DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.
Chapter one: Evidence that proves my case
Growing up, I always enjoyed talking about fictional couples and seeing how their interactions had an affect on their relationship in a story. The first few characters that I began to pair together because of their interactions was Chihiro and Haku from film “Spirited Away”. In the film, Chihiro and Haku’s relationship isn't clearly defined, so fans have decided to analyze their relationship. I’ve seen them paired together in fan art around the website Tumblr. I see Chihiro and Haku holding hands, kissing each other on the check, and hugging each other. This showed me that others had believed the same thing as I had. There is evidence in the film that can lead people to believe Chihiro and Haku can be a couple, However, there are some who disagree that they had any sort of romantic element. On SparkNotes, it states the interaction between Chihiro and Haku is simply like a brother and sister relationship. Even though SparkNotes claims this, the fans of the couple disagree. People have strong feelings about Chihiro and Haku and at times voice their argument against SparkNotes. According to username Bluecheese, “Although this page puts it that Chihiro and Haku share a purely platonic, brother/sister love, this is not true. For one thing, it just doesn't seem like it in the movie. For another, and more importantly, when the movie is played in Chinese, the boiler man (or Zeniba, I forget who) refers to Haku as Chihiro's 男朋友 which means boyfriend. So definitely, romantic relationship there.” The essence of his argument is that the way Chihiro and Haku act towards each other shows that there is a love element to their relationship.
There are many scenes between Haku and Chihiro where people can assume they like each other. The first scene in the film is where Haku sneaks into the room where Chihiro and the other workers sleep. Earlier in the film, Haku acted cold towards Chihiro in front of the others. Now that no one is watching them, he shows her where her pig parents are even though it’s dangerous to do so. Chihiro has to work in the bath house in order to save her parents who were turned into pigs. Haku states that she shouldn’t coming looking for her parents by herself without him. Haku doesn’t need to say this or show her parents but he does anyway. When Chihiro had no one else to turn to and was alone in the spirit world, Haku was there protecting her. For a spirit to help a human isn’t common, so to have Haku help Chihiro shows that he cares about her a great deal. According to username Bountyhuntr3 he states “Haku appears at the beginning to be a young boy but the viewer eventually finds out that he is actually a River Spirit, which can also take the form of a white dragon. The dragon's movements are flowing and graceful like a river. Haku demonstrates bravery in trying to help Chihiro although he knows he will probably get into trouble for it.” (Bountyhuntr3). Haku knew the risks he was taking but he did it for Chihiro.
The second scene is where Chihiro tells her parents not to eat much or else they will get eaten. When she leaves crying, Haku brings out some onigiris, Japanese rice balls, and offers them to Chihiro. Some find this to be a symbolic scene. According to Wordpress commenter Shenzhijian, “This shot is bright and the lyric is slow and comfortable, which provides an environment of warm and peace. At this moment, this rice ball stands for not only the food, but also the support. By giving the rice ball to Chihiro, Haku is in another approach tries to tell Chihiro that he will be here to help her. Food serves as an encouragement for Chihiro to keep going ahead.” (Shenzhijian) In making this comment, he is making an argument that the onigiri scene is important and needs to be noted. Chihiro needs the support that she can get because is in strange new world. For Haku to offer her food to cheer her up is something that Chihiro needed. That’s one of the things that will lead the audience to believe that Haku and Chihiro really do care for each other as more than friends.
As Chihiro’s adventure continues, she has a chance to show her gratitude to Haku by helping him. With everything that he had done for her at the beginning, it is safe to assume that she might have a great deal of love for him. In the film, Chihiro had found out that Haku is actually a dragon and has disappeared for a while.This leads to another scene where people may think that Haku and Chihiro are a couple. Haku returns injured and almost on the brink of dying. Earlier in the film, Chihiro was given medicine from a river spirit that could save her parents. When she goes off to search for Haku to rescue him, she manages to find Haku and help him. The artist Alicezx drew fanart to show what happens in the scene.Chihiro really wants to help Haku because he is suffering so she is willing to give up some of the medicine that the river spirit to give to her. The medicine tastes awful and there is a struggle for Chihiro to get him to eat the medicine. After Haku eats the medicine, he throws up a black slime that the owner of the bath house had placed in him to control him. When the black slime comes off, it reveals a golden seal that is known to be stolen. Chihiro decides that she wants to return the stone that Haku stole from a witch and apologize for him. In the film, it is known that she can’t leave the bath house but she does it anyways to help Haku. There was some trouble in the bath house so Chihiro decides to deal with it. Before she goes and deals with the issue that she must face, the third scene occurs. According to the page Heartwarming Spirited Away, “[…] Chihiro needed to confront No Face and Zeniba, so she told an unconscious Haku to not die and that she'll back soon.
Lin: "What's going on?"
Kamaji: "Something you wouldn't recognize. It's called love."
In order words, what the Heartwarming page is saying is that it’s a sweet moment that these two share. Kamaji is the boiler man of the bath house and Lin is the coworker that Chihiro works with. Both, Kamaji and Lin care fo Chihiro at this point for the film. Kamaji tells Chihiro that what she is going to do will be dangerous but Chihiro still wants to do it for Haku. That is why Kamaji explains to Lin what is happening and calls that action love. After learning what is Chihiro going to do for Haku and it can be safe to assume that people are be supporting them as a couple.
The fifth scene is when Chihiro and Haku travel back to the bath house. This is probably one of the most heavily implied clues that makes the idea of Chihiro and Haku being a couple officially to people. The background to what happened is Haku makes a deal with bath house owner when she realized that her baby has been stolen. Haku will bring back her baby but she has to let Chihiro and her parents go back to the human world. Something important happened that was lost in the English dub. In the Japanese subtitles, the message was very different from the English version. According to the page Heartwarming Spirited away, “If you watch it with subtitles, you can see how much that they changed from the Japanese script to the adaptation. Like Haku bargaining his life in exchange for allowing Chihiro to return home. That's right: if Chihiro hadn't figured out his real name, Haku would have been killed. That enough love for ya?” Basically what they are saying is that Haku had put his life on the line for Chihiro. From that assumption, that’s one way to show love. Chihiro does remember what Haku’s full name is and breaks the spell that was placed on him. The image above is where Chihiro remembers his name and the movie is coming close to an end. They are falling from the sky because Haku lost his dragon form and was flying them back to the bath house. Haku loses his dragon from because he got his real name back and is extremely pleased to have it back. They both do some forehead touching and find out how they have known each other in the past.
From all that happens in the film, many will say that these two have a romantic element to them. I can’t help but think who else could have loved Chihiro as well. Many people will continue to believe that these two are a couple and I myself do stand by it. But I think that there was another sweet couple waiting around in the background. This is where my 2nd chapter will be about: the interactions between Chihiro and No-face, another different kind of couple that was equally sweet that might have been underrated by the more implied signs.
