Kamaji--but a few others warm up to her and start to like her over the course of the film.

* DirectionlessDriver: Chihiro's father loses his way, which is what brings the family to the derelict amusement park.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Chihiro's parents eat food that's left out in the open in unattended booths (that look just like food service stalls) and are fully willing to pay for it if an owner appears. So naturally they deserve to be turned into pigs, right? (Of course, Humans might consider it Disproportionate Retribution, but seeing as this is a common theme in stories among [[TheFairFolk fairies and spirits]], such beings [[BlueAndOrangeMorality usually do not. If it wasn't a [[FoodChains trap]] in the first place]].)
* TheDissenterIsAlwaysRight: Chihiro and her parents come across an abandoned amusement park. In that park, there's a spread of freshly made food that smells so delicious that the parents start digging in. Chihiro protests that they shouldn't because they might get in trouble, but they don't pay her any mind and continue eating. [[KarmicTransformation This turns them into pigs]] because the food wasn't meant for humans.

* DontLookBack: Chihiro is instructed not to look back [[spoiler:when leaving the Spirit World. She ''nearly'' turns when she's almost left, but with the sparkling of Zeniba's magic hairband, resists the temptation.]]

* DubSpeciesChange: The English translation of the artbook for the movie refers to Lin as a weasel spirit, when she's a fox spirit in the Japanese version.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Chihiro has to go through some significant hardship in order to stay alive and save her loved ones. Working in the bathhouse, healing Haku, and being trapped by Yubaba (among other things) shapes her into a more mature and confident person along the way. The English dub ends with her reassuring her father that she can handle school, after that adventure.
* EatenAlive: Happens to three of the bathhouse employees after No-Face goes nuts. Fortunately, Chihiro's medicine makes him cough them up. (Along with everything else he's eaten, much of which he spits up on Yubaba.)
* EccentricMentor: Yubaba's twin sister Zeniba is a friendly witch who offers some sage advice to Chihiro during her stay.
* EmotionEater: WordOfGod has stated that the reason No-Face went crazy is that he feeds on the emotions of those around him, and that their {{Greed}} corrupted him. Good thing it wasn't permanent.
* EndOfAnAge: A subtle one about cultural traditions eroding: Chihiro doesn't recognize roadside shrines or understand the traditional etiquette, and the formerly [[{{Reincarnation}} two-way]] AfterlifeExpress now goes only one direction. The [[ImageSong image album]] has the workers lament that fewer and fewer gods show up every year, as they're slowly dying out, and "there are no gods in electric things".

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: After Haku gives Chihiro the berry to stop her from disappearing and to prove that it worked, they gently touch hands. It's a fast blink-and-you-miss moment but [[TheStoic Haku's]] tender expression quickly reveals to the audience that he isn't as cold as he appears to be.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Yubaba genuinely cares about her enormous baby. She spoils him rotten and ''loses it'' when she discovers he's missing.
* EverybodyHasStandards: In the beginning, Chihiro comes across as a spoiled, bored kid who gives up easily and treats everything with pessimism. Even so, she demonstrates a rather strong sense of right when she warns her parents not to eat the food they find at the restaurant, understanding they have no right eating it.
** Later, Yubaba spitefully claims she's going to punish Chihiro for leaving her post (even under the circumstances of luring away Noh Face) by having her [[{{Pun}} piggish]] parents slaughtered and made into food. At hearing this, her employees are rather disturbed to hear she would do this. Thank goodness for Haku's bargaining chip.
* EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: Although they are initially content to sit back and watch her suffer, the denizens of the bath house band together to help Sen with the stink monster. Later, a group of characters who were all originally hostile to Sen work together to make her a protective charm.
* EvilTwin: Played with in the case of Yubaba and Zeniba. Zeniba claims that the two of them are opposites in every way. Zeniba ''did'' lay a curse on the seal Haku stole and threatens Chihiro to stay quiet, but she ultimately is a kind old woman compared to her much meaner and greedier twin.
* ExpressiveHair: Sen's hair tends to spike up whenever something startles her, or just freaks her out in general.
* ExpressiveMask: No-Face's mask to some extent; he seems to smile or frown sometimes. The artists noted that they wish they'd been able to rely on lighting a little more to set his mood instead.

