Spirited Away is an absolutely incredible film that I'm glad I finally got to experience

Anime has never really been my cup of tea. It's hard to explain, but the artstyle doesn't appeal to me and the writing more often than not feels somewhat juvenile. However, when anime is good, it can be incredible. Studio Ghibli is often ranked among the best, and before I had no idea why. I heard Spirited Away compared to Alice in Wonderland, but like, it's far better than any interpretation of Alice that I've ever seen.Some background: am 16 (although I literally turn 17 tomorrow) and I recently found out that my parents got a promotion in their jobs that requires them to move. I am going into my junior year at high school as a new student in a completely different school. You can imagine I ended up identifying with Chihiro pretty hard, especially at the beginning. The fear of losing everyone you know and having to start completely fresh as an outsider is horrendous. Maybe I'm a tad biased because of these circumstances, but I can safely say that Spirited Away was not a case of hype backlash. I know how much people loved this movie, and in the end I thought it deserves every praise it got.Chihiro ended up being my favorite character in the same way that I loved Lilo (and it's not just because they share the same VA in the version I watched, although it was incredibly fitting). I aspire to be a writer and the way this film portrays childhood in such a down to earth way is so fascinating for me, in a mundane curiosity way. Her compassion and empathy makes her easy to root for, plus she's actually PROACTIVE in her goals. She's not like, say, Alice, who is basically a walking pair of eyeballs with her only purpose in life being to walk around and look at the interesting things. I also quickly grew attached to Haku and Lin, and in the end Kamaji and Zeniba too, although that might be because they filled surrogate "family roles" to Chihiro.This film is absolutely gorgeous too. I knew Ghibli has a reputation for their beautiful animation, and it REALLY shows here. The scene in the garden after Haku shows Chihiro her parents was breathtaking, and the "falling scene" left me in legitimate awe. I like the quirky sense of humor too. A lot of anime is very flashy and "in your face" to me, like they're about as subtle as a brick to the face, but this movie was very lowkey slice of life for a good majority of it and I grew to love the bathhouse and the spirits within. I genuinely smiled when they all cheered for Chihiro in the end against Yubaba's unfair rule.I needed to gush here. This film was wonderful and it touched me on a personal level. I really want to get into more Ghibli films. I know Totoro and Princess Mononoke seem to be the two most popular next to this film, but how are their other works?Also I recognized the "falling scene" was referenced in this scene from Steven Universe, and honestly anything that inspired Steven Universe earns some major brownie points from me. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2HC2caL