On The Character Creation Of Spirited Away

Spirited Away is a story about a ten-year-old girl Ogino Chihiro and her growth experiences, which evokes peoples’ reflection on the development of human beings and the conflict and coordination between modern material civilization and traditional culture. The great success of Spirited Away own largely to the creation of characters.Firstly, Hayao Miyazaki set some distinctive characters in accordance with the laws of the story and the real condition in Japan. These characters, who are well-organized(main characters, secondary characters, and assistive characters), are positioned appropriately. This helps the audiences understanding and accepting characters better.Secondly, according to the plots, Hayao Miyazaki set the background of the disappearance of Chihiro’s families, which contribute to her independent growth. Plenty of Spirit characters from traditional Japanese culture, such as the River Spirit, the Spring Spirit, and the Radish Spirit, make the “Kamikakushi” much more realistic. They provide Chihiro an environment to grow up. From the aspect of the conflict between modern material civilization and traditional culture, Hayao Miyazaki build a Kamikakushi for Chihiro’s independent growth.Lastly, Hayao Miyazaki create several groups of characters to jointly illustrate the theme of lost and grow, for instance, the belief of Akio Ogino and Yūko Ogino towards material civilization, the greed of Yubaba and Aburaya Jisha towards money, the self-lost of Haku and No-Face, which originate from their desire of material culture. Chihiro, Haku, and Boh finally find themselves and grow up after experiencing difficulties, which implied that the conflict between modern material civilization and traditional culture will be moderated in the generations to come, and also demonstrates the confidence and wish of Hayao Miyazaki to the future.Throughout the character creation in Spirited Away, it is easy to find out both Hayao Miyazaki’s hope and worry. For example, Akio Ogino and Yūko Ogino have not realized the mistake in the end, and Haku is destined to fail though he try to go back. These examples imply there are irreconcilable contradictories between modern material civilization and traditional culture. However, it is a comfort to see that Chihiro keeps all her memories and move forward to modern civilization after her “Kamikakushi” experience. Hayao Miyazaki may want these memories become the foundation and promise of future generations to shoulder their responsibilities.