Classics - Why Spirited Away Still Hits

A sulky ten-year-old, a bathhouse for spirits, and a job she has to keep or lose her own name.

Words by Jamie Harper 07 November 2026

Why Spirited Away Still Hits: the main characters

A sulky ten-year-old, a bathhouse for spirits, and a job she has to keep or lose her own name.

Spirited Away came out in Japan in 2001, and we think it is still the purest film Hayao Miyazaki ever made. It still hits because its hero is not brave at the start: she has to learn it, one shift at a time.

The premise - A wrong turn into the spirit world

Studio Ghibli: a wrong turn into the spirit world

Chihiro and her parents take a wrong turn on the way to their new home and walk into an empty town. Her parents eat food that is not theirs and turn into pigs.

To save them, Chihiro has to take a job at a bathhouse for spirits run by the witch Yubaba, who takes her name away and calls her Sen.

Why it still works - A world that runs without you

Studio Ghibli: a world that runs without you

The bathhouse works like a real workplace: a boiler room, a six-armed boiler man named Kamaji, soot sprites hauling coal and spirits lining up for a soak.

Haku, the boy who helps her on the first night, and No-Face, a lonely spirit who follows her inside, are the two everyone remembers. Joe Hisaishi's score holds it all together.

The verdict - The film to show someone first

Studio Ghibli: the film to show someone first

Studio Ghibli made it in 2001, and in 2003 it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

If someone has never seen an anime film, we would start them here. Watch it once for the story, then again for everything happening in the background.

Where to watch

Streaming catalogues for Studio Ghibli differ between the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia, and they change from month to month, so check the services you use.