¶ Double Feature
Welcome back to the Zone Podcast , the show where we like to talk about classic anime movies . I'm Jeff Blackestream and today's topic is a double feature . We're going to be doing my Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away , because I'm in a Miyazaki Studio Ghibli mood and joining me for this is Sebi Phantom , so let's just go ahead and zone in on it now .
I'm going to start it off with my Neighbor Totoro because at first , when I just got through watching the movie once again for the first time in a while , I thought it was a pretty simple story , like no real stakes and whatnot . But it was a simple story that was likable , you know , check this out and it was a children's movie .
That was this profound exploration of themes like imagination , the healing nature of family , deep connection between humans and nature . And it was about these two girls , sasuke and Mei , who moved to the countryside with their father while their mother was hospitalized in a hospital that's close by their new place .
And While they're trying to adjust to the new place , the sisters encounter these mysterious , magical creatures in the forest , including this gentle giant , totoro , who is serving as one of the mascots for Studio Ghibli .
Because when you see the title crawl and all that , uh , the title card , and you see Totoro and you see , uh , like a bird and a mouse , but we'll explain those two later , but Totoro's the big one . Um , looking like a big Toadstrow , is the big one .
Looking like a big .
How would you describe Toadstrow ?
It's like he's a giant Great cat bunny thing yeah .
It's hard , but anyways it's him .
And I also like the design for the cat bus , you know , with the multiple legs and whatnot , and for the most part it was just sasuke and may um palling around with totoro and all the different creatures there , like , once again , no real stakes , um , it would just felt like a light-hearted film that you could just probably put in the background and you just
look back and I'm like you know what . It's a decent movie , just like it . Like the visual side of it all was beautiful , of course , and the music , once again , yeah , good . And I guess you can say it's one of those movies where I probably , if I had kids , I'd probably like put them on my neighbor's toilet , like when they're like .
But if I were to rate it I would say a four Because once again it was like decent film , but Not a whole lot of take away from me , like , especially Now that I'm an adult I'm like I'm a little more Complex than that , but yeah .
No , I definitely have to agree with you there . I gave it for me a 6 out of 10 . I definitely get where they were going . You know it's these two girls . Like you said , they move to the countryside to be near their mother , and it allows them to become better .
It allows them to embark in their innocence While something sickly is happening on the reality side . But this allows them to be in their imagination . So I definitely agree with you , jb .
Yeah , like , not to discount my never told you , like , like I kept saying it was a decent film . It just for me it was more like a simple film that you could just like . Let's say , for instance , it's one of those films where it's a weird vibe . It's's like Imagine . It's like Mid summer , you got nothing to do .
You could probably put this on in the middle of the day While you're like doing your chores , like folding your clothes and whatnot . Yeah , like your chores and whatnot . And he's just watching the background . But of course you can still watch it and still enjoy it . But I'm just saying A cozy film , that's what I'm going for a cozy film .
Yeah , this is the classic miyazaki film . I mean , when you think of hayo miyazaki , you think of my neighbor totoro .
So at least , for me at least , I feel that now I know that was like pretty quick , but yeah , that's pretty much just like the movie itself . My review on it's just gonna be pretty simple . So with that pretty much out the way , let's just go ahead and talk about Spirited Away , the real meat and potatoes of this double feature .
Now , this was a almost 20 year time scale between my narrow totoro and spirit away . But with this one I'm like this was the one , this was the one that got me into miyazaki films . I know seven . Your favorite is house movement castle , but mine is always going to be spirit away .
It's like it's the first film I saw of miyazaki , but it's also the main ones where it was like okay , it has stakes . It also had all these different themes and , not gonna lie , yubaba kind of scared the shit out of me . Um , no-math , I mean No-Face , excuse me , no , his name's No-Face , um , no-face .
Uh , he was kind of scary when he was like Rampage and whatnot , but not that scary to me . Uh , it honestly , I just thought he was just more creepy than scary . But yubaba , when she gets mad , and all that because she got that thing .
Same thing going on with the red queen , from alice in wonderland to where it's like the big bulbous head , and I'm just like listen , lady , like can you like keep your distance please ? I'm like I'm having a bad . It's hard enough that I'm trying to register your . I'm not trying to be mean , but god damn like just give me three feet at all times .
No , yeah , the Yababa scared me . I'm going to say that I'm fairly new to Spirited Away only because I watched it recently within the five years , so it's not one of the movies where I'm like watching it every single . You know mine , I'm a house girl anyway . Um , I just thought that this movie itself was artistically so good . Um , to me it even .
