Characters who appeared in the 2001 film, Spirited Away.
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Chihiro Ogino/Sen
Chihiro Ogino/Sen
"I finally get a bouquet and it's a goodbye present. That's depressing."
The protagonist of the movie, a young girl moving with her parents to a new home and not too happy about that fact, having to leave behind her friends. On the way to their new home, she and her parents explore an abandoned park and she’s accidentally trapped in the spirit world, only just able to survive by working in the amusement park’s spirit bathhouse with the aid of benevolent spirits like Haku and Lin.
Voiced by: Rumi Hiiragi (JP), Daveigh Chase (US)Other Languages
- Act of True Love: She forcefully feeds Haku's vicious dragon form the medicine from the river god, and goes on a journey to return Zeniba's seal in Haku's stead. In doing so she is able to break the spells both Yubaba and Zeniba placed on Haku.Lin: (regarding Haku and Chihiro) What's going on?
Kamaji: Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love. - Action Survivor: Chihiro isn't a warrior or skilled into anything to handle extreme situations. And yet, she's managed to survive the Spirit World.
- All-Loving Hero: She is kind and caring to everyone she meets in the Spirit World, which endears her to almost everyone, except for Yubaba. Heck, for that matter, she even thanks Yubaba for letting her and her parents go, and politely bows to her before departing back to the human world.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Not at her old home, but in the Spirit World. Due to their Fantastic Racism, Chihiro is treated like an outsider by the other spirits, with Haku, Kamaji, and Lin as the noteworthy exceptions. Fortunately for her, the rest come around by the end.
- Badass Adorable: A cute 10-year-old girl manages to survive being in the Spirit World.
- Badass Pacifist: Subverted as she never talks about violence as a solution, but Chihiro never does anything remotely violent in the film (aside from accidentally killing a slug that Haku had in his stomach, courtesy of Yubaba). She uses her wits and willpower to get through anything thrown at her.
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: In the Chinese dubs, where her new name is changed to 小千 (Xiao Qian/Siu Cin), where it's just her Japanese Kanji read in Chinese with a Xiao/"Little" added to it.
- Blush Sticker: Part of her overall character design.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Chihiro was quite spoiled and didn't know anything about hard work, something she was later called out for by Yubaba. She grows out of it.
- Break the Haughty: Between her moving to a new home and enduring the Spirit World at it’s most dangerous, this rather thoroughly applies to Chihiro.
- Butt-Monkey: The Spirit World's Fantastic Racism towards humans sets Chihiro up for some comic relief in the first half of Spirited Away. During her first day at the bathhouse, Chihiro gets dragged along by the other workers, gets assigned to the big tub where she often slips and falls, has to deal with the river spirit who is covered in sludge, and finally has to force her way into washing him by adding more water but not before falling into the mud after yanking the rope.
- Captain Obvious: More emphasized in the dub, but she tends to state out loud anything unusual happening to her.
- Character Development: Chihiro starts out as a spoiled, whiny child with no experience in work. The craziness she went through in the Spirit World made her more selfless, brave, and generally more well-mannered.
- Cute Clumsy Girl: The "clumsy" part is emphasized in particular at the beginning, when it’s clear she hasn’t worked a day in her life.
- Dub Name Change: To make sense of the renaming from Chihiro to Sen, the Hungarian dub at least changed her family name from Ogino to Sento. While this removes the element of reducing her to a number, it still means arbitrarily giving her a new identity and it being based on her family instead of her given name makes it more impersonal (not to mention it being a single syllable makes it conveniently short for barking orders at her.)
- Dragon Rider: She briefly gets to ride Haku in his dragon form.
- Expressive Hair: Her hair tends to spike up whenever something startles her, or just freaks her out in general.
- Extremely Protective Child: Chihiro spends most of her time in the spirit world trying to rescue her parents.
- Fish out of Water: She has a hard time fitting in in the spirit world, being a human.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Initially, most of the spirits have mixed feelings about her on the account of their Fantastic Racism against the humans.
- Humble Hero: When No-Face offers her some bath tokens and later on gold, she politely declines since she is content with what she has.
- In the Dreaming Stage of Grief: When she realizes she is stuck in the spirit realm where humans turn into pigs, she ends up in a Troubled Fetal Position on the stairs, while saying "It's just a dream. Go away, go away... Disappear..." She almost disappears.
- I Want My Mommy!: Daveigh Chase belts out a heartbreaking “Mommy!” in the English dub after Chihiro, thinking that the pigs aren’t her parents, breaks down in the middle of a street.
- Kid Hero: She's a 10 year old girl who braves the entire spirit world all on her own.
- Made a Slave: She's contracted into Yubaba's service after being trapped in the spirit world.
- Lazy Bum: As part of her spoiled nature, Chihiro is indolent at first—even though she's a child, it's clear that she hasn't done chores or anything resembling labor before. After Chihiro stumbles through her first shift in the bathhouse, Lin correctly guesses that she's never worked a single day in her life. Her time in the spirit world helps her grow out of it, and she ends the film unafraid of hard work if it means helping others.
