“What a dull girl she is”: Even Hayao Miyazaki Didn’t Like His 1 Studio Ghibli Heroine Only to Realize He Had Made a Masterpiece

SUMMARY

• During the production of Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki faced the issue of Chihiro being a dull and ordinary looking girl, but as the production neared its end, he realized she was a charming character nonetheless.
• Miyazaki wanted to create a film for 10 year old girls as he felt there was not enough fiction depicting them realistically.
• Thus, Chihiro was created to be an ordinary girl with who anyone can relate to.

Hayao Miyazaki is known for creating strong female protagonists in his movies. From the brave and vicious heroine of Princess Mononoke, the adventurous little witch in Kiki’s Delivery Service, to the two adorable siblings in My Neighbor Totoro, Studio Ghibli movies have always created exceptional female leads.

Chihiro with her parents in Spirited Away | Credits: Studio Ghibli

Miyazaki’s first Oscar winner, Spirited Away, is no different. However, you might find a slight difference in this movie as compared to the rest of his filmography. As opposed to others, Chihiro is just a simple girl who has been put in the spot by unseen circumstances,

Hayao Miyazaki found Chihiro to be a dull character while creating Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki intentionally avoided making Chihiro an eye candy | Credits: Studio Ghibli

In an interview with Animage in 2001, Hayao Miyazaki pointed out some of the the biggest difficulties he faced while creating Spirited Away. As usual, after the production began, he realized that the movie would become three hours long if he followed his plot, which led to a lot of cuts. But there was also another issue that he personally faced.

Miyazaki was making Spirited Away from the perspective of an ordinary man. Thus, he reduced the eye-candy factor as much as possible and made Chihiro a simple girl. While he did not want to make a pretty female lead, he was also stuck in a dilemma because she looked too plain.

But as the movie’s production neared its end, the director was relieved as he realized that the character would be a charming woman nonetheless. While Chihiro has never been a conventionally pretty character, fans have loved her regardless. At the end of the day, Miyazaki was able to make the masses relate to this simple little girl.

The wholesome inspiration behind creating Chihiro

Chihiro is just an ordinary girl in Spirited Away | Credits: Studio Ghibli

In the interview, Miyazaki recounted that Ghibli has previously made movies for different age groups. My Neighbor Totoro was made for small children. Castle in the Sky is about a boy who sets out on a journey. Kiki’s Delivery Service is about a teenager who has to live alone. However, Ghibli did not make any films for 10-year-old girls who are in their first stage of adolescence.

Miyazaki spends his summers at his mountain cabin, where he meets five young girls the same age as Hiragi Rumi, the 13-year-old voice actress of Chihiro. Thus, he wanted to make a movie that they could enjoy, which is the true purpose behind Spirited Away. As he delved into the research, he realized a huge gap between what the young girls were interested in and what they were catered.

In his mind, if these girls found Spirited Away to be exciting, it would be a success for him since they cannot lie. This is why he created a heroine who is just an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can empathize. It was important to make the character plain and unexaggerated. Through Spirited Away, Miyazaki wanted to have a story that drew out something already present inside the character.

Spirited Away is available to watch on Max, Hulu and Disney+.

Written by Aaheli Pradhan

Articles Published: 773

Aaheli is an anime content writer at FandomeWire. With four years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cat.