It inspired almost Lilo and Stitch . It inspired Lilo and Stitch you know what .
I was kind of thinking of that when I was watching this . Like , why am I thinking of Lilo and Stitch while I'm watching this ?
That is because the main voice actor in the English is Davy Chase . I think is what she is and if I remember correctly she was lilo that what it was like , and that's another thing .
Um , to hero , like , okay , I , I want to like to hero , but in some areas she kind of annoyed me , like , and sometimes like she would just be yelling , uh , even though the person that she's talking to is like not even that far away , and I'm just sitting here like why are you yelling ?
no lie , I do that in my day-to-day . But she's actually inspired by an actual japanese girl that miyazaki drew . Um , yeah , her , his friend , the daughter of friend , was there to watch the films and he gave the same mannerisms Chihiro has as the actual Japanese girl . Okay , so it's been inspired by somebody .
Okay , in that aspect I can understand , I can respect that , I can forget that , but like I just had to be honest and that one thing to where I can tell , like as a 10 year old girl , this I it felt , it felt like this was a real girl .
So as far as her being like scared and all that , I'm like I can forgive all that because I'm not expecting a 10 year old girl to have nerves to steal like . This felt like a realistic girl , it was just . That was the one thing that kind of grated on my nerves like every now and then , but it it didn't overstay its welcome .
So I can go off by , but it didn't get annoying in the first half , you know . Now let's talk about the plot a little bit , how it centers around Chihiro and her and her parents . They're moving to a new place . Funny how there's a theme going between these two movies and also how we talked about Inside Out recently .
There's a thing going between these two movies and also how we talked about inside out recently . Um , these kind of down on the gums about moving to a new place .
She wanted to stay at her old school and honestly I can feel that , like you already know , with uh inside out , if you listen to that review and essentially the father was like hey , yo , let's take a shortcut . And then they arrived to what looked like this abandoned amusement park and they saw the food that was like warm and um fresh .
So they're like , okay , well , you know , while I was here like I'm gonna dig in , and then chihiro did some more exploring and next thing , you know , it's like she got sucked Into this spiritual world . That was like I mean , I guess it was not real , very .
But like Next thing you know she's just getting Ruptured and all this stuff to where she gotta Save her parents because they got transformed into pigs . And the thing was she had to go to yubaba , the main antagonist , the witch , and her deal is you had to get a job from her in order to kind of .
I guess the deal was you had to get a job from her in order to work your way out . See , that's another thing , one of the themes , that spirit away that especially got to me like as an adult . As a kid I didn't pay too much mind , but as an adult , bro , listen , bro , listen , sebi , brace yourself for this .
The whole point of the film was you have to literally sign your life away to this job and they take away your name , your identity , anything that makes you special , and then once you kind of forget who you are , you just become a shell of yourself and you just never leave and whatnot . And does that sound like ?
I'm like hey , yo what's up , man ?
You know what ?
This does kind of feel like Because you're on to something , but I don't think that's the actual like content of the actual film . No , no , no , no you're definitely on to something , though , that's definitely something .
That's the thing . Like it was like a subtext , it was like a Sub thing , you know , like it didn't pay too much Attention to that aspect . But when you really think about it , like when you Kind of Think of it in a different perspective , I'm like hold On .
So the whole point was she had to get a job from this witch who planned on taking her whole Identity away from her To a point to where she even forgets who she was , so she'll never leave the spiritual world . So she's practically enslaved to this witch just to try to get her parents out of this whole situation .
And I'm like , wait a minute , because I'm not trying to be this guy about it , because I swear , sometimes it feels like some jobs pay you just enough to convince you to keep that job .
You no longer have a name JB . You are now working in corporate America . You better figure out a name for yourself , because it's no longer going to be JB .
I'm like no going to be JB . I'm like . No , I have an identity , I have a voice of my own , I am my own person . Damn it .
What's funny is that if you do work in corporate America , half the time you use a nickname for yourself . You don't even use your full name anymore .
Yeah , it's almost like for me I'll probably go by my actual name when I'm in my winter years , because I'm like , hey man , like I mean you can call me jb's , like you know , call back to my prime years , but outside of that I'll probably sound more professional by then , but until then I'm still gonna be this edgy goofball .
But , um , yeah , like I'll just sit back like hey yo . That's why I'm saying that in hindsight , like in retrospect , like in my adult years , I can sit back and watch this movie in a different perspective . I'm like , wait a minute . But anyways , yeah , yeah , the whole thing was with Haku being the Kohaku river spirit .