- Magnetic Hero: At first, the only friends Chihiro had were Haku, Lin, and Kamaji; the other worker spirits hated her. However, she gets everyone else to like her after helping a guest spirit, and saving them from No-Face. By the end, they all are cheering for her to be free from Yubaba.
- Meaningful Name: Chihiro, possibly translated as "a thousand fathoms" or "ask a thousand questions", which is later changed to "Sen," or simply "a thousand," when Yubaba steals her name. Essentially she is turned from a unique individual to simply a numbered worker.
- Morality Pet: The biggest example in the movie.
- Muggle in Mage Custody: She becomes a de facto slave to the powerful witch Yubaba, working for her in her bathhouse for spirits.
- Mythical Motifs: She can't go anywhere without stepping on an Eastern dragon. This affinity for them saves her life several times.
- Nerves of Steel: Sort of. While Chihiro is a bit disturbed of being trapped inside the Spirit World, she maintains her composure when she's working at the bathhouse. She also has these when she's venturing the abandoned park.
- Nice Girl: Not that she was a complete Jerkass in the beginning, though given her parents' lack of sympathy towards her, you can't blame her, but her adventures in the Spirit World allowed Chihiro to grow in emotional maturity, making her more respectful and polite.
- Only Sane Woman: She immediately notices how weird and creepy things are when she crosses over into the spirit world, unlike her parents who are completely oblivious.
- Say My Name: "HAKUUUU!!"
- Spoiled Brat: Starts out as this, particularly from the perspective of Yubaba, though grows out of it as she learns to better take care of herself.
- Tightrope Walking: Actually, Pipe Running. She runs across a thin metal pipe outside very high above the ground, to reach a far ladder, so that she can reach Haku and try to save him. Even more impressive since she was implied to be scared of heights earlier in the movie and is in fact screaming in terror through the feat.
- Together in Death: With Haku, if Hayao Miyazaki’s words are to be believed.
- Tomboyish Ponytail: She wears a ponytail combined with sidetails.
- Token Human: That's who she is during her time in the Spirit World.
- Took a Level in Badass: Becomes more self-reliant and bold as the movie progresses.
- Took a Level in Kindness: She also starts being more helpful and selfless.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chihiro allows No-Face to enter the bathhouse as this corrupted him with the worker's greed.
- Walking Disaster Area: She's really clumsy for most of the film.
- You Are Number 6: After signing a contract with Yubaba, her name is reduced to "Sen" (千) which is Japanese for 1,000.
- You Leave Him Alone!: When Haku is unconscious and the heads are trying to push him down a fireplace flue, she runs over screaming his name and yells at them to stop.
Chihiro's parents
Mr. and Mrs. Ogino
Chihiro's mother and father.
Voiced by: Takashi Naito and Yasuko Sawaguchi (JP), Michael Chiklis and Lauren Holly (US)Other Languages
- Adults Are Useless: They both get themselves turned into pigs with no memory of their original selves and it is up to their meek daughter to fend for herself and eventually save them from being cooked and eaten.
- All There in the Manual: The Art of Spirited Away gives their names as Akio and Yūko. He’s 38 and she’s 35.
- Forced Transformation: They both get turned into pigs as punishment for eating the spirit's food.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Their transformation into pigs isn't just a physical one, but a mental one too, as they have no recollection of ever being human in the first place, making them completely indistinguishable from the other pigs. Likewise, they have no recollection of being pigs either once they do turn back into human.
- Parental Neglect: Both of them are shown to be rather apathetic and dismissive towards their daughter and her concerns about the "abandoned amusement park".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Mr. Ogino thinks that he could beg for forgiveness instead of asking permission when he finds massive platters of food because he has "credit cards and cash."
- Strong Family Resemblance: Chihiro and her mother have the same face.
- Too Dumb to Live: They find massive platters of mouth-watering food freshly made in an abandoned theme park bereft of any other signs that they aren't alone there, the supposed chefs nowhere in sight and neither of them seem to think this strange enough to worry about it. In-fact they decide to start eating the food and wonder where it came from later. This gets them turned into pigs since that food was meant for the spirits that lived there.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Mr. O twice over. First he decided to take an off-road shortcut which led to the abandoned theme-park. He then decides to help himself to the spirit's food, goading his wife into joining him, turning him and his wife into pigs and leaving his daughter alone in the Spirit World.
- Women Are Wiser: Mrs. O encourages her husband not to take any shortcuts, but she manages to subvert this trope by joining him in eating the spirit’s offerings.
- Younger Than They Look: Downplayed, but Mr. O looks well into his forties instead of being in his late thirties.
Haku
Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi
Click here to see Haku's true form.
"You shouldn't be here. Get out of here, now!"
