I first watched Spirited Away as a junior in high school. Unlike some films that changed my life immediately, this one left its mark in quieter ways. The story of Chihiro navigating a strange and enchanted world fascinated me, but what really stayed with me was the atmosphere: the music, the visuals, the setting that felt both dreamlike and oddly familiar.
Studio Ghibli’s artistry was unlike anything I had seen before. The bathhouse bustling with spirits, the lonely train gliding across a sea of water, the painted skies that seemed to stretch forever — every frame felt like a canvas. It was my introduction to Hayao Miyazaki and his world, and it led me down a rabbit hole of Ghibli films: Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro. Each one expanded my sense of what animation could be.
The music, though, was what transformed my experience of the film into something personal. Joe Hisaishi’s score is breathtaking, and the track “One Summer’s Day” in particular struck me in a way few pieces of music ever had. It was simple yet profound — delicate piano lines carrying both loneliness and hope. I was so moved by that song that I began to learn piano just so I could play it. Sitting at the keys, fumbling through the melody, I felt connected to the film in a way that went beyond watching.
Looking back, I realize that’s what Spirited Away gave me: not only a story to enjoy, but a spark of creativity. It invited me to see art not just as something to consume, but as something to respond to, to carry into my own life.
Spirited Away may not have been a dramatic turning point for me, but it left threads that have woven themselves into who I am. Sometimes the films that stay with us are not the ones that shake us to our core, but the ones that gently open a door and let us wander into something new.
— Written by William Edward Villano
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