He also pretty much lost his identity being under the employ of Yubaba and Chihiro helps him gain his identity . And of course I mentioned no Face and he's kind of funny here and there . But at the same time it's more like he .
He reminds me of the kind of guy that pops up every now and then to where he thinks oh well , if I show her that I have money and whatnot , she might like me . I'm like , oh well , I don't really want your money . Like , just be yourself . I'm like I , I , I , I don't know how to be myself , like bitch . Look at me . I have no face .
Like it means I have no identity outside of my money . You know what I mean . And I'm like hold on no I think .
No , I think the representation of no face , being like I'll be who you want me to be yeah , that's what it was .
It's like , hey , man , you just need to chill out , like , and they just kept rampaging whatnot . But hey , you know what he did calm down by the end of it , like okay , I'm just gonna follow you to um deneva and deneva's gonna help you out . And then deneva's like , hey , you want to stay here , like I could always need help .
Or I'm like , okay , yeah , that's cool and I'm like that's pretty much his art and I'm like alright , okay . No .
This movie definitely Like . It's definitely an artwork For 2001 .
¶ Age Gaps and Spirited Away
When I originally saw the movie , I asked if it was like 2010 or 2009 . When I found out it was , I asked if it was like 2010 or 2009 . When I found out it was 2001, . I'm like no .
Yeah , 23 years .
Don't say that I'm back . Don't put it in years .
Yeah , I'm sorry , I do that like coca got to taste that . I'm like why are you putting years on ? hey man , you need to stop fighting it , okay I'm not old like , then again , I'm like I have that unfair advantage to where , until it wears off , like physically I'm not aging . So it's like , yeah , you know well , I am getting older .
But if you know , you know , you know what I mean . Like , if you know my actual age , you will know I'm old . But at face value You'll just assume I'm in my 20s . So I'm like , hey , man , let them believe whatever they want to believe .
Well , as someone In her 20s , I'm pretty face accurate . But , it's kind of a shock , because a lot of my Friends are like way older than me or than people that I first meet and they're like oh , how old are you ? Are you like in your late 20s ? I'm like I just turned 2-4 , sir .
And then they're like oh , I'm like 20 years older than you and I'm like shut up .
I keep thinking like okay , I kind of look older now , but sometimes like even like , how long was this like ? I want to say at least a year ago like one person uh came up to me , asked me how old am I ? How , yeah , how old am I ? And then I just like straight up I told her 32 and then she was like no fucking way , you're lying .
I'm like no , dang , I thought you were like my age . I'm like how old are you ? Like 21 ? I'm like dang , really . I mean not , that's not bad . But I'm just saying like wow , what a weird age gap .
It's like it's almost like kind of weird making friends once you're in your 30s , to where I'm like especially depending on how young the person could look to where it's like you're just chopping it up with them . You're not even asking for their age up front , because who does that ?
And then just out of nowhere , eventually you find out how old they are and you're like wait what ?
Have you seen ? I don't know if you've seen that meme , jb , but it's like the person sitting in the middle is like in their middle 20s . It's like the person sitting in the middle is like in their middle 20s and then the people on the right are like . Then it's like different people spanning out . It's like 30 , 35 , 16 , 22 , 45 .
And I'm like that's my friend group right now .
Yeah , Right now my friend group is more like either you're in your mid 20s or you're probably pushing towards 40 . No , no , hold on . I have like a couple that's like mid-40 . But none of them are pushing 50 .
I don't think I have any friends that are 50 .
Yeah , I mean that wouldn't be bad , but like , almost , like I wouldn't say friends more like colleagues .
Yeah , people that you talk to and occasionally hang out with nothing more , nothing less .
Yeah , it's more professional Than casual . You know Like I might come to them for advice or assistance , but we're not that familiar with each other .
And that's Kind of exactly what this movie has . And Chihiro Going to these different Adults , you know , like zaniba , and there do I say um , haiku and yubaba , and then oh lynn um , what was that one guy ?
the boiler man ? Um , wait , I forgot his name , but like I swear to god , he looked like Eggman in the face . Stop . Stop , come on like it was like Eggman , but like he became A spider .
Kamaji . His name is Kamaji .
Kamaji , okay , yeah , like he had like the extending Spider Limbs . I don't know , that's actually kind of cool . But yeah , now I'm like that's actually kind of cool .
Yeah , I'm watching him pour tea and then he's doing something else with his left hand and doing something with his other hand .
I love his sense of spatial awareness because he was trying to get an item and he was like extending his arm and he knew exactly where the hero was . Yeah , exactly where the drawers and everything . He didn't have to look at it , he just had that memory and spatial awareness . That's actually kind of cool .