Yubaba's apprentice and right hand man in the bathhouse, a spirit who keeps order among the other workers as well as doing Yubaba's dirty work. Unbeknownst to his master, he aids and protects Chihiro a great deal and the two form a close bond. He has the ability to turn into a dragon.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Downplayed. While Haku was already Chihiro's Mysterious Protector from the start, his devotion and love for her becomes even stronger after he learns from Kamaji of Chihiro's act of protecting him from Zeniba and saving his life with a spiritual herb.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Haku has matching green eyes and hair. Possibly to reflect his nature as a river spirit, either through the actual water's color or the greenery that naturally collects around rivers.
- Determinator: Even more so, when it's been revealed that Yubaba had placed a spell on him the entire time to make him more obedient and he still goes right behind her back to aid Chihiro wherever he can, while keeping his boss in the dark about his involvement.
- Deuteragonist: The film's secondary focus is on his role as Yubaba's henchman, his mysterious connection to Chihiro, and his search for his own forgotten name.
- Distressed Dude: He’s cursed by Zeniba and left to die by the second half of the film, leaving it up to Chihiro to save him.
- Dragons Are Divine: Haku is basically the god of the Kohaku River.
- The Dragon: Among the bath house staff he is known to serve as one to Yubaba, which earns him a certain amount of fear and respect from the other workers. Lin flat out advises Chihiro not to trust Haku because of it.
- Enigmatic Minion: He’s bound to Yubaba’s service and acts cold in the presence of others, but is kind to Chihiro in private.
- Forgotten First Meeting: Of a sort, with Chihiro, having rescued her from his river when she fell in trying to reach her pink shoe. He remembers knowing her for a "long time", it's the circumstances he couldn't remember.
- Giant Flyer: In his dragon form.
- Elemental Eye Colors: He has very beautiful, striking green eyes, especially when compared to the rest of the cast. At the same time they are cold and emotionless, until he gets his name back.
- Heroic Resolve: When he's unconscious and bleeding to death internally and falling down a fireplace flue, because Chihiro is also falling with him he comes to long enough to get her to Kamaji safely, before crashing again.
- Hidden Depths: Namely his entire role in Chihiro’s life, which is not revealed until the climax. It’s also one of the main themes of the movie, and what Chihiro brings out in him.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Downplayed. His hair is around chin length but he's still obviously a Bishounen type character.
- Made a Slave: Like Chihiro, Yubaba stole his true name, Kohaku River, and placed a spell on him to make him obedient to her.
- Merciful Minion: He's apparently The Dragon for Yubaba but he's secretly defying her by helping Chihiro to get her parents back. It's debatable if he serves as one towards the other bathhouse-staff; while they turn to him when things get messy, most of them seem to be wary of him as well.
- Mysterious Protector: He’s one for Chihiro for most of the film, until becoming a Distressed Dude in the second half.
- Nature Spirit: Like most of Yubaba's workers, but it seems pretty clear he's of a higher caliber than the toad, slug, and weasel spirits running around. He’s actually a river spirit, whose river was filled in years ago.
- Number Two: Haku is Yubaba's right-hand man. He doesn't seem too happy about it, but there was little he could do without his name.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Yubaba stole his name so long ago, not even Haku himself remembers his real name. Thanks to Chihiro, he remembers his real name is Kohaku River.
- Our Dragons Are Different: He’s able to turn into a dragon with an eastern aesthetic, naturally—also naturally this is because he’s a river spirit, and in many eastern mythologies dragons are closely associated with water.
- Puppeteer Parasite: Turns out Yubaba planted one in him long ago to secure his obedience. It seems to work to some degree, but it still isn't enough to stop Haku from blatantly defying her in order to help Chihiro.
- Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Haku appears cold and dismissive towards nearly everyone, but it becomes hard not to feel sorry for him, as he is trying to remember his stolen name in order to go home. Which is only made worse by the fact that his river is long gone (which he seems to have forgotten as well), meaning he couldn't go home even after quitting his apprenticeship with Yubaba.
- The Stoic: When he’s not with Chihiro, he’s completely unemotive. Note that even an enraged Yubaba charging at him while breathing fire and nearly strangling him with her hair couldn't make Haku so much as blink in shock.
- Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Haku is cold, stoic, and unresponsive to Yubaba and the other spirit workers; he's smiling, warm, and talkative when around Chihiro. Chihiro even asks Lin if there are two Hakus—Lin shudders at the idea of two of him.
- Together in Death: According to Miyazaki, he and Chihiro will indeed meet again, just like he promised her, in the afterlife.
- Undying Loyalty: For Chihiro. Even when under the control of Yubaba's parasitic worm and unable to remember his true name he will not betray her.
- Vague Age: Haku looks like he's around Chihiro's age, though he doesn't act the least bit child-like. Given that he is more or less the personification of a literal river, it's likely that Haku is a little bit older than her, but his true age is never made clear.
- When He Smiles: It's rare to see him smiling, but when he does he looks even more handsome than he already is.
- You Can't Go Home Again: He’s unable to return to his home and this is the reason he joins with Yubaba. As it turns out, he no longer has a home because the river he inhabited was filled up.
Kamaji
Kamaji
"Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love."
