Spirited Away Twitter Q&A Translations
Multiple theories debunked/confirmed and we're given answers on how Haku and Chihiro can meet again! Ghibli finally answered a lot of popular questions!
When the official Ghibli twitter was first active back in 2022, it held a Q&A during a Spirited Away rerun. I don't think anyone's ever posted about it on here so I thought I'd share these translations I found! Most of these answers are completely new information about the movie. Here's a site that archived all the tweets and trivia.
The credit to these translations and notes go to atrociouscheese.
Q: Is it true about the rumors that "Spirited Away" has an subsequent story about a phantom after, and that it was shown only in some movie theaters? Or is it just an urban legend?
A: It's an urban legend. Miyazaki: "At first, I was planning to start from Chihiro's house. Chihiro's room was a path for yokai, and she talked about going to a bathhouse with my mother. But I quit because it felt dull. So it would be interesting if such rumors were circulating!"
Q: Why did you decide on the title "Sen and Chihiro's Spirited Away"? (referring to the Japanese title of Spirited Away which is: Sen to Chihiro Kamikakushi) Were there any other candidates for the title?
A: At the stage of the completed proposal that was drafted on November 2, 1999, it was "Sen's Spirited Away". At some stage, the movie was titled "Sen and Chihiro's Spirited Away" because it was about Chihiro's story.
Q: What is the meaning of the mysterious Daruma-like rock in front of the tunnel?
A: The image board says "Stone person (actually a frog person)"...
Q: Do you have any plans to build that tunnel in Ghibli Park?
A: I asked Goro, who is building the acclaimed Ghibli Park under construction.
Goro said: "I'm making 'that tunnel' in 'that work'~ (laughs)"
Q: The mother feels a little cold to Chihiro. I've always been wondering if there's any reason or if she's a cool person by nature.
A: Animation director, Masashi Ando, said that he wanted to not have the image of father and mother that appear in Miyazaki's work, and he said that he set it with an awareness of "a person who is cool and not in a place where family harmony is disturbed".
Q: How did the main character come to be named Chihiro?
A: Chihiro was modeled on Miyazaki-san's friends who were around 10 years old at the time (including some of their names). After the first preview, Mr. Miyazaki was there before anyone else to hear the children's impressions of the film.
Q: I'd like to know more in detail about the objects and places you used as references in creating this work.
A: There is no specific location "here". Mr. Miyazaki recalls the places he once visited and draws while imagining places he cannot remember. The restaurant district in the mysterious town that appears at the beginning of the film was said to have been drawn with an image of the entertainment districts of Yurakucho and Shinbashi.
Q: Are Kamaji and the working soot sprites (Japanese uses makkuro kurosuke) the same species? Or are they similar but different?
A: The official name of makkuro kurosuke is "Susuwatari". That's what it says on the storyboard, so it's not wrong to say that it's the same species. Initially, there was a plan that rice and sesame were their favorite foods, but now konpeito became their favorite.
Q: Are the characters portrayed in human form like Lin, human? Or are they other creatures?
A: The employees of the bathhouse are frogmen for the men and female slugs for the women. This is symbolic of the fact that to the new employees joining Ghibli, all the uncles look the same. Lin may look human because she is a close senior. Doesn't that happen to you?
Q: I want to know more details about of the chicks who are crammed in the bath!
A: It's a chick god called "Otori-sama." By the way, the one who is also soaking in the hot water is the "Cow Demon." According to Miyazaki, he thought, "Today's Japanese gods must be having a hard time," and that's how the bathhouse was born, where gods and yokai can heal their fatigue. 20 years later, the bathhouse may be even more prosperous now...
Q: Why did Radish spirit (Oshira-sama is used here) follow Chihiro upstairs?
A: The spirit became interested in Chihiro and got on the elevator together with her, but they didn't like Yubaba's room, so they descended immediately (it's written in the storyboard).
Q: How many years ago was the world of the bathhouses set from now?
