No one saw a Spirited Away stage adaptation when Studio Ghibli announced one in 2021. Hayao Miyazaki's original anime, which became Studio Ghibli's highest-grossing film and an Oscar winner, had been released 20 years prior. Considering the creator's protectiveness of his works, no one had an alternate take of its crown jewel on their radar. As unlikely as Spirited Away: Live On Stage's existence was, so too were the odds of it matching its inspiration. Spirited Away is not just a fiscal success, as it holds a special place in fans' hearts among the Ghibli canon.

First staged in Japan in 2022, Spirited Away: Live On Stage defied skepticism and expectations alike. The stage show offers Ghibli enthusiasts and larger audiences an immersive and intricately transposed companion piece to Spirited Away, unceasingly surprising and delighting with the imaginative ways it brings Miyazaki's otherworldly setting and its inhabitants to life. Now that Spirited Away: Live On Stage is finally on streaming platforms and accessible worldwide, it's the perfect time to review its most dazzling displays.

10 Familiar Spirited Away Touchstones Eases the Audience In

Projections and sounds waste no time immersing viewers.

Spirited Away breaks a cardinal rule in many of its opening scenes: blocking Chihiro's parents with their backs to the audience. It's an interesting, subversive directorial choice that cuts off the adults from sharing their experience with both Chihiro and the audience. While significant, the choice doesn't distract from the newly unspooling story.

Rather, the parental disconnect and Chihiro's subsequent loneliness are heightened, especially when paired with the dreamy projections depicting the family's excursion deeper into their new village. Chihiro is scared and alone, and her parents don't understand. Along with Joe Hisaishi's score, the opening scene plants audiences firmly in Chihiro's point of view while still abstaining from fully revealing the show's seemingly unending world yet to come.

9 The First Song Is Conceptually Slick

A musical welcome befitting of the fantasy world.

One of Spirited Away: Live On Stage's most interesting creative choices is how it holds its musical cards close to the chest for the beginning narrative stretch. There's no musical fare while Chihiro navigates the real world with her parents and explores beyond the mysterious shrine.

Fittingly, the first musical number isn't queued until Chihro's on the other side of her disorienting journey into the spirit realm and arrives outside the bathhouse. The use of the spirit world as a means to allow the show to genre bends into song is perfectly executed. Not only does the song make perfect narrative sense and not throw the audience out of the larger experience, but it also is a gorgeously composed and dynamically staged bit of theater.

8 Haku's True Form Wows Chihiro and Audiences Alike

Imagine dragons no more.

When Chihiro finally reconnects with Haku in his River Spirit dragon form in the Spirited Away animated film, they go through an action-packed tour through the spirit realm among its various buildings and bordering bodies of water. While it would be perfectly understandable for the stage adaption to find an alternate way to execute this reunion, Spirited Away: Live on Stage rose to the daunting challenge of bringing the sequence to life as accurately as possible.

With a handful of puppeteers each responsible for a fraction of his body, Haku's dragon form takes over the entire stage, gliding all over with serpentine precision. It's a spell-binding affair, with the puppeteers angling Haku's body vertically and horizontally with ease, all while Chihiro holds on to his scaly figure. The effect adds a touch of realism to their topsy-turvy journey. Projections and water effects help to round out the river-bound sequence, the show fully steeping the audience in its illusions.

7 Chihiro and Radish Spirit's Elevator Ride Lives Up to the Original

Spirited Away's unlikely ally is excellently executed.

The Radish Spirit is an iconic Studio Ghibli mascot, famous for his elevator encounter with Chihiro in Spirited Away. The scene is among the most memorable moments in Studio Ghibli's history, so its stage adaptation in Spirited Away: Live On Stage was eagerly anticipated by fans.

Mesmerizing choreography is used to create a maze of conjoining, modular elevator doors. The dizzying swirl of set-pieces and dancers intensifies Chihiro's high-stakes adventure, as she evades human-hating spirits. Spirited Away: Live On Stage is filled with out-of-the-box, surprisingly practical stagings of beloved sequences like this, elevating it as a satisfying and refreshing experience for all Spirited Away lovers.

6 Chihiro's Boiler Room Visit Is One to Remember

The classic scene came to life.