The six-armed boiler man, he also helps Chihiro get around in the bathhouse and is one of the more benevolent spirits, though initially gruff and dismissive.
Voiced by: Bunta Sugawara (JP), David Ogden Stiers (US)Other Languages
- Animal Motifs: He's a hardworking spider spirit.
- Bad Boss: Played with; he is hard on the soot spirits, but he explains that if the little creatures don't work, the spell on them will fade and they'll lose their consciousness. And Chihiro's attempts to be helpful only encourage them to be lazy.
- Blatant Lies: "She's my granddaughter."
- Comforting Comforter: He draws a blanket over the sleeping Chihiro when she falls asleep in the boiler room.
- Creepily Long Arms: It's a little unsettling when you first see just how far Kamaji's arms can reach without him moving from his spot.
- Creepy Good: A sinister-looking bald man with a gruff attitude, a profusion of extensible arms, and unexpressive dark glasses. But once Chihiro overcomes her fear, he provides good advice and lies for her sake.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Kamaji is clad in black clothing and was one of the first spirits to help Chihiro.
- Grumpy Old Man: Kamaji is a grumpy, old spider spirit.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He came off as dismissive and rough around the edges, but was one of the only spirits to be helpful to Chihiro from the beginning.
- Meaningful Name: Kamaji comes from kamado (furnace, hearth) and ji (old man, grandpa).
- Multi-Armed Multitasking: Uses his multiple arms to carry out his duties efficiently as the boiler man.
- Shipper on Deck: When Lin is confused of why Chihiro is acting so tender to an injured Haku, Kamaji notes it's something she doesn't know: Love.
- Tsuchigumo and Jorogumo: While it is never expressly noted, many believe that Kamaji is a tsuchigumo, a spider youkai known to have illusionary abilities and, while commonly portrayed as malevolent, can at times be neutral or even generous Depending on the Writer.
Yubaba
Yubaba
"Ohh, your name's Chihiro? What a pretty name! And it belongs to me now."
The proprietor of the bathhouse, a greedy and malevolent witch who, after turning Chihiro’s parents into pigs, eventually takes her on as a worker and steals her name to keep her in her service. It’s implied that she does that with all of her spirit workers to keep them unable to leave, such as Haku.
Voiced by: Mari Natsuki (JP), Suzanne Pleshette (US)Other Languages
- Absurdly Elderly Mother: She has a giant baby, despite appearing grandmother-aged.
- Always Identical Twins: She and Zeniba look exactly alike. In fact, the only way to tell them apart are their differing personalities.
- Ambiguously Human: At least in the English dub, she refers to the Gods and spirits around her as if she is not one of them, but then treats the term “human” the same way. The only descriptive noun we get is that she’s a witch. But considering her strange proportions, magic, but very human features, its not clear what she is if not a spirit or a human.
- Animal Motifs: She’s associated with crows and ravens, who signify ominousness, death, destruction, and cunning. Reinforced where she looks like one when she flies using her robe.
- Bad Boss: Treats all of her employees like garbage; berating them, enslaving them, and threatening to turn anyone who talks back to her into coal. When Haku, her right hand man, arrives gravely wounded from a mission she sent him on, she orders him chucked down a garbage chute to keep him from bleeding on her carpet.
- Big Bad: She keeps Chihiro and Haku captive, is responsible for Chihiro's parents turning into pigs, and provides the final obstacle to Chihiro before she can return home.
- Cain and Abel: She has an antagonistic relationship with her sister.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She's not completely heartless, as shown with her being a doting mother to Boh.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- She won't go back on her oaths, which is why she gives Chihiro a job to begin with, since she had previously sworn to give a job to anyone who asked for one (an oath she regrets taking because it forces her to be so-called "nice" all the time). Even if a customer like No Face can produce endless gold, Yubaba is more than willing to get physical with unruly customers rather than have her workers fight in her place.
- For all of her negative qualities, Yubaba does genuinely respect hard work. Though she at first mocks Chihiro's efforts to help the Stink Spirit, she ends up legimiately impressed by the girl's tenacity and courage. After the Stink Spirit is cleansed, Yubaba hugs Chihiro in glee, pays her a sincere compliment, and tells all of the employees that they should take a leaf from Chihiro's book. It's doubly impressive considering that Chihiro is a human, and Yubaba makes no secret of her disdain for that group.
- Fairy Devilmother: While her sister falls under the Fairy Godmother archetype, Yubaba is the opposite; she's motivated entirely out of Greed, lives in excessive opulence, mistreats her work-force, and whatever good she does is usually done with Faustian bargaining. She meets her "godchild" (Chihiro) after her magic had turned her parents into pigs and stranded her in the Spirit World and "helps" her by turning her into an indentured servant. Even some of her more endearing qualities, like her love for her son, comes across as rather toxic considering she's spoiled him into perpetual infancy.
- Gonk: Like her baby and sister, she is extremely deformed looking next to the other characters, with a gigantic and ugly head.
- Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: She smokes from a long cigarette, the smoke of which she blows in other peoples’ faces.