** With all the explicit similarities to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', it is extremely likely that Yubaba is consciously inspired by the character of the Duchess. Both are old ladies, grotesquely deformed with gigantic heads, both mean and bad tempered and care immensely (in all the wrong ways) for a huge, spoiled baby who is actually happier to be transformed into a simpler creature. The Duchess, when first met, is grumpy and grouchy, but the second time, in the Queen of Hearts' party, she is almost uncomfortably friendly to Alice. Yubaba and Zeniba may not be the same person, but they do look the same and are exact opposites in terms of personality.
** She's also suspiciously similar to Juno from ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'': a grumpy old white woman from the spirit world who smokes a lot of cigarettes. Their voices even sound alike.
* FacialFacade: Implied with No-Face, who nominally has a white mask for a face. Given his name however (and the fact his mouth is located elsewhere) it is heavily implied the mask is just a rouse to lure in victims, and he is actually TheBlank.
* TheFairFolk: The whole film (and amusement park) is built around a traditional FairyTale portrayal of {{Youkai}}.
* FeudalJapan: Though the "human world" is set during the modern day, the spirit world has this aesthetic to it, from the clothing of its people to the architecture of the buildings.
* FillingTheSilence: Quite a bit in the English dub, with background chatter added to otherwise quiet scenes and a few ad-libbed lines thrown in.
* FineYouCanJustWaitHereAlone: Chihiro originally refuses to accompany her parents into the haunted amusement park, but follows when they decide to leave her behind. It turns out she was right about the place.

* FlightOfRomance: In the climax with Haku and Chihiro. Then turns into FreeFallRomance and back to FlightOfRomance again when Haku recovers.
* FoodChains: Chihiro's parents [[GenreBlindness should know better]] than to eat food that doesn't belong to them in a fairy tale. Chihiro, however, must eat a morsel of the Spirit World's food in order to avoid fading away, binding her to the realm just enough to keep her solid.
* FoodPorn: Typical for films directed by Miyazaki, but this one begins with Chihiro's parents gorging on a banquet, in a scene that is designed to make viewers' mouths water. That being said, the film is bound to make your stomach turn later on, especially considering emetics are a major ChekhovsGun.

** The cleansed river spirit moves in a sinuous, looping way that is reminiscent of flowing water after he is outside of the bath house, which [[spoiler:Haku's dragon form also emulates in flight; only natural, since Haku himself turns out to be a river spirit.]]
*** [[spoiler:When the Stink Spirit first appears, Yubaba finds its behavior familiar and suspects there is more too it than it appears, a suspicion that is proven right when its MuckMonster body is revealed to be an outer-shell for a dragon-like River Spirit. This makes sense because she has encountered a very similar spirit before: Haku.]]
** Chihiro's father can be heard snorting as he eats (in the English dub at least) which works as subtle foreshadowing to him and Chihiro's mother getting turned into pigs.

** Chihiro's parents and the other humans turned into pigs. They show no sign of being anything more than mud-rolling, omnivorous animals after.
** Zeniba turns Boh (Yubaba's son and Zeniba's nephew) and Yubaba's servant into a mouse and a tiny bird, respectively. When Chihiro later asks her to change them back, she says that the spell has worn off, and they can change back any time they want. (They don't choose to until later.)
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: [[spoiler:Haku, a river spirit, saved Chihiro when she fell into the river as a child. Chihiro remembers this only when they're [[FreeFallRomance flying through the sky together]] near the end of the film, which causes Haku to remember his identity too.]]

* {{Geas}}: Yubaba swore an oath which makes her bound to employ people who ask her for a job. She doesn't like it, and, as detailed in LoopholeAbuse below, tries to weasel her way out of hiring humans, but eventually concedes when Chihiro insists.
* GenericCuteness: Chihiro was designed specifically to ''avoid'' this trope. Hayao Miyazaki has complained about how a plain or unattractive male character can still be the star, but female characters all have to be cute to be the protagonist.
* GentleGiant: The Great Radish Spirit is gigantic, but also seems gentle and supportive (through body language--he's not a talker).
* GettingEatenIsHarmless: No-Face, after Chihiro feeds him the river spirit's medicine, throws up everything and everyone he ate. They are all none the worse for the experience.