Grab and go type situation . I think my favorite character in this entire movie were the suits . Yeah , but everyone loves the suits .
The baby Bo . I swear to god , he , he kind of annoyed me just a little bit . I mean once again a baby . So I can't fault him too much . But like the whole thing where if you don't play with me I'll cry and then mommy gonna hear and he gonna come and kill you .
You better play with me right now and I'm like I get it , but , jesus christ , you're really making it hard to see . That's another thing . What I like about chihiro like that's the main thing I like about her the fact that she was like standing on business the whole time trying to rescue her parents . Like she was , like , not , it's like that .
One meme um , born to dilly dally , forced to lock in right like she was playing no games , like with no face or anybody . I'm like , hey man , I'm just trying to find my people so I can get the hell out of here . I don't got time to play with y'all .
Yeah definitely .
Was there anything else about this movie , because I feel like we just covered Whoa Well , of course , the ending to where ? Okay , now that she went through all those hoops and hurdles , the final test was she had a seat which one of the pigs in the little hurdle was her real parents , and I like how there was like subtlety to it .
There was like no real tell or anything , just more she just knew that it was none of them and then I was well , she passed the test . So Yubaba was a woman of her words . She was like alright , get the hell out of here Exactly Go home .
That's what I kind of like about some like I don't know if you've seen Agatha all along , but that's just a funny thing . There was like no conventional antagonist , like they weren't evil . It's just more like , yeah , they are who they are .
But right they can be fair sometimes no , I'm about to start watching agatha . Um , you did a review on it recently , didn't you ?
yeah , I just did and so , yeah , you don't have to worry about jumping on a review , I already did it . But I would recommend it anyways because , like I said in the review , not gas , but not bad , it was pretty good .
Gotcha . Here's a cool fact about Spirited Away . It was the first anime film to ever win an Oscar .
That is not surprising . I feel like I heard that before , but it's been a while since I heard that . But that's not .
That's really not surprising , because think about it where , in the opposite of my neighborhood , where there was little to no stakes and spirited away , there was a lot of stakes because if chihiro didn't figure all this out in a timely manner , she would have lost her identity and her parents would have been picked forever .
So I'm like , yeah , like she definitely had to lock in and I think the whole premise of this movie is that you know life is going to be hard whether you move or not , and that just because you go to a new school doesn't mean it's going to be all bad . And she was able to overcome everything that happened to her and , at the end , her dad .
I think it's the cutest little saying . The dad goes a new home and a new school . It is a bit scary and shahira turns to him and goes . I think I can handle it .
You know what that's crazy . Imagine if you had those two scenes , like the beginning part and the ending part , and just match them together . Imagine that being like pretty much the whole plot of Inside Out , like you just pretty much explain Inside Out in five minutes .
So easy for our review . Oh , abusing my friends , I think I can handle it .
Yeah , yeah , of course . Visually , musically beautiful , excellent Classic . Honestly , in conclusion , both my Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are timeless masterpieces , Heartwarming classics , and if I were to rate Spirited Away five-star movie , I don't know . I can't argue with it .
It was solid . If I had to rate it and I may get some hate about this I'm going to have to say 4.5 . Yeah , that's okay . That is because only one Studio Ghibli has my 5.0 heart .
So it's biased .
Just a little bit .
I mean also you are fairly new to it , so I'm like I'm not going to hold you to it . But hey look , it's not even about it being like oh , it was the first Ghibli movie that I watched , but it was more like going back to as an adult .
I'm like , hold on , like I just re-watched Spirit of the Way and I rethought of some of the things I glossed over as a kid and I'm like I'm not the same since , because I'm now looking at Spirit of the Way in a different perspective to where . I'm like I just saw a little a 10 year old girl sign her life away to save her parents .
When I was 10 , I was playing with a Bratz doll .
So I'm like , yeah , I kind of like this film more than I did when I watched the first time . I'm like , okay , as an adult I appreciate it better . So , yeah , it gets the five star . If I only watched it as a kid it would probably got the four , but as an adult I'm like okay . So I like what you did here and there , you know .
Definitely .
So , yeah , that's a double feature , like actually pretty quick , well quicker than usual , you know you go on for like an hour , maybe two hours , but that's what I'm saying , like sometimes some of these movie reviews gonna have more brevity to where .
Yeah , yeah , I got notes and whatnot , but not a whole lot to say on my end , unless any of my guests have anything that they want to add on . In fact , I think I got some notes from Kokugatsu , but while I pull them up , sebi , you got any additional notes for Spirited Away ?