- Graceful Loser: It's quick, but she does look at Chihiro with a warm smile when she leaves the bathhouse for good.
- Greed: One of her defining characteristics, running the bathhouse for their rich clientele.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Yubaba may not be likeable, but her criticisms of Chihiro as well as the latter's parents are completely justified, even if her responses are excessive.
- Mama Bear: For Boh. When she learns that her son is missing, she starts freaking out and frantically searches his room for him. When she suspects that Haku was involved somehow, she rushes him, breathing fire, and entangles him in her hair, and demands her son's whereabouts while sounding like a demon.
- Meaningful Name: Yubaba, "baba" often meaning "old woman" or "hag" in not just Japanese but also most Slavic languages. Her name also brings to mind Baba Yaga, the famous witch from Slavic folklore.
- Not only that, the Yu in her name Yubaba（湯婆婆） literally means "Hot water" or "Hot spring".
- My Beloved Smother:
- To her child, Boh—she has literally babied him so much that he is fully grown but still retains the appearance of an infant.
- Chihiro later calls her "Grandma!" to her shock and surprise, but she doesn't deny it.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: Her kiss to Boh sounds exactly the same in both Japanese and English.
- Oh, Crap!: Even her rage at Haku is quickly quelled when he tells her Boh is with her sister.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Unlike her sister, she’s quite nasty and cruel while still having a soft side deep down.
- Sacred Hospitality: Averted. She makes an effort to at least appear respectful in front of guests and seems to be interested in being hospitable.... but that's only because she runs a bathhouse and this is how she makes money. She turns Chihiro's parents into pigs for eating food without asking, but when No-Face does far worse by eating several of her employees, her instructions to Chihiro are to goad him into giving her as much gold as possible and politely ask him to leave (essentially, bleed him dry and kick him out).
- Supernatural Floating Hair: A particularly threatening aspect of her Freak Out when she discovers Boh is missing.
- Take Away Their Name: Yubaba magically enslaves her employees stealing their names, thus taking their memories of their past and their real name. She gives them new names, to avoid nameless confusion. They can only get free of her if they remember their real name.Yubaba: So, your name's Chihiro? What a pretty name! And it belongs to me now.
- Took a Level in Kindness: It's very subtle but she does become less antagonistic toward Chihiro in time and has points where she genuinely smiles at her.
- Villainous Valour: For all her faults as a boss and a person, cowardice is something that Yubaba does not have. Yubaba is willing to stand up against No Face head-on when he began rampaging and chasing Chihiro to stop him herself.
- We Have Reserves: Appears to have this attitude as she was less than dismissive of her apprentice Haku almost dying. She did not seem concerned about the workers eaten by No Face either.
- Wicked Witch: She certainly looks like one.
- Would Hurt a Child: She forcibly pulls Chihiro into her office, literally zips her mouth shut, verbally abuses her and threatens to turn her into a piglet and/or a lump of coal on various occasions.Yubaba: (after the door to her office opens for Chihiro) Well, come in.
(Chihiro is too scared to move)
Yubaba:: I said, come IN! (uses her telekinesis to force her into her office)
Lin
Lin
"Sen! I'm sorry I called you a dope before... I take it back!"
A (weasel) spirit working in the bathhouse. After Chihiro is impressed into Yubaba's service, she becomes a mentor figure teaching her how to clean and become more efficient as a worker. A bit cold and snide, but ultimately one of the more benevolent spirits.
Voiced by: Yumi Tamai (JP), Susan Egan (US)Other Languages
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She clearly feels dragged supervising Chihiro initially, and even then still displays considerable snark once she mellows.
- Animal Motifs: She’s a weasel, who is shown as being snarky, not understanding love, and a bit of a trickster around her coworkers.
- Asian Fox Spirit: While she appears human, the Japanese picture book reveals calls her a byakko — a white fox-spirit. The English version of the picture book translates this as "weasel".
- Barely-Changed Dub Name: In the Chinese dubs, where she's called 小玲 (Xiao Ling/Siu Ling). Similarly to Sen, it's her Japanese name pronounced in Chinese with a Xiao/"little" added to it.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: She's the only spirit in the bathhouse (other than Haku) who could pass as a normal human and is nicer to Chihiro than any of the other bathhouse workers aside from Kamaji.
- Big Sister Instinct: Gradually she develops this towards Chihiro, trying to protect her even from people who aren’t trying to hurt her (like the stink spirit).
- Cool Big Sis: She ends up becoming one to Chihiro—comforting the younger girl during an emotional meltdown and spending the rest of the time guiding her through the workings of the bathhouse.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially with dealing with Chihiro’s naivety and lack of job experience.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Either “Lin” or “Rin,” due to Japanese R’s.
- Innocently Insensitive: Lin does not like Haku, when Chihiro asks her if there's two of them, she goes off on a little rant about how she can barely stand him and tells Chihiro to not trust anything he says, she breaks down crying since Haku at the time was the only person to show her kindness.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lin is sarcastic and sneaky, but proves to a good person.