A: It's modeled on the "pseudo-Western" buildings that were popular from the end of the Edo period to the beginning of the Meiji period, so it can be interpreted as after that.
The actual model is Studio Ghibli. To work for Studio Ghibli, you have to go to Toshio Suzuki on the top floor and say, "Please let me work" (laughs).
Q: I really like the flood-like atmosphere of the flowers in the scene where Chihiro slips through the flowers before eating rice balls. Did you change the expression technique for only that scene?
A: For that scene, the flowers are drawn with paint and are then animated to have depth on the computer.
Q: I felt that the onigiri that Haku gave Chihiro were white rice balls, but did they contain any contents inside?
A: The storyboard says, "3 onigiri (without seaweed)". I'll leave it to your imagination to see whether it contained any ingredients in them (not that there was any wasabi).
Q: How many years has Haku lived approximately?!! He looks like a boy, but...!
A: His appearance is about 12 years old, but his actual age is unknown. He's kind during the daytime when Yubaba is sleeping, but is cold at night. According to Miyazaki, Chihiro is like falling in love with a manager. "What was that about last night?"
Q: Is No Face (Kaonashi is the original Japanese used)'s movement a little cat-like...? I personally think that, but are there any animals that you used as reference?
A: I don't have any "animals" as a reference, but the staff at that time said, "I felt like I was collecting the obsession that everyone had, the parts of people that were sick."
Q: I want to know the rating of the bathhouse bills! I wonder how many kinds there were and what rank of the tag Kasuga-sama was.
A: There are no ratings, but the efficacy of hot water is different for each tag.
Q: Is No Face a god? Is there a reason why they couldn't enter the bathhouse?
A: No Face is not a god, but Miyazaki said at the time that "No Face is inside everyone."
Q: Do many Ghibli staff have special feelings for Chihiro? Were there any celebrations among the staff on the 20th anniversary?
A: The studio does not do so-called "anniversary celebrations". Miyazaki and Suzuki's idea is to do what is in front of them without looking back on the past.
Q: I heard that most of the dishes that appear in the movie are made at least once, but was that big steamed bun (meat bun?) that Chihiro was chewing on also made by hand?
A: We don't cook all the meals that appear in the film. Miyazaki says, "Most of the food that appears in the movies are usually things I made and ate a long time ago."
By the way, the fried egg that appears in Laputa and Howl is said to have been drawn based on his memory of making a fried egg when he was a student, returning home from a long trip without any money and starving.
Q: Why is the name No Face?
A: At the drawing meeting at that time, Miyazaki said that Yubaba, No Face, and Chihiro are all "one aspect of the individual." Everyone has both good and bad points. I think he created a character called No Face as a symbol of human beings that cannot be drawn in a one-sided way (I answered seriously).
Q: When the film was released overseas, I was wondering what kind of responses and impressions people had about the unique concepts of Japan, such as Japanese gods and "spirited away/kamikamushi" had. Also, was it made in consideration of reactions from overseas at the time it was produced?
A: It varies from country to country. In some countries, the appearance of No Face became "silence", and other countries burst into laughter. Miyazaki does not make movies conscious of overseas reactions. Suzuki says, "If Japanese people make something that only Japanese people can do, it will become a global work."
Q: Why is Boh drawn so big?
A: It's a symbol of growing up as a child. It seems that Yubaba can't help but spend money on Bo.
Q: "Spirited Away" is the voice acting debut of Ryunosuke Kamiki, who has done voice acting in numerous anime. I heard that Ryunosuke was called to Ghibli's studio after recording his voice at home and sending in a tape because it was an audition. I would like to ask why you cast Kamiki in the role of Boh.
A: At first, people with big bodies were nominated for the voice of Boh. Miyazaki's face lit up the moment when he heard the voice of Kamiki who was eight years old at the time, he shouted, "This one, Mr. Suzuki!" and he decided.
Q: Please tell me how to distinguish between Yubaba and Zeniba.
