An Exploration of the Environmental Themes in Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away.

Jacob Trad - s3429612
Anime and Manga

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Topic 3.1b: Miyazaki and environmentalism

Discuss your thoughts on the environmental themes or messages within one or more Miyazaki films.

A nations culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people – Ghandi

Hayao Miyazaki’s resume is long, and impressive. His work is painstakingly crafted, and often contains themes that are overlooked in other Artist’s work. As a nations culture resides in the hearts and souls of its people, so too do those hearts and souls reside in Miyazaki’s work. For the purpose of discussion, “Environmental” has been defined as ‘relating to the natural world and the impact of human activity on its condition.’. During my readings, on Miyazaki’s work, I became increasingly interested in “Spirited Away”. Most of the current work on this anime relate to and draw parallels between the Spirit World and Japanese Culture as it existed in the 1960’s. I will aim to discuss the themes that are scattered throughout this piece of work, and apply them to modern day society. More specifically, to look at the messages Miyazaki left in the anime and ascertain how true they ring in 2016. Three things ran true to me that, to the best of my knowledge, I couldn’t see covered elsewhere. These were;

1. Human adults could not see the spirit world (rationale as to why will be explored later)
2. No face represents the capitalist machine, and is frustrated by the fact that he cannot buy Chihiro
3. Only those brave enough to face environmental damage can solve it.

At the onset of Spirited Away, we see Chihiro being driven to a new city by her mother and father. Whilst it may not seem immediately evident, they are driving in a vehicle which bears a striking resemblance to Audi’s early 2000’s A4 model. Audi has long been a brand associated with wealth and luxury (Hirsh, 2016). Japan is also a country with a long and proud history of car manufacturing (JAMA, 2012) so there can be no doubt that this was a deliberate act on Miyazaki’s part. Upon travelling through the tunnel and arriving at the “market” area in the spirit village, Chihiro’s parents excitedly dig into the food that is lying around and re-assure her by saying ‘Don't worry, you've got Daddy with you. He's got credit cards and cash!’. This is the second time in 10 minutes that we see Chihiro’s parents try to console hey by telling her to trust in the material goods of in their possession. After eating the food of the Spirit realm, Chihiro’s parents are transformed into pigs. This is where a strong argument comes into play for Miyazaki’s rationale as to why he chose pigs. In Japanese culture, the Japanese boar is held as a ‘fearsome and reckless’ animal (Groves, 2008). Fearsome is the greed of Chihiro’s parents. Reckless is their indulgence. To further this point, it seems like a case can be made for this recklessness and indulgence being the reason as to why the adults couldn’t sense that there was something amiss as they travelled into the Spirit World. This point is reinforced further by the fact that they are only turned into back into humans by the sheer will of Chihiro, and are completely oblivious to the fact that anything has happened, even upon returning to their Audi which has (by this point) been covered in foliage. This stream of thinking lends itself to the idea that Chihiro’s parents could not go on her venture of self (and environmental) discovery because they were already so consumed by greed. Only those who have open minds can see and change their ways. This would have been especially true when Miyazaki wrote Spirited Away, however, it remains true in this day and age as some individuals are so set in their ways of greed that they refuse to acknowledge the fact that things such as environmental warming exist (Beder, 2002).

No-Face is an interesting character in spirited away. Perhaps the most interesting thing about him as a character is the fact that he is only able to command the attention that he does from those willing to give it to him. Initially, he is seen as ominous but un-harming as he follows Chihiro. Chihiro sees him in quite a young, naïve way and as such pays him no heed. Upon entering the bathhouse, and being revealing his gold to the workers, he immediately becomes a negative force, consuming those too eager to take his gold. The notion that No-Face is reactive as opposed to pro-active is interesting, but substantiated. As he is fed by and consumes the greed of the workers the hysteria continues to grow, and ‘his butt keeps getting bigger, so there’s plenty there to kiss’ (DIALOGUE FROM Spirited Away). The reason for No-Face’s lack of a definitive form is because he absorbs the form of those that he consumes. In this way, so too does the face of consumerism. It could be argued that consumerism and capitalism are a more pervasive force in the world as we see it in 2016, then when Miyazaki was working on spirited away. In the modern day, though, the forces of consumerism and capitalism are more synonymous than ever (O’Meara, 2015). That having been said, Miyazaki’s analysis of the capitalist machine seems to have been accurate, as is shown by how relevant and applicable it still is. Miyazaki was careful to highlight one thing though. Those who did not buy into No-Face’s gold intrigued the spirit. In the bath-house scene as No-Face is going on a rampage, he presents Chihiro with a large amount of gold. She refuses, and No-Face appears to be disgruntled. This seems to be Miyazaki’s way of saying that those who do not give Capitalism and Consumerism their attention are the only people capable of stifling their growth. One thing is certain though, Miyazaki is definitely alluding to the fact that capitalism can turn into a force that will become unstoppable if given the attention. Something that we have truly seen bloom into fruition over the past two decades.

Only those brave enough to face environmental damage can solve it. And only those who shed the cloak of ignorance can be informed enough to see that there is an issue (Wicklund, 1971). Everything about the River spirit was carefully constructed by Miyazaki.

1. He is incredibly slow moving
2. He takes a considerable amount of resources to clean
3. Nobody wants to be the one to clean him
4. Once Chihiro starts cleaning him, Lin rushes to help, but only her.
5. Chihiro is hailed for the work that she does.

These points all compound to form one strong point. Environmental damage (at large) is a long process. It moves slowly, but surely and doesn’t just effect that places it paces over, but surrounding areas. The entire Bath-House is put into a frenzied state. It is also evaded by everyone. Yes, it is a grimy job to clean stink-face, however, every single worker shies away from it. Chihiro is forced to clean the Stink Spirit. Chihiro requests a high end herbal bath mixture. Something that Yubaba appears to be upset about. This appears to be Miyazaki’s way of showing that large corporations are wary of spending too much money on environmental issues. As the wash comes down, only Lin helps Chihiro clean the spirit. This plays on the fact that not many people are eager to dedicate themselves to directly cleaning up the environment, especially when it doesn’t appear that much money is on the line. They even put the stink-spirit in the ‘[worst] bath’ (Spirited Away, 2001). Even once the Stink Spirit has been dumped on by the herbal wash, Chihiro exclaims ‘I think he needs help! It feels like there's a thorn in his side!’ (Spirited Away, 2001).  She reaches into the muck, and pulls out what is revealed as a child’s Tricycle. At the end of the wash, the Stink Spirit is cleansed and appears to be an old, wealthy River spirit. At this point, something interesting happens. Yubaba becomes overjoyed as she sees how much money has just been made for the Bath-House by cleaning him, and she praises Chihiro. Yubaba’s joy obviously mirrors the greed of a large corporation that sees the monetary gain in committing to environmental clean-ups. On the other hand, it could be Miyazaki’s way of saying that a strong, and healthy river system pays all, whilst a dirty, contaminated one ruins the quality of life of all those touched by it. This seems a likely message that Miyazaki would have wanted to teach his children, as he is stated as saying ‘[I want my] children [to] feel happy with their birth and the life they are leading’ (Miyazaki, 1996, 2002; Miyazaki and Yoro, 2002). Perhaps he means for this to be achieved by educating his children as he has also said that ‘there is something missing within our attitude towards nature’ (Miyazaki, 1996).