Not unlike Chihiro's meet-cute with the Radish Spirit, the boiler room and its unforgettable inhabitants are the stuff of Studio Ghibli legends. Between Kamajī's unique character design and the fantastical soot sprites' scurrying about, the sequence served as a challenging opportunity for the stage adaption's creative team to put their creativity on display.

Everything fans love about the anime's original scene is thrillingly brought to life. An impressive array of puppeteers, set pieces, and actors combine to put forth as unforgettable a boiler room visit as in Spirited Away. This is also a musical sequence, with Kamajī's gravelly voice making for a Tom Waits-style banger.

5 The Kashira's One-Man Show

Three-in-one casting brilliance.

While Yubaba's office is filled with stellar theatrical displays, the first appearance of the Kashira is so spectacular it warrants its own shoutout. The three-headed green monster from Spirited Away, the Kashira stands out as one of the most notable non-human characters from the Ghibli universe, and their theatrical rendering in Spirited Away: Live on Stage is among the show's top achievements.

The Kashira is first seen delivering their trademark grunts from the other side of a curtain, each of the three heads as expressive as the next. After a gut-busting, bouncy introduction, the curtains pull back to reveal one actor playing all three of the Kashira heads, holding a model head in each. It's as absurd as it is ingenious.

4 Yubaba's Theatrical Magic Suits the Playful Villain

The antagonist's power is translated onto the stage perfectly.

Yubaba's entire introductory scene is jaw-dropping, perfectly encapsulating Spirited Away: Live on Stage's innovative puppeteering and casting choices. The ensemble of actors and dancers aid in making Yubaba's magic exciting and tangible within the world of the show, filling in every beat with movement and props to help flesh out her villainous witchcraft.

From lighting her cigarette with her finger to conjuring Japanese characters to change Chihiro's name, each spell cast makes way for an enthralling theatrical showcase. Most impressively, Yubaba transforms into a giant puppet head when her patience wears thin. The transition from Yubaba's humanoid form to a huge bulbous one that dwarfs Chihiro is so smoothly executed, that it will have you believing in her magical prowess.

3 So, No Face Thinks They Can Dance?

The rhythm is alive in No Face.

At just around an hour into Spirited Away: Live on Stage, the audience gets treated to a bit of a No Face ballet. Whereas multiple creepy appearances throughout the film place the character's trustworthiness into question, the stage adaptation uses carefully deployed sequences like this lyrical dance routine to heighten No Face's enigmatic role in the Spirited Away story.

No Face's dance-centric depiction is inspired, every undulation of each limb lending to their amoebic spirit form. Costumed in a flowing black cloak, the garment gently rises and falls with every No Face movement, adding to its mystique and eye-catching presence.

2 Giving the Stink Spirit Its Roses

Spa-wesome.

The Stink Spirit's arrival at the bathhouse is among Spirited Away's most iconic sequences. It's done justice in Spirited Away: Live on Stage, with the entire ensemble cast gathering in awe at Chihiro's handling of the large yokai, making for an on-stage spectacle. The Stink Spirit is brought to life with a giant billowing costume that would make Sesame Street residents blush, his cumbersome hot-tub dunk and subsequent steam clouds helping to evoke the original scene's grandeur.

The Stink Spirit's detox feels like a true celebratory event, with dozens of performers dotting the stage to bear witness. Once cleansed, his wizened form emerges from the bath and soars around the stage and the audience rejoices alongside the bathhouse employees, who break out into song. It's one of the few times the traditionally reserved Japanese audience can't help but break out into uproarious applause.

1 No Face's Insatiable Appetite

Spirited Away's most ominous moments both on stage and in film.

No Face's gluttonous eating spree is one of the most impressively animated stretches in the original Spirited Away. Miyazaki’s imaginative eye was on display, with No Face changing shape amorphously while devouring everything in sight with a voracious fervor.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage utilizes the billowing drapes No Face is wardrobed in throughout the show to its advantage. As No Face continues to feed, performers get added under its cloak to untraceable effect, causing them to swell and bloat. It’s a perfect microcosm of the show’s resourcefulness, using every aspect of its design – costumes, scenery, actors, dancers – to breathe life into Miyazaki’s concepts with as much care and intricacy as he would. New elements appear on No Face without hiccups, like suddenly-appearing giant teeth and a mouth, all of which help No Face gobble up actors to add to their growing form.