- Mama Bear: Besides a Big Sister Instinct, Lin's protectiveness of Chihiro comes across as a mother protecting her child.
- Parental Substitute: As well as being a Cool Big Sis figure, Lin also adopts a maternal side while looking after Chihiro.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Lin is always barefoot. She has no need for footwear working in the bathhouse and tells Chihiro she doesn't need any, either, when Chihiro hesitates to discard hers in a place where it's normal to walk everywhere in bare feet.
- Took a Level in Kindness: While initially annoyed at the idea of taking of Chihiro and displaying the same Fantastic Racism towards humans like most of her co-workers, Lin gradually comes to care for the younger girl.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Downplayed. She has no issues feeling or understanding platonic love but is completely confused by displays of romantic love. Kamaji even says it’s not something she’s able to recognize.
No Face
No Face
"I want Sen."
A lonely and faceless spirit whom Chihiro allows into the bathhouse during a rainy night, growing an affinity for her as a result. He soon turns out to be a huge problem for the bathhouse, beginning to emulate the greed of the other workers and obsessing over Chihiro.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: The reason why he hangs around Chihiro is she was kind enough to let him in.
- Belly Mouth: This is where his true mouth lies, rather than on the mask.
- Big Eater: As he gets greedier and greedier he eats just about anything in sight, including people.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: He constantly tries to repay Chihiro's kindness by trying to eat her. Justified since it's heavily implied that the greed emanating from the bath house drove him insane.
- Breakout Character: Easily the most recognizable character of the film and one of the most iconic Studio Ghibli characters.
- Cannibalism Superpower: He takes on the physical and emotional traits of those he consumes.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Initially shows up as one of many strange spirits in a large crowd.
- Dark and Troubled Past: All we know about his backstory is that he has no one and is very lonely.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He does cause some problems for the bath-house, eat the workers, and try to do the same thing to Chihiro. However, he ultimately proves to be a good, if misguided spirit, a sentiment reinforced by Hayao Miyazaki with the line "No Face is within all of us".
- Empathic Shapeshifter: When on his own, he is just a shiftless, mysterious, lonely spirit wandering outside of the Bathhouse. In his short time in the bathhouse, the Greed and Gluttony prevalent in the environment turns him into a malevolent blob driven by hunger and a lust for attention, only to go berserk when his attempts to tempt Chihiro fail unlike all of the others. With Chihiro, he adopts her calmness, and he ultimately stays with Zeniba, who is definitely a good influence on him.
- Expressive Mask: His mask changes details subtly to show his different moods, much like how a real Noh mask can seem as though it has different expressions through the actor's subtle movements or under certain lighting.
- Extreme Omnivore: In addition to eating a lot, he'll eat anything.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: He only communicates in sighs, but Chihiro can understand him just fine. He can use the voices of those he's eaten, though, and temporarily averts this trope during his rampage, but notably, his calmer moments have him going back to sighs, suggesting that the stolen voices are a side effect of his instability.
- Irony: Meta example. No Face became a very popular and iconic character after the film's release that his face got put in merchandises.
- Leitmotif: Balinese Gamelan music plays every time he first starts appearing.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: When Chihiro asks him if he has any friends or family or a home to go back to, all he has to say is that he's lonely. No-Face's obsession with Chihiro seems to stem from this as well, supposedly being the first person to ever acknowledge him and show him kindness by letting him into the bathhouse.
- Magical Counterfeiting: The gold he gives out turns into a pile of dirt after he leaves the bathhouse.
- Meaningful Name: No-Face doesn't have a face, but a mask. It's also a Punny Name as it resembles a noh theater mask, making him a "Noh Face."
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: He actually isn’t that bad, but the bathhouse made him sick and he is very lonely. His problem is mostly his reflection of those around him, in the bathhouse most people are expressing greed so he did as well.
- Must Be Invited: At first, he was only a Spirit that could be seen by Chihiro that stood in the middle of the bridge until he was noticed. After seeing him two more times; she leaves the side door to the bath house open saying that he can come inside if he wishes.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: His grunts sound exactly the same in both Japanese and English.
- Series Mascot: He's usually the one who represents the film in Studio Ghibli merchandises.
- Villainous Glutton: The Greed so prevalent in the bathhouse turns him into this, ranging from emptying the kitchens of all of their food by paying with gold to just flat-out eating the employees. After Chihiro feeds him the River Spirit's medicine, he is purged of everything he ate and cured of the toxicity in the environment.
- Voice Changeling: He can speak only after eating someone else, mimicking their voice.
- Yandere: He briefly becomes this for Chihiro, unable to gain her affection through gifts and so eating several people, culminating in almost trying to eat her.
- You Are Who You Eat: He gains the personality and physical features of those he swallows (gaining frogs legs, for instance, when eating a frog-man). It's possibly one of the reasons he wants to eat Chihiro.
"Stink Spirit"
Stink Spirit / River Spirit
Click to see the spirit's true form.
"Well done!"
