Spirited Away

The first mention of Shintoism was when they were driving on the dirt road and found little houses on the side. They said that some people believed that little spirits lived inside of them. The river spirit who looked like an old man and Haku are also a part of the Shintoism in Japan since people believed that there were gods within the many things of our world, which meant that both of them had their respective rivers. Although the characters are the most obvious form in which this religion is presented to us, the setting that the story takes place in, the bathhouse, is also a part of Shintoism. One of the major beliefs of Shintoism is a ritual washing, where you purify yourself through water. In this way, the process of ridding yourself of the pollution of bad thoughts is also shown in the movie, especially through the large river spirit who looked like a stink spirit at first. The major reason why Chihiro went on her journey was to save her parents. However, the underlying message beneath it that she was unaware of was actually to save herself. During the exposition, we are shown a little of her character before embarking on her quest; Chihiro is stubborn, ignorant, and whiney. She gives no sign of wanting to rid herself of the frustration of having to move. However, as the story progresses, Chihiro changes dramatically into a mature and selfless person. In the same way that the river spirit went to the bathhouse to be cleaned, Chihiro also acheived this same goal by going to the bathhouse. But in her case, it was to rid herself of what had plagued her on the inside: her own personality. Chihiro mainly learned how to be a mature person who could act with initiative. She was forced into a situation that most of us only begin to go through as adults: the process of working. In contrast to her not wanting to do anything during the beginning of the movie, by the end, Chihiro has defeated a huge monster, saved two dragons, and managed to make fantastical beings that we can never meet love her. Any one of those would have been impossible to the old Chihiro had she not picked up certain traits along the way: selflessness, kindness, and, most important of all, courage. Nearly every scene with her, a ten year-old girl, involves bravery of some sort. Chihiro was unhesitant when walking along a pipe mid-air with no support, fed a huge, semi-conscious dragon with large teeth, and didn't blink an eye in front of a black monster that was wanted to eat her. Although this is the changes she goes through during the plot of the movie itself, we don't get an idea of what how Chihiro further develops afterwards. However, we get a bit of a hint with her changed attitude and speech. At first, she was grumbling about having to go to a new school. But when her parents introduce her to the idea again by the end, she casually replies with, "I think I'll be all right." And why wouldn't she be? She has done more things and gone through more struggles in a few days than most people do in their life.