I saw Spirited Away yesterday and I was absolutely blown away! The quality of the animation was amazing and better than anything I've ever seen, the characters were flawless, the voice dubbings for the English version were all well chosen, the world was unique and for once the story wasn't about the apocalypse. It was just a tale, and that's what anime has really been needing. Hopefully this movie will bolster anime's profile in the Western World, it deserves to. It won 3 awards at the Cannes Film Festival and has been nominated for several Golden Globes, hopefully it will also be nominated for the Oscars.

What was really impressive though was that the cultural and social aspects of the movie were not altered for once. The Japanese aspects were left in and the movie is much better for it. It was quite interesting to see the importance of the baths. One interesting thing that happened while I saw the movie was that every time Chihiro cried, a Japanese couple nearby couldn't stop laughing. I later learned that in Japanese society, showing one's emotions in public is not considered appropriate. It's considered normal yet laughable if females do but unacceptable for males to.

I can't fault this movie. It is everything the critics said it was. See it if it is the last thing you do. I IMPLORE YOU!

PS. I swear the actress that did Chihiro's voice sounds familiar. Does anyone know who she is and what she's done in the past?