** [[spoiler:Haku in dragon form and the purified river spirit]] are huge, the former even being able to carry Chihiro near the film's ending.
** Yubaba can also drape herself in her cloak and fly like a very large bird.

* GiantSpider: Judging by his eight limbs, Kamaji seems to be a spider youkai. He might also be an opilione, also known as harvestmen or daddy longlegs.
* GluttonousPig: Chihiro's parents turn into pigs after gorging themselves on the spirits' food. Kind of justified: they are eating food made for gods in a territory where gods gather night by night...
* GoldFever: All of the employees at the bathhouse go crazy trying to pick up the gold No-Face drops, although it turns out to not be enough to cover the damage he causes in the end. Not to mention that it turns out to be [[spoiler:made of dirt.]]

** Yubaba, her baby, and [[spoiler:her sister.]] There are two scenes with Yubaba nose-to-nose with normal (not super-deformed) characters, and her head is taller than Haku's head and torso combined.
** The Great Radish Spirit. Stubby little root-fingers, a face like conjoined elephant twins, and... [[BrainBleach radish nipples]].
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Yubaba smokes a cigarette and exhales billowing clouds of smoke right into [[SecondFaceSmoke Sen's face]]. Her nicer sister Zeniba is not seen smoking.
* GratuitousEnglish: In the original Japanese-language version, Kamaji says "Good luck!" in English to Chihiro as she leaves the boiler room to seek a job from Yubaba.

* ActorAllusion: "I'll miss you, Chihiro. Your best friend, Rumi." (In the original Japanese, Chihiro is voiced by Rumi Hiiragi.)

* ActorAllusion: "I'll miss you, Chihiro. Your best friend, Rumi." (In the Japanese version, Chihiro was voiced by Rumi Hiiragi.)
* AdultsAreUseless: Chihiro's parents see nothing peculiar about a whole city on the other side of an abandoned tunnel being completely empty despite fresh food being put out. Despite their daughter's protests, they decide to just sit and eat while Chihiro wanders around by herself. Unfortunately for them, the food was intended for gods and spirits, so they were turned into pigs as punishment.
* AfterlifeExpress: The train that Chihiro takes to get to Zeniba's home is intended for use by the dead moving onto the next life and has phantom passengers.
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: Yubaba's eventually revealed to have a twin sister named Zeniba--they look exactly alike, but are also the closest things that the movie has to a BigBad and a BigGood, respectively.
* AmbiguouslyHuman: Some of the spirits have a human like appearance to them, with some such as Lin and Haku, looking nigh distinguishable from normal humans. However, even the more human-like spirits have traits and attributes (subtle or otherwise) that make it clear that they're not really human.

** [[DeadpanSnarker Lin]] is a weasel spirit who has a knack for sneaking out of trouble and nabbing food.
** Yubaba is a crow/raven who are known to be cunning, ominous and foretell death and destruction, such as Yubaba taking the names of her workers and "killing" their past selves so they can't remember who they are and thus are enslaved to her forever (unless they remember their name).
** The six-armed Kamaji, with his fuzzy mustache and black sunglasses, is a spider spirit.
* TheAssimilator: After No-Face eats the green frog, he is able to speak using the frog's voice and even gains a pair of frog legs. He later loses these attributes after the river spirit's medicine causes him to barf the frog back up.

** Miyazaki also loves his environmental messages, which comes up twice through the film. The first instance of this is when Chihiro heals the river spirit after being heavily polluted and filled with garbage. The second is Chihiro realizing Haku is the spirit of the Kohaku River, which had been built over for years.
* AwardBaitSong: "Itsumo Nando Demo" (''Always With Me'') by Youmi Kimura. It was originally written for ''Rin the Chimney Sweeper'', but that project fell through. Miyazaki listened to the song constantly while working on ''Spirited Away''. It's also missing some key elements of an Award Bait Song, most notably the lack of "sparkly" synth.
* BadBlackBarf: No-Face starts coughing and drooling black barf (among other things) after being given medicine from Chihiro.
* BaitAndSwitch: When Chihiro's parents cross through the tunnel and come out on the other side, they remark that the ruins must belong to an abandoned amusement park. Mrs. Ogino explains to Chihiro that the park was probably one made before the giant recession in Japan and thus it's a relic. Chihiro isn't impressed because this whole place is giving her bad vibes. Then they go further across a dried river...and it turns out the rest of the plot happens at the bathhouse that Chihiro spots!

