Spirited Away

Baths, you may know them as those mini-swimming pools you used to clean off in when you were young and had time for anything more luxurious than a five second rinse in the shower and a few spritzes of Axe body spray, but that’s just because your mindset isn’t cosmopolitan enough. Around the world, baths aren’t always individual experiences where you burn your skin off with whatever toxic waste they make store-brand shampoo out of, sometimes, as in the traditional Japanese sento, they’re group experiences meant to bring a community together. Combine that with the novel premise of a communal bath house for spirits Japanese mythology and you have Spirited Away, the most charming film about child labor to ever hit the cinema! This 2001 animated classic, brought to you by the dynamic duo of director Hayao Miazaki and production company Studio Ghibli, is warm, funny, occasionally a bit scary, and ultimately a delight of a film bursting with creative worldbuilding and gorgeous art-style. And who better to judge this quintessentially Japanese story than two Americans from Iowa? Get in there Magellans at the Movies and do your bantery, analytical, reccomendy thing! Let the podcast begin!