Spirited Away

Emergency Art

Chihiro and No Face (one of my nicknames for Cap) on their way to visit the witch, Zeniiba

I have to admit I’m feeling a little keyed up in advance of the fourth anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. I’ve been working on a post for tomorrow and think I need to take a bit of a break.

There’s a live episode of Ask Mary Anything within Reason at 6:00 p.m. ET over at Mary Trump Media, but after that I’m going to watch (or re-watch) Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest achievement, arguably the greatest animated film ever made, and one of the greatest movies period. [As far as I can tell, it’s only showing on MAX currently, but I highly recommend getting the DVD.]

Spirited Away always manages to take me out of myself. The world Miyazaki conjures—evocative, driven by its own compelling internal logic—draws you in with the relationships between its beautifully drawn characters and a story that feels universal despite (or maybe because of) the films supernatural elements. Then, of course, there is the visually stunning beauty of it.

For me, one of the most important criteria of a film, or any piece of art, is that the world created is one in which I want to live (or at least visit); the world of Spirited Away is one of those.

Let me know what other worlds you like to inhabit.

And hopefully I’ll see you at 6:00 over on YouTube.