** WordOfGod states that this is the reason No-Face followed Sen around after she let him into the bath-house.
** It's also implied that this is why Kamaji was willing to help Chihiro out so much--she saved a Soot Spirit that struggled under the weight of his coal and finished the job for him, proving that she was both kindhearted and willing to work if provoked.
** Likewise, Chihiro does all she can to help the stink spirit clean up, using the tokens that No-Face gave her. As she gets stuck in its mud, the spirit saves her from drowning and shows her a thorn in its side. Chihiro shouts that he needs help pulling it out, and she leads the ChainOfPeople in using a rope to remove the thorn. This ends up cleaning the spirit, revealed to be a river god. The god lets her see its true form, gives her a medicinal cake, and tells her, "Well done."
* BellyMouth: No-Face has one, which only becomes visible during his rampage and in a later scene where he is eating cake.

** Chihiro's parents, particularly her dad, have ravenous appetites--they are (appropriately) transformed into pigs to represent their gluttony.
** Boh eating chocolate, or rather the three heads transformed to look like him. Clearly they're taking advantage of replacing the spoiled-rotten kid.
** No-Face, who combines this with ExtremeOmnivore (he swallows several people whole). When Chihiro finally faces him, it's in a room filled to the brim with mountains of food.

* BirdRun: Haku is able to swiftly hover inches above the ground by running this way.

** Chihiro restores her parents to human form and returns to the real world, but it's implied that memories of the spirit world promptly leave her mind afterward, and she won't be able to see Haku again. Once implied by Miyazaki that Chihiro and Haku wouldn't meet again until her death.
** The American ending also hints that Chihiro ''will'' remember some of her adventure; when her father remarks starting life in a new home and school can be scary, Chihiro replies, "I think I can handle it," suggesting that she's maintaining her memories (or at least the confidence she gained from her trip to the spirit world).
* BloodFromTheMouth: Haku due to the effects of Zeniba's curse. Makes sense since Kamaji says he is bleeding from the ''inside''.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: This being [[{{Youkai}} the spirit world]], [[TheFairFolk after all]]. Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs for the crime of eating food intended for the gods. The young Chihiro is left to fend for herself, and had it not been for her job, would likely be killed just for being human.
* BlushSticker: Chihiro has these throughout the entire film.
* BodyWipe: Near the beginning with Chihiro's dad, when he found the restaurant with the source of a delicious smell.
* BookEnds: The film begins and ends with Chihiro clutching her mother's arm while they follow her father through a tunnel. Her mother even tells Chihiro to stop clutching at her--that she'll make her fall.

* ButtMonkey: The little green frog. He is magicked by Haku, he faints when the Stink Spirit gets too close, and then he is eaten by No-Face.
* CainAndAbel: Yubaba and Zeniba. Though the two of them look exactly alike, Yubaba is a manipulative, almost heartless overseer whose main concern (besides her son) is making as much money as possible. Zeniba, meanwhile, has a peaceful life in the forest and is nothing but friendly to Chihiro and the others.
* CaptainObvious: Chihiro says a few obvious things in the Japanese version. The English dub added several more examples, albeit some ("It's a bathhouse," for example) were added for clarity for a non-Japanese audience (a Japanese audience, even if they didn't recognize what the bathhouse was by its appearance, would be able to read the sign above its entrance identifying what it was).
* CatharticCrying: When Haku shows Chihiro her parents as pigs, reminds her of her real name and then offers her something to eat in an isolated part of the spirit town, she begins eating and then just starts bawling her heart out at all the accumulated trauma. Notably she is mentally a lot healthier and hopeful afterwards.