A: At the image board stage, there was a clear difference between Zeniba and Yubaba. At the storyboarding stage, they thought it would be better to make them look exactly alike. One staff member said, "Yubaba has one wart on her chest and Zeniba has four warts on her chest." But I can't confirm it (laughs).
Q: Kamaji says that Zeniba is scary, but she is a gentle grandmother in the movie. Why did Kamaji say that Zeniba was scary?
A: People who look kind are the scariest when they get angry.
Q: Why did you make the scene of "I can't forgive you!" Dragon Ball-style? How did Yubaba hit such an orb?
A: The storyboard says "Dragon Ball style" (laughs). It's not clear why she was able to shoot an orb, but Miyazaki said, "Yubaba is an old woman who can swim in the air."
Q: I have a question about trains. Is there a reason why we used to come and return in the old days, but now we can only go one way? I would like to know if there are any settings.
A: During a drawing meeting, Miyazaki remarked, "All the employees of the bathhouse dream of saving money to open a store in the town beyond the bridge. Will they go for leisure? But if you get on the train you’ll never be able to come back and this will be gone.”
Q: Where was the scene that took the most time to draw?
A: If there are a lot of characters, the scene will take a lot of time, though I can't say in general that this cut took the most time. It is unclear what scene took the most time but Miyazaki often fixed Chihiro's small gestures, and in particular, Miyazaki seems to have, with all his effort, corrected the scene where Chihiro received the hair tie from Zeniba and tied her hair.
Q: What was the most difficult dubbing scene?
A: Kamaji, who is played by Bunta Sugawara, speaks a lot slowly, so it was difficult for Sugawara to get it on scale. Rumi Hiiragi was having a hard time with saying "one, OK?" from the line "one, OK? I can't call one flower a bouquet". And Miyu Irino tried many times with "Nigihayamikohakunushi"
(translation note: her line in Japanese, what "one, ok" sounds like is "ippon, ne." Japanese changes numbers when it comes to counting items, so one which is ichi becomes ippon when it comes to counting the bouquet. So instead of saying, "One, okay" she said "one okay") Additionally, I actually know what they're referencing and you can actually see the dubbing behind the scene difficulties they're talking about in this video uploaded on Youtube: video here
Q: How do you write Haku's real name "Nigihayamikohakunushi" in kanji (Chinese characters)? I am wondering if it is the characters for "amber river" (琥珀川) or "small white river" (小白川). I would like to know if there is a meaning to "Nigihayahimi"!
A: Although it is written in katakana in the setting, the name "Nigihayami" is said to be the composite of several gods including Nigihayahi (nigihayami-no-mikoto), the ancestor of the Monobe clan who fought against the Soga clan during the Asuka period, and Hayakitsuhiko, the river god and dragon incarnation.
Q: How did Chihiro find out that her mother and father were not inside the pig pen in the end?
A: I'm not sure of the reason, but please read the children's book called "Krabat", which Miyazaki was greatly influenced by.
Q: Is there any reason why Chihiro's hair tie sparkled brightly at the end?
A: That hair accessory is the only proof that Chihiro worked at the bathhouse. I think it can be said that it is a (choice by) stage direction to give that impression (of the sparkling).
Italics is my inference, but I'm not 100% sure.
Q: How many days did it take for Chihiro to get lost in the mysterious city, work in the bathhouse, and exit the tunnel?
A: Mr. Suzuki advocates the three-day theory. When her father and mother get into the car as if nothing had happened, the inside of the car is covered with dust, so the passage of time may be different here from the tunnel.
Q: Why is going into the tunnel different on the way back?
A: When I asked Noboru Yoshida, an art staff member, he answered, "It depends on the passage of time." Does that means that the "three-day theory" collapses...?
Q: Did Chihiro and Haku meet after that?
A: Haku was the spirit of the river that flows near the house where Chihiro used to live. If Chihiro ever visits the river...
