Spirited Away

Following two of Studio Ghibli's most renowned creations, (My Neighbour Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle) it seemed only right to give their most hyped animation a watch, especially considering how I thoroughly enjoyed the other two.

Spirited Away follows the adventures of Chihiro when her and her parents are trapped in the spirit world and she must fight for their freedom.

Indeed this does seem to be the pinnacle of Ghibli's work. All their most obscure, imaginative ideas are poured into this one film, with so much going on its beyond overcrowded and just a strange, somewhat beautiful spectacle to behold. Undoubtedly it looks stunning, but that's a given considering their previous work. Every character is just hilarious and unlike anything I've seen before (Western imagination embarrassingly pales in comparison!) from the charming but sinister no face (pictured above) to the soot creatures who carry coal for eight armed spirit Kamaji in the generator room.

Okay, I must admit I did watch it with English voice acting which any anime fan would quickly shoot me down for. However being a primarily visual film I felt it was acceptable, and subtitles would just have deterred me from the visual highlights of the film.

One of the most imaginative, creative and outright bizarre adventures I've seen. Definitely the best out of the three Ghibli films I''ve seen so far! [A]