Spirited Away/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• In Spirited Away, No Face is a monster who takes on the emotions of those around him (he's helpful to Chihiro because she helps him, etc). It only occurred later that that's why he's called No Face--he doesn't have any personality of his own.
  • I had the opposite revelation. I assumed the above was the case upon my first viewing, but after having to do a report on Japanese theater several years later, I realized that he didn't have no face, he had a Noh face! -Tropy McTroperPants
    • Japanese name is Kao-nashi ("without a face"), so, not really.
      • It is clearly a Noh mask. So yes really. It just means it was brilliance on the part of the translator, not the Japanese screenwriter.
      • English is a required series of classes in most if not all Japanese high schools, and the Japanese are rather fond of bilingual English-Japanese puns, including visual puns. So it's likely that Kao-nashi included the bilingual No/Noh pun as well.
• In the Japanese version (with English subtitles), Yubaba observes that the "Stink Spirit" choose to hide itself in the rain. So, of course it would be so appropriate for the River-God to select a rainy day that might quell his stench and pain and allow himself to be accepted (a little more easily) into the bathhouse.
• It is quite appropriate for Chihiro to be the first to notice the pollition lodged in the River-Spirit and pull out the last speck of pollution (a fishing hook) out of the River-Spirit. After all, humans polluted this River, so Chihiro represents the potential of humanity or/and atonement for human's problems.
• In the middle of the story, after Chihiro gives the River-God a bath, he flies away and we can see him after being cleaned up. It's very fast, but it's possible to figure out he's a very elder and white dragon(I actually only saw that on my third or forth watching). And who else is a white dragon? And what does that person turn out to be in the end? -- Pro-Mole
  • The only thing that can cure Haku is the River God's gift. It's logical that medicine from a river would cure another river.
• Yubaba, in her Mama Bear fury, grabs Haku with her hair and demands where her baby is while breathing fire at him. Haku barely reacts but one factor that aids in his calm resistance is that he is a river spirit, therefore fire coming from Yubaba's mouth can't hurt him as much.
  • It certainly would hurt a river spirit if they were the spirit of the Cuyahoga river!
• When Chihiro chose that nether of her parents were in the pig herd presented. That scene also has another meaning that basically says that her parents are not pigs for she is a human being, not just a mere animal.
  • That was something I've always considered brutally unfair. Now I see the sheer brilliance of it all.
• If Yubaba and Zeniba are truly the same person, it would add a new dimension to the scene where Zeniba tells Chihiro she has a pretty name and reminds her to take care of it-this could be Yubaba withholding ownership of what she took from Chihiro earlier. (In the Japanese version, she clearly says, "Take care of [your name]. It's yours.")
• As stated in Food Chains, the reason Chihiro didn't turn into a pig like her parents is because she ate food that was offered to her. Fridge Brilliance comes that the only times Chihiro is seen eating in the spirit world was when someone offered her food. Two times were by Haku (what appears to be a fruit and rice cakes), another time by the River God with the medicine, another by Lin with the pork bun and at the end with Zeniba with the tea and desserts.

Fridge Logic

• By "Don't look back," Haku also meant that Chihiro should not tell anyone else about her experiance in the spirit world after she returned.

Fridge Horror

• One of the more innocuous moments of Spirited Away can become truly horrific with Fridge Logic: Yubaba threatened to turn Chihiro into a piglet or a piece of coal, implying that these are standard punishments for intruders in her realm. Now, think of the sootballs carrying pieces of coal to the roaring furnaces by the hundreds, and Chihiro briefly helping them with this job.
  • There's also the fact that Chihiro would have been eating solid meals the entire time she was at the bath house -- those porkbuns? PEOPLE.
  • Also, Lin comments calmly enough that she wants to leave the bathhouse by the train, and gets excited at seeing tickets. Then you get to see who gets on the train. Wait a minute...
  • The fact that Kamaji tells Chihiro that the train only goes one-way. First, you might only think about how physically she wouldn't be able to return to the bathhouse by train. Then you realize that this is an Afterlife Express and Kamaji mentions that the train used to go both ways. Those that go on this train (aside from Chihiro) depart from the spirit world entirely.
  • At least one of these faceless spirits is shown to be a little girl standing on a platform as the train moves on to its next destination...