Yeah , let me pull while I pull up my own notes . No , just overall , spirited Away has been like a featured film . I mean 2022 was 20 years old . I mean just overall . There wasn't a script when it was made . I think that's one of the notes that I wrote . Yeah , spirited Away and other Ghibli films tend to not have scripts .
Miyazaki himself said I didn't even know I was finished with the story until I finished it . He is such a depressing old man but he makes the cutest little films . I think I watched one of his little docu-series . He wrote and he was outside of the Ghibli the studio and there's just this plot of land and he goes and this is where I'll be buried .
I just think it's funny . Um , so Chihiro's name . I thought this was cool . The names actually mean something . So like , like , um , the soot sprites are actually called susuwatari , which means wandering soot . Kamaji means boiler geezer . Yubaba means bathhouse witch , zaniba translates to money witch .
Chihiro's Name means a thousand searches , while when it gets shortened to Sen just means a thousand . So she's searching for her Name and I thought that was cool . So Sen a thousand is searching for the rest Of her name .
Yeah , because remember when Yubaba tried to take her name away , they took away the first two like kanji , so it was like we went from . I like that but those are my notes funny enough , half of your notes were also half of Kokugatsu's notes . Like that's funny . He mentioned that . Yeah , um , the voice actress for um chihiro was lilo .
Um , he was mentioning some of the stuff too , like how she was based on the 10 year old daughter of the one of the co-producers . And yeah , uh , it's just funny how , yeah , some of y'all had both of you had similar notes , but here's some notes that he had Haku .
The Kohaku River was destroyed and the land was used to create apartments for the ever-expanding population of Japan . He saved Chihiro from drowning as a kid before this happened and this forced Kohaku to live in the spirit world where Yubaba took advantage of the weakest , the most weakened state to insert a mind controlling slug .
Uh , as you've seen him , uh , regurgitate . Uh , seneba was also able to curse him for stealing one of the magical artifacts . And let me jump to Seneba real quick .
How like she's supposed to be the opposite of Yubaba , to where she lives alone and stays to herself and she takes no face , and where Yubaba rejected his fake money , but Seneba saw good potential in him and took him in .
So , yeah , there's also a bow when Yubaba's son , forcedly shut in by his mother , represents a child that has Loved his mother and when he finally Experienced the world as a little mouse Opposite of his giant baby form , he learns to stand up to giant baby form . He learned to stand up to his mother , that he needs to grow up and experience the world .
You know what ? That's a good analogy because we got something like I kind of noticed that but I didn't really think about it until now . I'm like yeah yeah , that makes sense .
¶ Symbolism in Spirited Away
Uh , kamaji and lin represent the working force and how big they are . Yeah , as we . It's like I he made it sound simple and Yubaba . He also mentioned how she represents corporate greed . She runs bathhouses helping passing spirits relax , but only out for money , and she'll force her workers to do any , any job , regardless of how dangerous it might be .
And she also represents the overprotective mother , literally smothering Bo with tons of pillows and such and reprimands him from experiencing the outside world . And I'm sitting here , like you know .
Yeah , it's kind of wild how you don't really think about it because of the supernatural creatures and whatnot , but it's like a very strong analogy of how like this is what happens once you start growing up and get a job , like either you gotta climb the ladder or stay at your dead-end job or whatever's going on .
Instead of a child . I too smother myself in pillows .
I mean , not gonna lie , it does sound pretty comfortable , especially if you have a day bed in the living room and sometimes you just want to take a nap and it just sounds relaxing .
Indeed , it does .
Oh , no Face , His Coco got his nose on no Face . Many believe that he represents capitalism and consumerism and he understands when the bathhouse brings him stuff , he gives them gold galore . But Chihiro is different . He cannot understand that and I pretty much explained that to him .
That Zuniga understands that he can be the working class and just needs to be appreciated , as he does not need to represent greed . See , that's the thing . It's funny how , with Kogagaster's notes , it's pretty much a fusion of what I already said and what you said great minds think alike . I guess .
So that's why we kind of call it a think tank in the inner circle . But honestly , yeah , for the most part Pretty much spent on both . I said my neighbor told you it was a four out of five . Man , Spirit of Waves is a five out of five . I'm going to stand on that . Any final words for the people sebi .
Nope , I think we've covered everything here , jb all right , bad , all right .
With that being said , we're gonna go ahead and zone out of here . Remember to stay nerdy and that great things are coming . Have yourself a good morning , good afternoon and good night and , most importantly , take it easy .