Spirited Away Characters

A ten-year-old girl on her way to a new home who wanders with her parents into a town of spirits. After her parents are turned into pigs, she talks her way into a job at Yubaba's bathhouse and is renamed Sen, another reading of the first character of her name, and she has to hold on to her real name to get home. Sulky and easily scared at first, she grows hard-working and brave: she cleans a polluted river spirit, saves Haku, calms No-Face and passes Yubaba's final test. Rumi Hiiragi voices her in Japanese and Daveigh Chase in English.

A boy in Yubaba's service who can take the form of a white dragon. He warns Chihiro to leave before sunset, then helps her survive and tells her to ask Kamaji for work; he has forgotten his own name, which is how Yubaba keeps hold of him. Badly hurt after stealing a golden seal from Zeniba, he is saved by Chihiro, who later remembers falling into the Kohaku River as a small child and realises he is its spirit, Nigihayami Kohakunushi. Getting his name back frees him, and he promises that they will meet again.

The witch who runs the bathhouse, turns Chihiro's parents into pigs and controls her workers by taking their names. Bound by an oath to give work to anyone who asks for it, she hands Chihiro a contract and renames her Sen. She lives in Western-style luxury at the top of the building, loves gold and dotes on her enormous baby son, Boh, and before she lets the family go she sets Chihiro one last test. Mari Natsuki voices her in Japanese and Suzanne Pleshette in English, and both also voice her twin sister, Zeniba.

A silent, masked spirit, called Kaonashi ('faceless') in Japanese, whom Chihiro lets into the bathhouse out of the rain, thinking he is a customer. He tries to win her over with gifts, and in the bathhouse's greedy atmosphere he starts trading gold for food, swallows several workers and takes on their traits. Chihiro feeds him the rest of the river spirit's dumpling, he gives back everyone he swallowed, and once he is out of the bathhouse he calms down. He rides the train with her to Zeniba's and stays there as Zeniba's helper.

Yubaba's identical twin sister, who lives far from the bathhouse in a cottage reached by train. When Haku steals her golden seal, she sends paper shikigami after him, appears through one of them, turns Boh into a mouse and warns that the seal carries a deadly curse. When Chihiro comes to return the seal and apologise, Zeniba turns out to be warm and grandmotherly: she serves tea, makes Chihiro a protective hairband, forgives Haku and lets No-Face stay with her.

A sharp-tongued bathhouse worker (Rin in Japanese) whom Kamaji persuades, with a roasted newt, to take Chihiro up to Yubaba. Once Chihiro is hired, Lin becomes her guide and protector, finding her a uniform, working beside her on the river spirit and rowing her out to the station when she leaves to see Zeniba. She complains about the bathhouse, dreams of catching the train away one day and cheers Chihiro on when she passes Yubaba's test.

The old boiler-man who works the bathhouse furnace with six long arms, helped by soot sprites that carry the coal. He refuses Chihiro a job at first, then pretends she is his granddaughter and has Lin take her up to Yubaba. He keeps every herb for the baths in a wall of drawers, looks after Haku when he falls into the boiler room, and gives Chihiro the train tickets he has kept for forty years so that she can reach Zeniba.

Yubaba's huge, spoiled baby son, who stays in his room because he believes going outside will make him ill. When Zeniba turns him into a mouse and leaves a fake copy in his place, he goes with Chihiro on the train to Zeniba's and comes back changed, standing on his own feet and telling his mother he will not like her any more if she makes Sen cry.

Chihiro's father, who drives the family down an unfamiliar road to a tunnel and insists on exploring the empty town beyond it. He and Chihiro's mother, Yūko, start eating at a deserted restaurant, with him telling Chihiro he has credit cards and cash, and both are turned into pigs; Miyazaki has linked the scene to people who became greedy in Japan's bubble economy. When Chihiro wins their freedom they remember nothing. Takashi Naito voices him and Yasuko Sawaguchi voices Yūko.

A guest so caked in filth that the bathhouse takes him for a stink spirit and hands him to Chihiro as her first customer. She finds something stuck in his side, and with the whole staff pulling she draws out a mass of human rubbish, including a bicycle, to reveal a great river spirit. He leaves gold for the workers and gives Chihiro a bitter herbal dumpling that later helps both Haku and No-Face. His Japanese name is Kawa no Kami.

A large, white, slow-moving guest of the bathhouse whose Japanese name, Oshira-sama, means 'Great White Lord' and is also the name of a household deity in Japanese folklore. He wears an upturned bowl on his head, shares a lift with Chihiro inside the bathhouse, celebrates with everyone when she cleans the river spirit and is seen again after her final test.

A frog-like bathhouse worker in a blue kimono whose name means 'blue frog'. He spots Chihiro as she crosses the bridge and cries out that there is a human. Later, sneaking back at night to hunt for the river spirit's gold, he is the first worker No-Face lures in and swallows, after which No-Face speaks with his voice. He is freed when No-Face gives back everyone he swallowed.