‘Spirited Away’ Behind-the-Scenes Book Celebrates 20 Years of Miyazaki’s Masterpiece Release

Twenty years ago, the French discovered The Journey of spirited away in dark rooms. The haunting story of a little girl transported to a universe populated by spirits of all kinds, fighting to save her parents transformed into pigs. A masterful work by Hayao Miyazaki, multi-award winning internationally. On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, the editions Ynis offer an unpublished French translation of the book travel with spirited away by Marta Garcia Villar. A work of nearly 300 pages, full of anecdotes, historical references and analyses, to know all the secrets of the animated film.

From the character of the Sans-Visage to the many guests of the Palais des Bains, The Journey of spirited away is heavily imbued with Japanese myths. References sometimes difficult to understand for the Western public. Throughout the pages of Marta García Villar’s book, the reader discovers the many inspirations drawn from Japanese folklore. Thus, the massive creature with the small air of Totoro who accompanies spirited away in an elevator is a reference to Oshira-sama : the god-radish. A kind of deity (kami) protector of the family, associated with agriculture. His two protuberances on the face are not a giant mustache, but daikonsa variety of radishes.

Another winkeye Japanese legends noted by the author are the paper figurines that attack Haku in his dragon form. Those are shikigami, invisible spirits summoned by a wizard. They can take many different forms and respond to the commands of their master. This belief, very widespread in the Land of the Rising Sun, is comparable to the concept of familiars in Europe. The work also depicts the numerous references to the Shinto religion and to the theater no mask such as the traditional old man’s mask worn by the river spirit.

One of the peculiarities of Spirited Away is its diversity of colorful characters. Some are even directly inspired by members of the film crew. The character of Kamajispider-man with a big heart, responsible for the boiler room of the baths is inspired by Hayao Miyazaki himself. Just like his character, the director never stops working and seems sullen at first.

The witch Yubaba is inspired by the producer and today exgeneral director of the Studio Ghibli : Toshio Suzuki. This longtime friend of the director, with a strong character, served as a sketch for the creation of the manager of the palace of the baths. A character with a great sense of business and management, like the producer. Miyazaki even confided in an interview that “if Mr. Suzuki hadn’t been there, there would have been no Studio Ghibli“, notes the author.

But Yubaba also owes a lot to the legend of Yama Uba also called Baba Yaga in Slavic countries. According to the Japanese version, this woman would live in the mountains and feed on humans, she is sometimes cited as the mother of Kintaroa giant baby with uncommon strength. Similarities found in Miyazaki’s witch, she too is the mother of a gigantic and overpowered child: Bo.

Spirited away offers an ode to adolescence through the adventure of its heroine. The young girl begins as a capricious child and lacks self-confidence. She ends her courageous and altruistic adventure thanks to the hardships she has passed through. The film addresses many critical themes towards modern society, such as the social reflection through the banquet of Without a face. The mind, thanks to money, buys attention, sinks into greed until it becomes a mad monster. A “satirizes Japan’s hypocrisy and its corruption by sugary consumerism”, indicates the author.

Greed is a recurring term in animated film, with the example of Yubaba who counts his gold, instead of noticing the disappearance of his son. The book also takes a detour to explain the concept of kamikakushi (hidden from the gods), intimately linked to the heroine’s discovery of her identity. This expression designates “a situation where a person disappears from the real world and enters the spirit world“. On her return she forgets her trip, adds the writer. This is the essence of Chihiro’s adventure in the spirit world. When she leaves the tunnel, there is no guarantee that she remembers her epic, but she retains the wisdom she has acquired during her encounters.

Journey with Spirited Away retraces the eventful manufacturing process of the work of Miyazaki. In the early 2000s, the studio Ghibli has just been propelled onto the international scene after the success of Princess Mononoke. Hayao Miyazaki is mentally exhausted, these teams too, he is even considering retirement. Finally, the creator embarks on a new project, Rin and the Fireplace Paintera story that takes place in a bathhouse in Tokyo during the terrible earthquake of Kanto in 1923.

This film will never see the light of day, deemed inaccessible for young audiences. The preparatory work carried out for this film will greatly inspire Spirited away. Under budget pressures, thehe teams raced against time by completing the film in just 18 months. The author recounts this frenetic pace, “the youngest employees spend 12 hours in front of their computers. Miyazaki arrives every morning at 11 a.m. and does not leave until dawn”. Hard work, until the day of the official release in Japan, July 20, 2001.

Ultimately, Journey with Spirited Away will delight fans of the animated film who will be satisfied with anecdotes and details of all kinds. The reading is quite well balanced with very dense chapters interspersed with lighter parts, like the section Twenty key questions to understand the film. Only, the aesthetics of the book could have been further developed. If Miyazaki’s cover and preparatory sketches scattered throughout the chapters are sublime, the rest of the layout is closer to a university book than a collection. A small defect quickly forgotten as the book is complete and offers an in-depth analysis of the masterpiece of Studio Ghibli.

travel with spirited away by Marta García Villar, Ynnis editions, 22 euros, 288 pages.