The coexistence of purity and impurity: A shinto-based analysis of Hayao Miyazaki's spirited away

• Main Author: De Jesus, Celine Bettina S.J.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2011
• Subjects: Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2563
• Institution: De La Salle University

This research study attempts to analyze Miyazaki's Spirited Away mainly in accordance to Shinto's concept of purity and impurity, and would also provide a Shinto perspective of the film by an exposition of the visual aesthetics of the film. In this manner, the researcher will use Shinto concepts to do a close reading on Miyazaki's Spirited Away. The concept of goodness and evilness in the film shall be tackled by doing character in depth characters' analysis of the four main characters (Chihiro, Haku, Yubaba and Zeniba) and a secondary character (No FAce) in the film, which is primarily based on Shinto Perspectives. The researcher aims to prove h ow through the coexistence of good and evil of the hazy distinction between good and evil in the Eastern context affect the quest of the female protagonist and how both positive and negative factors contribute to the obtainment of balance in each of the characters and to the story itself. The Japanese concept of Purity and Impurity is also deliberated while analyzing the text and the Japanese strong virtues as well, to show how these factors would affect, and influence the Shojo journey of Chihiro, the main character of the film. As the researcher study about these, in the end, using the gathered structure and ideology of this film, the researcher would answer the last problematic. How do the aspects of Shinto and Chihiro's Shojo journey intertwine to make the ending successful?