** The importance of names. Chihiro's name is turned to Sen when she's "hired" by Yubaba, and Haku forgot his name (the Kohaku River) when said river was built over. Both characters desire to get their "names", i.e. true lives and identities back.
* CharacterDevelopment: Chihiro starts the story as a sullen, moody preteen not wanting to face change. Then she [[spoiler:starts working at the bathhouse, makes friends, and rescues Haku from Zeniba.]] By the end, she's much more appreciative of her parents and responsible for her actions. The English dub goes further by the last line of the film saying, "I think I can handle it" about her new school.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: [[spoiler: The medicine from the water god]] helps cure Haku from his injuries ''and'' free No-Face from all the food (and people) he has eaten.
* ChekhovsGun: The farewell card given to Chihiro helps her remember her name after Yubaba stole it.

* ComeWithMeIfYouWantToLive: Haku says something like this to Chihiro when she first enters the spirit world.

* ComfortFood: Onigiri is Japanese soul food; this is one of the reasons why Chihiro cries while eating one of these.
* ComingOfAgeStory: At the start of the film, Chihiro comes off as a lost, yet hardheaded little girl. Her experiences in the spirit world help her break out of her shell and shape her into a polite, confident young woman.
* ConverseWithTheUnconscious: Chihiro tells the unconscious Haku that she was leaving for some time (to return the golden seal to Zeniba) and that he had to get better. Later when Haku wakes up, he reveals to Kamaji that he heard Chihiro's voice and followed it until he woke up.

* CounterfeitCash: Throughout the film, No-Face pays for his time in the bathhouse by conjuring gold from his hands, having developed this mentality after witnessing the bathhouse employees fawning over the River Spirit's gold. After Chihiro/Sen successfully manages to get No-Face out of the bathhouse, all of the gold No-Face gave them crumbles to dirt, having apparently been an illusion the entire time.
* CultureChopSuey: The massive SceneryPorn of the bathhouse and the spirit world overflows with every imaginable and recognizable cultural and aesthetic detail of historical Japan from [[FeudalJapan Feudal times]] all the way to mid-twentieth century Japan. (Purposefully excluded are any details of {{Samurai}} or [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan soldiers]].)
* CuteClumsyGirl: Chihiro often trips, stumbles, and crashes through the spirit world, though she gets better in time. Whereas she all but ''flies'' down the wooden staircase in the beginning, she later manages to run across a ''pipe'' as it crumbles.

** Despite being a weasel spirit, Lin looks fully human; some fans have theorized she may have once, indeed, been human and in the same situation as Chihiro.
** Haku is a male example in his usual form, a young, {{Bishonen}} boy about Chihiro's age; in his true form, he's a dragon.
* DarkIsNotEvil: Quite a few spirits are friendly to Chihiro initially, most notably Haku, but also Lin and Kamaji, and a few others warm up to her and start to like her eventually (the crisis with No-Face seems to be the part where a ''lot'' of them start to do so) [[spoiler:until the end, where almost ''all'' of them are trying to support her.]] And of course, there's No-Face itself, a rather terrifying HumanoidAbomination which craves Chihiro's friendship.
* DarkWorld: The carnival site after dark becomes a hub for spirits and gods. By extension, DarkIsNotEvil (most of the time, at least).
* DeadpanSnarker: Most of Lin's lines are sarcastic or snide, especially when talking to Kamaji or when she's at first apathetic to Sen.

* {{Disneyfication}}: Less so than most in that trope, but in addition to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', the film is also partially a LighterAndSofter version of the rather grisly Japanese fairy tale "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shita-kiri_Suzume Shita-kiri Suzume]]".
* DisproportionateRetribution: Chihiro's parents eat food that has been left out in the open in unattended booths (that look just like food service stalls) and are fully willing to pay for it if an owner appears. So naturally they deserve to be turned into pigs, right? (Of course, Humans might consider it Disproportionate Retribution, but seeing as this is a common theme in stories among [[TheFairFolk fairies and spirits]], such beings [[BlueAndOrangeMorality apparently do not]].)
* TheDissenterIsAlwaysRight: Chihiro and her parents come across an abandoned amusement park. They come across a spread of freshly made food and the parents start digging in. Chihiro says they shouldn't because they might get in trouble, but they don't pay her any mind and continue eating. [[KarmicTransformation This turns them into pigs]] because the food was meant for spirits.
* DistressedDude: Haku was heavily injured from [[spoiler:Zeniba]]'s spell, needing both [[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGun medicine from the water god]]]] and Chihiro's [[ThePowerOfLove love]] to save him.
* DontLookBack: Chihiro is instructed not to look back when leaving the Spirit World. She ''nearly'' turns when she's almost left, but with the sparkling of Zeniba's magic hairband, resists the temptation.
* DownTheRabbitHole: The long, dark tunnel Chihiro's family passes through into the spirit world.

