First impressions of Spirited Away from someone who’s interests do not come close to Anime.

For context, I am a 6ft 260lb Strongman who likes Quentin Tarantino films, drinking good quality IPAs, Bourbon and Rum. I like tech-metal and heavy electronic music. I have never had any interest in anime before, it has never appealed to.me, nothing about it.

I had surgery on my arm last week and am signed off work for the next 6 weeks, can go for a walk, but can’t drive. I cannot use my right hand so am fairly limited in what I can do.

Today, I decided to out my prejudice behind me and give Spirited Away a go, I had heard of Studio Ghibli and thought, ‘why not?’

I have to admit, I absolutely loved it. I had no idea what to expect, but I love how the story evolves constantly. The whole film escalates continuously in a dream like world that kept my attention the entire way through. I’m prone to drifting during films, but I was watching properly the whole time.

The plot, characters, storyline and setting kept expanding, so rapidly, that before long I wasn’t concentrating on the ‘why’s’, just accepting what was happening for the sake of an adventure film and going with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have so many questions that I’m happy to leave unanswered, such as:

Why are they all animals?

Why are there some humans that noone is questioning?

What is No-Face?

Why does the bathouse business need to exist?

Why is there suddenly a Geisha house?

Why is there a disproportionate amount of frogs?

Why does the bird lady look identical to Margaret Thatcher?

Why is No-Face eating everybody?

What on earth is this giant baby doing?

Why does Alice in Wonderland look like a day trip to the beach after this?

Why does No-Face go completely back to normal after leaving?

I think No-Face is absolutely fantastic for reasons unbeknownst to me.

I was dreading that there would be a ‘she woke up and it was all a dream’ ending and was glad to see there was a subtler, more clever ending to it than that.

Highly impressed, never thought I’d watch an anime film yet alone enjoy it.