Spirited Away (Live on Stage)

While on her way to a new home with her family, Chihiro Ogino stumbles into a bathhouse meant for spirits from folklore and legend.  With the lives of her parents hanging in the balance, Chihiro must overcome her own insecurities and find the bravery within her heart.  As she faces off against Gods, Witches, vengeful Spirits and other wonders, Chihiro finds herself on the most incredible journey of all as she is spirited away to a world of danger, magic and wonder.

To many, myself included, Spirited Away is a rare example of a perfect Anime.  Hayao Miyazaki took full advantage of his mastery of the medium to deliver one of the most expansive and well explored worlds ever put to animation.  It did its job so well that it became the first ever Anime to with an Oscar for Best Animated Feature (apparently only Miyazaki can do this since The Boy and Heron is the only other film to accomplish this feat).  So when the discussion turns to turning Spirited Away into a stage play, the question isnt “Why?”, it’s “How?”  Well getting the director of Les Miserables onboard is a good start but thankfully, this is one creative gamble that pays off in more ways than one.  The impossible has happened here: an Anime given the live action treatment and coming out as an equally entertaining triumph.
 
The world of Spirited Away is massive and that’s not even looking beyond the enormity of Yubaba’s bathhouse.  Recreating the sets, atmosphere and huge cast of wandering spirit guests is a helluva challenge to say the least.  The Stage Play gets to work on this immediately with a combination of rear projection, constantly rotating sets and frequent changes in cast, props and just about everything you can think of to keep things moving.  If I was going to remark on one element it’s that sometimes the numerous stage hands on deck can make more intimate scenes with few characters feel a bit more crowded than they really are.  But then again, it’s all necessary to give life to characters with intricate designs like Kamaji and No Face, so I’m willing to give it a pass.  It can seem like a very busy production but that actually adds to the large and lived in world Director John Caird is trying to recreate, both with his own style while also remaining extremely faithful to the Anime source material.
 
That’s not to say that the Stage Play is 100% accurate.  Some scenes are presented nearly identical in every way to their Anime counterpart (including one of my favorite cute scenes with little Mouse Boh and the Soot Sprites).  This is a Stage Play though, which means you get creative with your cast and take advantage of talents beyond good acting.  Haku, No Face and even Zeniba’s Lamp all get beautifully choreographed dance sequences and we get a couple of fun little work songs for the Bath House works.  Tomohiko Tsujimoto deserves particular praise for their performance as No Face.  Every movement feels otherworldly and their performance only gets more incredibly intense as No Face mutates at various points of the story.  In fact, all of the puppetry work with extra character limbs and other facets made me go “wow” everytime they were newly introduced (the winner though is easily Zeniba’s face wall, now that is truly the stuff of nightmares, in a good way).
 
Just as with the original, Spirited Away’s amazing tale is anchored by Chihiro.  There are two versions of the Stage Play available from the 2022 run in Japan.  I watched the one with Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro and she is such a delight.  She leads every scene with pure commitment to the role, embodying all of Chihiro’s naturally scared terror when first entering the world of spirits and slowly breaking down those negatives and building herself up into something much more positive and strong.  Everyone plays off of her nicely, especially Zeniba, played by Romi Park aka Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist.  Park is an exceptional joy playing the all powerful crazy manic Sorceress and whenever she goes full blown over the top, man she just turns up the excitement factor to 11.  Actually, everyone here is giving it their all.  They might not have the power of Anime at their disposal but everyone is well aware of how special Spirited Away is and theyre determined to bring it to life for audiences with the materials prepared and presented on stage. The end result is nothing short of beautiful and everyone deserves their epic bow at their curtain call.
 
While I know they are a thing, I haven’t looked into many Stage Plays based on Anime.  Frankly, I’m not sure they can do the source material justice…and that’s doubly so now that Spirited Away has set the highest bar imaginable.  All of the creative power and influence of Miyazaki is felt in every scene change, performance, stage hands endless running around and the music too.  The magic is replicated and done in ways that work for a Stage productions budget while never diminishing the wonder you feel seeing them in Anime form.  The sets are beautiful.  The costumes and practical effects are brilliant.  The performances are a ton of fun.  I feel like I should check out the second performance with Kanna Hashimoto as Chihiro at some point just to compare the two versions (other actors and actresses swap out too, not just Chihiro).  This is a high bar production though and it makes me hope that one day Spirited Away: Live on Stage makes its way to the States so I can sell a kidney or two to get a chance to see this epic in person.  Tl;dr, if you love the Anime, you’re not going to believe how much you’ll love the Stage Play.
 
Been a while since this has happened on an Anniversary but I cant not give it to this one.  Spirited Away: Live on Stage gets a perfect 10/10.