Spirited Away

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I didn't really care for this. I found the whole bathhouse thing to be just too creepy.

I find that ironic considering your forum avatar is from a game that takes place under water.

I am visiting here next march on a manga tour of Japan!

Thats quite sad if his is the only one you can watch. There is many great anime, such as if you have enjoyed his movies you may like the movie: 'The Girl Who Leapt Through Time' there might be a couple of scenes that might scare small children but my 7 yo brother absolutley adores it and I like it myself. Or many other titles, there are some non mainstream surface watches, like if you like it slow wonderland '.Hack//' series, simple lush graphics with a style to Spirited 'Dennou Coil', family firiendly there is 'Azumanga Dioh' or maybe if you want to watch some utter funny strangness there is 'Pani Poni Dash' or the more experimental "Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei'. Spirited Away actualy encouraged me to try and pursue other anime, I think there is also 'Kamichu!' has a simular feel to Spirited Away, with the Japanese mythology, but I havent watched many episodes.

HAHAHa!!

The bath-house layout and scenery is actually loosely based on Dogo Onsen, which is in Matsuyama, the town I used to live.

It's very much a Japanese tradition to go to such places, so less creepy than one might imagine.
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If anyone is tempted to say, "I don't like anime", remember before you do: Anime as a term covers all animation made in Japan -- and in the Japanese language it is the word used for animation from everywhere including Europe and America. (so. Disney movies and Pixar movies, to some, are Anime.) As such it is an extremely varied category of film and tv and certainly not limited to stories about peculiar spirits, robots and lolicons.

(another note: The word "Lolicon" or Rorikon comes from the title of the novel "Lolita." Just a bit of trivia if interested.)

But I digress.
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The other bit of Ghibli scenery I know about, if anyone's interested, is the clocktower in Majo no takyuubin / Kiki's Delivery Service, which is the clocktower on the postoffice in Hobart, Tasmania. And the Bakery -- or the one on which it was based, can be found in Ross -- also in Tassie.

This is one of my favourite movies of all time.

I think Miyazaki's Nausicaa is infinitely more interesting.

That one is good. It does not have that 'happy feeling' to it.
Nausicaa is high on my list however.

Nausicaä I felt suffered a little bit from being a compressed version of the original manga, but it was still very entertaining. Princess Mononoke has strong similarities, but my complaints about Nausicaä no longer apply.

I really like Ghibli flicks. They've got just enough of that intriguing, surreal touch to be interesting, but not too much so they become arty-farty.

My workmates in Japan got me a Mei-chan doll as a going away pressie when I left!! It was really sweet.

I remember when I watched this in middle school, I often had to leave class at the time for something but everyone in the class liked me and wanted me to see it all even if it took 4 attempts. It was a strange but great movie.

I saw it some time ago. I liked it.

Spirited Away was my first anime film in which it felt like there was a serious attempt to at least keep the spirit (no pun intended) of the original, rather apply what I term as the "4Kids approach".

Whilst it's not my favourite Miyazaki film (that would be Laputa: Castle in the Sky), Spirited Away holds a special place in my heart as it was my gateway into Japanese animated cinema. And it began a wave of certain companies taking notice of anime outside the kiddy merchandise-driven stuff so at long last we got official releases in the UK of many different anime films, not just Ghibli. And it was a brilliant piece of animation, intergrating 2D and CGI pretty well for something around the early 2000s (much better than the awkward transition Pokemon went through for example) and handling the characterisation pretty well.

Conversely, I actually got to visit the Ghibli store in Yokohama several years ago, though I too wish I made it as far East as the Ghibli-bijutsukan. So much stuff I wanted to buy but couldn't... argh, I regret not getting more than the original Japanese print of the 'Making Of' books and several Ghibli stationery...

Also, thank you very much Ping-Machine for correcting those put off by anime and sentō (an onsen is technically referring to a hot spring-style bathhouse, though arguably, some people interchange the terms).

Alas, I couldn't get into Princess Mononoke, but I can understand why it's popular and so well-received.

i liked this movie too.

one of the recent the simpsons episodes has some references to it.

A lovely coming-of-age story with a chilling prostitution undertone... your childhood has now been ruined.
[Most of] the Ghibli movies are special, they have a form of whimsy and convey even very dark storylines/story arcs with a sense of hope.
...Let's omit Grave of the Fireflies from that 'hope' thing.
But what I find wrong with the Ghibli movies is that they seldom break away from magic use, it tends to be an overused "solve all" solution to the movie plotlines. Other than that, they are great films.