We all know a No-Face
Spirited Away and the importance of identity in a rapidly-changing world
We all know a No-Face. Someone who has no true identity, who mirrors their environment in order to fit in, who doesn’t possess the ability to think for themself. Someone who parrots whatever opinion or hot-take is popular on Twitter that week. Someone who is addicted to external validation and consumption. Lonely and insecure, these No-Faces crave connection or purpose, and think the best way to achieve their goal is to loudly conform to societal expectations.
Don’t be this No-Face
I know this because I was No-Face for a time in my early 20s. I think back on certain periods of 2020 and cringe at the performative nature of my chronically-online presence. What did I have to offer as a nobody white-guy with nothing of value to say? Why did I feel the need to weigh in on every issue?
It was a strange time in my life. I had moved back to Chicago after school, surprised when very few of my high school friends did the same. I was left stranded in the land of employment, realizing far too late that the future I chose would leave me empty and unfulfilled.
So I lapsed into vice and distraction.
I drank on weeknights, gambled incessantly on sports, and mindlessly scrolled Twitter and Reddit. I struggled with tremendous health challenges, which only compounded my misery. Really, though, I was desperate for connection.
Lacking any outlet for true connection, and feeling unfulfilled with work and love, I turned to social media. You know social media? That everpresent, unregulated cancer that plagues the strong and tears down the weak. I turned to online communities as a replacement for real community, which exists, but damn if it isn’t hard to find these days.
And why shouldn’t I have? Shouldn’t social media serve to connect and unify, rather than enflame and divide? No, of course not. Because social media, just like the bathhouse in Spirited Away, is driven by one power alone: capitalism.
Social media giants design algorithms to manipulate and control, to enslave your attention and use it as currency. They discard your soul and ignore your mental health.
In Spirited Away, the character of No-Face acts as a mirror, taking on the essence of his environment. In the bathhouse, a microcosmic representation of any capitalistic society, all the power and money is concentrated at the top, while those at the bottom scrap and claw for every bit of leverage they can. We see this in the way Chihiro is first treated by workers at the bathhouse, who see her as a burdensome risk who might jeapordize whatever power they may have. So they take advantage of their rare bit of authority and treat her like filth, commenting on her smell, naivety and laziness.
Thus, when No-Face enters the bathhouse, he ineviatably becomes a gluttinous monster, terrorizing its workers and reflecting the greed and consumerism that coarses through every step on the bathhouse’s hierarchal ladder.
Be this No-Face
The turning point for No-Face is when Chihiro is the only one to treat him with dignity and respect. She forces him to purge the negative influences of the bathhouse, and travels with him to Zeniba’s cottage, where No-Face finds comfort and belonging in simple pleasures.
It might be easy to dismiss and ignore the No-Faces who seem to dominate our society, but Spirited Away shows that what they really need is empathy.
Throughout Hayao Miyazaki’s films, he expresses a nostalgia for pre-World War II Japan, before it was forced to adopt capitalism. A time in which Shinto values of harmony with nature and spirituality surged through the country’s culture.
Films like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke are perhaps better representations of Miyazaki’s environmentalism, but there is no denying Spirited Away’s underlying environmental current that flows like the polluted river spirit who Chihiro liberates, or Haku’s lost river, forced underground by residential development.
“Children, surrounded by high-tech, superficial products, are increasingly losing their roots. We have a very abundant tradition, a tradition that we have the duty to pass on to them. I think you have to introduce traditional ideas into a modern narrative, like you embed a piece in a vivid mosaic.”
Miyazaki has said that the film is targeted towards 10-year old girls—as Chihiro and many of Miyazaki’s protagonists are. Miyazaki understands that children are the future, and wants to reconnect them to their roots (see quote >>)
On this blog, I will dive into some of my favorite books and films, explore the reasons why they resonate with me, and what they can teach us all about a better way to live for the world’s children.
I have done a lot of growth and self-discovery in the past few years, and the exploration of these themes in Spirited Away really hit home for me. I only wish that I had taken the time to fully unpack and explore the film upon my first viewing, but perhaps I was not in a mindset to receive it.
As I venture onwards through my own creative journey, I fully realize the comedic irony of the necessity for social media to grow my audience and get eyes on my writing. I have dabbled with social media “marketing” in my previous ventures (iykyk), but this one feels different. I have felt more alive, human, inspired, strong, and persistent because of my writing.
For those unaware, I am working on a novel. I’m planning to write a whole post explaining my inspiration and process for this project, but for now, I’ll tell you this. It’s a fantasy novel set on another world which is intended to represent America’s conquest and illegal annexation of Hawaii. I’ve steeped myself in Hawaiian history, culture, and mythology in writing this project, and I am about 62,000 words (mayyyyybe halfway??) into the manuscript
I hope you’ll join me in this new venture—there’s much more I’m leaving out—by subscribing to the email list below, or finding me on Instagram.
