For episode 63, David, Peter, and Holly join in on Ghibli Month by examining the themes of Spirited Away through its characters. Perhaps not unexpected from Miyazaki and the movie considered by many to be his highest achievement, Spirited Away has a lot to tell us about the human condition through its bath house denizens, spirits and creatures, and a ten-year-old girl. Plus, the team also plays another round of “Anime or Ani-Made Up,” and asks a new question Cast Question (CQ)!
0:00 Introduction
1:15 Last episode’s Cast Question
6:32 New Cast Question
10:27 Anime or Ani-Made up?
16:59 Motivation and Themes in Spirited Away—Introduction
22:12 Discussion—Chihiro and confidence
27:23 Discussion—No Face and a wrong satisfaction
33:49 Discussion—Boh and Yubaba
37:17 Discussion—Haku, Savior and Saved
40:32 Discussion—Closing Themes
43:44 Closing
And we want your feedback as well! Each week we ask a question on the podcast and feature your answers on the next episode. Here’s this week’s CQ (Cast Question): What is one of your most memorable movie scenes and why?
Podcast Links:
- The team talks about Chihiro’s growth in confidence, and we’ve written about the same here on the blog.
- Don’t have Spirited Away in your collection? You can hop over to Amazon to purchase it. A special collector’s edition will also be coming out in a couple months.
- The team also mentioned The Way Home, Les Miserables, and Gladiator, which are all available for purchase, and Miracle in Cell No. 7, which can be streamed.
- David and Holly may have never watched Noragami (wut) or even heard of Nodame Cantabile (double wut), but we’ve written about both on our blog. Check out this article about Christmas romance in Nodame, and this post about Noragami and grace that was one of an entire week full of posts about that series.
- Peter isn’t the only one to see Yubaba as a shrewd businesswoman.
- Of course, she also steals names—and that’s something we’ve also discussed.
- Featured art by Ebiinoi (reprinted w/permission).
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Featuring music by Celotron (all rights reserved) and mixed by David.
There are so many great movie endings, but one that in equal amounts shocked and moved me was the twist near the end of The Shawshank Redemption. It’s a challenging film, so full of injustice, but the end provides an immense sense of hope in the corrupt world of the film, and for us living in a corrupt world ourselves. I think a lot of people felt the same—25 years after it came out, The Shawshank Redemption remains the highest rated film on IMDB.
Twitter
Traditional Catholic Weeb: For me, #1 will always be this, no matter what: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiFxNjMf5Bc
Philip Heard: Noriko’s scene thanking her father near the end of LATE SPRING, a beautiful moment between a father & child.
Hannah Mack (former Team Trinity podcaster): The death of Tomoe [from Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal]. Named my cat after her.
AstroNerdBoy: For me, it was Star Wars when Darth Vader makes his entrance. As a kid, he made a massive impact upon arrival, starting with his black costume and helmet, his mechanical breathing, his mannerisms, and his way of speaking. In mere moments, Vader’s awesomeness was confirmed.
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myles.netherton: When John Matrix (Schwarzenegger) suits up in Commando before blowing the entire island up in pursuit of his daughter, younger Alyssa Milano!
Cory: I’ve been thinking about this a bit since the poscast came out a couple of days ago, and man, this is a tough one. the first that comes to mind isn’t really a scene, but the opening song to the original Bakugan anime. I don’t care for it now, buy dang it’s catchy, and I loved it as a teenager
maria_cuty95: For me, it was on Wolf Children, when Hana was cleaning the house she bought and she finds little precious things, like cherry blossoms carved on a window, the dishwasher had shiny rocks that sparkled with the water and sunshine, etc. Ive always loved that scene.
zhockerzo: One of my most memorable movie scenes was in Marvel’s Black Panther when Killmonger was fighting against Wakanda so he may have his place among then.I didn’t understand it at first and thought it was just cool so I watched it again where I looked closely.Looking closely,Killmonger was really an innocent guy who wanted a family and people to love him but he did it through rage but he was an amazing man regardless
asocial_ambivert also gave a scene but it’s from In This Corner of the World, and I don’t want to ruin that for you.