* DubSpeciesChange: The English translation of the artbook for the movie refers to Lin as a weasel spirit, rather than a fox one like in the Japanese version.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Chihiro has to go through some hardship to stay alive and save her loved ones. Working in the bathhouse, healing Haku, and being trapped by Yubaba (among other things) shapes her into a more mature and confident person along the way. The English dub ends with her reassuring her father that she can handle school, after that adventure.

* PolarOppositeTwins: Zeniba and Yubaba might look exactly alike, but couldn't be more different in personality. Zeniba is nice and grandmotherly but is clearly capable of anger and retribution, while Yubaba is a nasty old woman who is still a ReasonableAuthorityFigure.

''Spirited Away'' was released in its home country on July 20, 2001, and an English dub conducted by Disney came to the United States on December 20, 2002.

* UncomfortableElevatorMoment: A hilarious scene in which Lin smuggles Sen aboard the bath house's upper elevator. She's stuck on it with the elephantine, UglyCute Radish Spirit. Since she's ''really'' not supposed to be in the bath-house at all and most of the other spirits have already expressed their revulsion for humanity, she's trying hard to brace for the worst while remaining unnoticed. (Not easy when the other passenger is so big that you're being squeezed against the side of the elevator.) Veeery awkward. Luckily, he's either kindly enough, mischievous enough, or apathetic enough to call nobody's attention to her.

The film was an immediate hit in both Japan and America, and was the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time for almost two decades, grossing a total of 31.68 billion yen ($304.2 million), until it was topped by ''[[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train]]'' in 2020. It also won the MediaNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, making it the first (and currently only) traditionally animated film, anime film, and non-English-language animated film to do so. This victory was especially noteworthy as the Oscars tend to favor [[AllCGICartoon CGI]] and/or American productions.

Chihiro Ogino (Rumi Hiiragi), a sullen young girl unwillingly moving to a new town, is stranded in the spirit world after her parents Akio (Takeshi Naito) and Yuko (Yasuko Sawaguchi) stop by what appears to be an abandoned amusement park and eat food that turns them into pigs. At first, her only aid is Haku (Creator/MiyuIrino), a mysterious boy who finds her shelter and a job in a bathhouse that caters to these spirits. Eventually, Chihiro makes more friends as she searches for a way to make her parents human again and escape the spirit world before she forgets her real identity. And that's all just within the first 30(ish)-minutes of the movie--and that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the odd denizens of the spirit world, ranging from the villainous bathhouse manager Yubaba (Mari Natsuki) to arachnid worker Kamajii (Bunta Sugawara) to the enigmatic, near-voiceless spirit No-Face (Akio Nakamura).

* RecycledTrailerMusic: One of the Japanese trailers for the movie uses the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2EDABZX_Ow "The Lost Paradise"]] from ''Anime/CastleInTheSky''.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with the Australian TV show]] ''Series/{{Spirited}}'', the 1974 film ''Swept Away'', that film's 2002 remake[=/=]Music/{{Madonna}} vehicle, the ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom/WesternAnimation/''Literature/HarryPotter'' [[Fanfic/SpiritedAway2012 fanfic of the same name]], or the [[Creator/DreamworksAnimation DreamWorks]] film ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with the Australian TV show]] ''Series/{{Spirited}}'', the 1974 film ''Swept Away'', that film's 2002 remake[=/=]Music/{{Madonna}} vehicle, or the [[Creator/DreamworksAnimation DreamWorks]] film ''WesternAnimation/SpiritStallionOfTheCimarron''.

The film was an immediate hit in both Japan and America, and was the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time for almost two decades, grossing a total of 31.68 billion yen ($304.2 million), until it was topped by ''[[Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train]]'' in 2020. It also won the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestAnimatedFeature, making it the first (and currently only) traditionally animated film, anime film, and non-English-language animated film to do so. This victory was especially noteworthy as the Oscars tend to favor [[AllCGICartoon CGI]] and/or American productions.