The Stink Spirit is one of the bathhouse's patrons, a particularly gnarly entity that finds itself there on Sen's first day as an employee.
Voiced by: Koba Hayashi (JP), Jim Ward (US)Other Languages
- Cool Old Guy: His true form has an incredibly old man's face and is portrayed as thrilled when it is freed of its Muck Monster form, giving Sen a medicine ball (which comes to her aid twice later on) and leaving behind nuggets of gold to compensate for all of the trouble he caused.
- Chekhov's Gun: The medicine ball he leaves, and the gold he rewards the bath house with.
- Foreshadowing: He is a river spirit, corrupted by the actions of humanity, who is ultimately kind despite his hostile exterior, and who is cured of his affliction by Chihiro's selflessness and determination. Just like Haku will be at the end of the film.
- Non-Malicious Monster: When the Stink Spirit first appears, it frightens all of the spirits in the town and some of the employees even try deterring it from entering the bathhouse. Even with how repulsive it is, it behaves itself as best it could, even paying upfront. It is then revealed that he was an ancient, incredibly wealthy River Spirit, having been transformed into its unpleasant state when its river was polluted.
- Our Gods Are Different: His true form is the dragon-like River Spirit, having been turned into a Muck Monster when his river became polluted with garbage.
- Stink Snub: The toxic sludge its body is composed of gives off an unbearable odor, hence why everyone calls it the "Stink Spirit." The smell is so putrid, it rots Sen and Lin's breakfast in seconds when exposed to it.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: After it leaves, it leaves behind hundreds of gold nuggets for the bathhouse as thanks. Unfortunately, No-Face was there to see how everyone reacted to the gold and began to feed on their greed by conjuring more for them.
- Vertebrate with Extra Limbs: His dragon-like true form has multiple pairs of limbs.
- Visible Odor: At close range, the Stink Spirit's, er, stink can be seen as a light cloud.
Zeniba
Zeniba
"Once you meet someone, you never really forget them."
Yubaba's identical twin sister, who shares her appearance but differs from her in personality. She places a curse on Haku after he steals one of her magical artifacts.
Voiced by: Mari Natsuki (JP), Suzanne Pleshette (US)Other Languages
- Actually Pretty Funny: She bursts out laughing when Chihiro tells her she squashed the curse (worm) around her seal. Correcting her, that the curse was Yubaba's parasite she used to control Haku.
- Always Identical Twins: She and Yubaba look exactly alike. In fact, the only way to tell them apart are their differing personalities
- Beware the Nice Ones: She's normally a kind old woman, but you don't want her to get mad at you. Just ask Haku - who she sicced a fleet of shikigami on for stealing from her.
- Cain and Abel: She and Yubaba are clearly on bad terms.
- Call to Agriculture: She is the opposite of her sister even in their lifestyle: Yubaba lives in a opulent bathhouse, Zeniba lives in a nice little cottage surrounded by plants, flowers and a vegetable garden.
- Cool Aunt: She may not seem like one at first since she insults her nephew Boh and turns him into a mouse. However, as she tells Chihiro, he could have turned back whenever he wanted to, therefore the spell was never meant to last long. After their visit she inquires that her nephew comes back to visit her again, sometime soon, and Boh kisses her on the nose before departing with Chihiro.
- Cool Old Lady: When Chihiro meets her, Zeniba is shown to be kind and grandmotherly.
- The Dreaded: Even Yubaba fears her magic and provoking her twin's wrath.
- Eccentric Mentor: She’s this for Chihiro later on.
- Fairy Godmother: While she doesn't act like it in her debut scene, she certainly fits the bill when Chihiro returns her charm to her. She provides her sanctuary in her cottage, comforts the girl, gives her magical protection forged from the love of her friends, and even gives Noh Face a place in her household.
- Gonk: Like her sister, she is extremely deformed looking next to the other characters, with a gigantic and ugly head.
- Good Is Not Soft: She definitely is kinder and more supportive than her sister, but is also not someone to be trifled with if you get on her bad side.
- Granny Classic: Once Chihiro meets her, Zeniba reveals herself as a grandmotherly and helpful old lady who enjoys knitting, asking for Chihiro to refer to her as "Granny". She gives Chihiro advice and takes in No Face to live with her.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: "Ow, a paper cut."
- Love Redeems: Anyone that steals her magical artifacts will die a rather slow and painful death, but the protective spell is broken by love. Haku under Yubaba's orders stole her precious seal, but was saved by Chihiro's love for him. Chihiro returned the seal to its rightful owner, astonishing Zeniba that her spell was gone, until she saw the girl embracing the dragon when they later reunited.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Unlike her sister, she’s clearly capable of great anger and retribution but usually nice and grandmotherly. It also plays into their lifestyles: with Yubaba preferring a lifestyle of wealth and opulence as the owner of a prestigious Bathhouse, while Zeniba lives rather plain and isolated on a small farm.
- Troll: Once she has access to Yubaba's office, one of the first things she does is mess with her son and main minions via ironic polymorphing. She does this for seemingly no reason other than to annoy her sister (that and the fact that Boh was annoying her with all his crying.)
