SPIRITED AWAY Is Being Adapted into a Stage Play

Spirited Away (original name Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is a cultural masterpiece. It’s a beautiful anime film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli that even many non-anime fans love. I personally believe that it helped the cultural shift in the U.S. in their attitude towards anime. Well, the amazing film is being adapted into a stage play. John Caird, honorary associate director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is adapting and directing the show.

Chihiro, the heroine of the story, is a 10-year-old girl moving with her parents to their new home. They lose themselves in a mysterious world of fantastic spirits, ruled over by the sorceress Yubaba, who turns Chihiro’s parents into pigs. After a series of bizarre and dangerous challenges, including the loss of her identity, Chihiro must use all her wits to survive in this strange place and return to the human world. The story of her struggle and resilience is a timeless gift to all of us, but especially to those striving to live through these present difficult times.

Sharing his love and excitement for the film and this opportunity, Caird said:

I feel so excited and privileged to be working on the first ever stage adaptation of Sen to Chihiro. I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest ever proponent of the anime form.

I share a belief in all the most dominant themes of Miyazaki's work, themes that are at the core of the Sen to Chihiro world - care for the environment, reverence for nature, a belief in the force of the good spirits within us and the empowerment of young women and men to change the world for the better.

I am looking forward with great pleasure to deepening my partnership with my dear friends at Toho through a new relationship with Studio Ghibli and Suzuki Toshi0, their most generous and inventive lead producer.

The double casting in the part of Chihiro will give me the chance to work again with the brilliant and charming Kamishiraishi Mone, with whom I had such an exciting collaboration on Knights’ Tale, and now affords me the same opportunity with the greatly talented, vivacious and moving young actress Hashimoto Kanna.

I must have spent a thousand hours working on Sen to Chihiro and look forward to spending many thousands more.

Toshio Suzuki shared that he and Miyazaki are fans of what’s in store:

We, Hayao and I, both liked John’s vision. He is a person we can trust. I am looking forward to seeing Chihiro grow on stage under his direction. I could tell how much he adores this story from his delighted face when I gave him a No-Face (Kaonashi) piggy-bank.

Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi (Your Name) have been double-cast as Chihiro, but the rest of the cast seems to still be a mystery. Fans will be able to watch Spirited Away at Toho’s Imperial Theatre in Tokyo in February and March 2022 with the show then going on tour to Osaka (April), Fukuoka (May), Sapporo (June), Nagoya (June and July). I can’t imagine how cool this film could look as a stage play. Never underestimate the abilities of a stage crew.