- Would Hurt a Child: When she's been crossed. She turns Boh into a mouse and threatens to rip out Chihiro's mouth if she tells anyone she was in Yubaba's quarters.
Boh
Boh
Click to see him as a mouse.
"If you don't play with me, I'll cry..."
Yubaba's son. He's a gigantic baby who features more prominently in Chihiro’s struggle through the spirit world during the film’s second half.
Voiced by: Ryunosuke Kamiki (JP), Tara Strong (US)Other Languages
- Big Brother Instinct: Zig-Zagged. While he does gain a protective streak towards Chihiro, it's rather unclear if he's an actual baby or just a grown man who has been "babied". Either way, harming Chihiro becomes a major offense to him. In his mouse form, he bites No-Face when he gets dangerously close to her and threatens to disown Yubaba when she acts mean to Chihiro during her final test.
- Bratty Half-Pint: When he meets Chihiro, he's an annoying and spoiled giant baby. He later gets better.
- Character Development: In his time with Chihiro, he goes from a Spoiled Brat who threatened to break her arm if she wouldn't play with him to developing a Big Brother Instinct attitude towards her.
- Disappeared Dad: Whoever was the father of Boh is never addressed in the movie.
- Forced Transformation: For a time, turned into a mouse by Zeniba. The trope is played with in that the spell wears off early, but he doesn’t choose to turn back until much later.
- Jerkass Realization: Not to himself but learns what kind of person his mother is to other people. After witnessing first-hand the danger Yubaba puts Chihiro through and how she treats other people (including him in his mouse form), Boh becomes a lot nicer to Chihiro as she was willing to care for him at the time.
- Manchild: He’s literally a baby but supposedly fully grown, his growth stunted by his mother babying him. Yubaba is apparently unaware he can walk on two legs, indicating just how much he'd been "babied".
- Morality Pet: He’s one for his mother, being the only person she really cares about.
- Non-Dubbed Grunts: His screams and cries sound exactly the same in both Japanese and English.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Inverted. He's big enough to be a man, but has the appearance and mentality of a Spoiled Brat; his first character moment has him threatening to have his mother kill Chihiro if she won’t play with him.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: He’s one as a mouse.
- Spoiled Brat: His mother spoils him so much that he's now a bratty giant baby.
- Small Parent, Huge Child: A huge baby twice the height of his mother Yubaba, though it's implied he's actually an adult who resembles a baby due to his mother spoiling him for so long.
- Took a Level in Kindness: His brief time as a mouse and spending time with Chihiro, leads him to stop behaving like a brat. In fact, he gains a Big Brother Instinct towards Chihiro.
- Vague Age: It's unclear if he literally is a giant baby, or a man who has been so ludicrously coddled throughout his life that he still looks and acts like a baby even as an adult.
- Visual Pun: He's a literal big baby.
Yu-Bird
Yu-Bird/Haedori
A harpy with a head almost identical to Yubaba's own that acts as one of Yubaba's servants and spies.
- All There in the Manual: Yu-Bird being a spy is only known from the book "The Art of Spirited Away".
- Ambiguous Situation: Because Haedori stays in her new form, it is unknown if she will continue working for Yubaba.
- Feathered Fiend: Introduced as a servant of Yubaba's on the lookout to try and find Chihiro. Haku's reaction to seeing the Yu-Bird is enough to tell the audience that the Yu-Bird will definitely be a threat to Chihiro. The Yu-Bird appears again where she begins attacking Chihiro as she tries to defend Haku. Steps out of this trope after being transformed.
- Forced Transformation: Yu-Bird was turned into a very small fly-like bird by Zeniba. The trope is played with in that the spell has worn off early and that they could have transformed back at any time but the two decide to stay in their new forms a little longer. Unlike Boh at the end, the Yu-Bird stays in her new form. According to
Miyazaki, the Yu-Bird stays in her new form as she enjoys having her own unique appearance rather than be an extension of Yubaba. - Heel–Face Turn: Starts of as an antagonist where she is a secondary or minor antagonist in the first half of the film alongside Yubaba. After being transformed and spending time with Chihiro, firmly stays on her side for the rest of the film.
- Meaningful Name: Yu-Bird's name is clearly a combination of Yubaba and "Bird" as she is a harpy with Yubaba's head. Haedori literally translates to "fly bird" where her new form looks and sounds like a fly with a cartoonishly large beak.
- No Name Given: In the dub only.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: No bigger than a fly in her new form but strong enough to lift Boh in his mouse form for extended periods of time, despite being many times smaller than he is.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Perhaps not as the Yu-Bird but definitely so when transformed as the Haedori.
- Those Two Guys: Becomes this with Boh where her role after transforming has been reduced to being Boh's personal carrier.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The Yu-Bird is introduced as a lackey of Yubaba who attacks Chihiro on their second encounter. Her time with Chihiro as a small fly-like bird has her develop a friendship with Chihiro and sticks with her for the rest of her journey.
