No-Face of Kaonashi uit Spirited Away

Deze enigmatische & mysterieuze figuur uit Miyazaki's anime Spirited Away blijft voor interessante discussies zorgen. Enkele voorbeelden...

Michael Johnson commented

"Why is No-face funny with all the bath tokens?", "Maybe it is because No-face is trying too hard to impress Sen. The manner in which he is trying to get her attention is humorously excessive - perhaps incongruous with the mystery surrounding his character."

This sparked all sorts of interpretations on the nature of No-face.

Michael Howe wrote,

"I likened No Face to the kids in junior high or high school who try to impress people and almost to an excessive amount. (No Face reminded me of myself with one girl I knew from Band in High School). I remember when she turned down my offer to go to Homecoming the next year or even to Winter Formal, and I could fully understand the sad feelings that No Face expressed."

Kevin Wagner disagreed,

"Most of us here on the list understand No-face's intent to entrap Sen by luring her with greed. I suspect that Michael, you saw the film at least once on R2 DVD or in Japan before you saw it in a US theater. You see No-face for what it is before it reveals itself. At least before seeing the film, a US movie-goer does not have this understanding of No-face. Even to me, No-face appears at first to be exhibiting sincere kindness - a childlike eagerness to please that people find endearing or cute. This, I think, is what they are chucking about.I also believe this is intentional - that we are meant to first believe No-face is benign, so that we can share the bathhouse worker's shock and surprise at the discovery of No-face's purpose."

Sharon Westfall replied,

"I thought of No-face as a social outcast, the putz that nobody notices or pays attention to. Even after the fiasco in the Bathhouse Sen still takes him in, and he even finds a place in Zeniba's home."

Robin Casady tossed in,

"I've seen the R2 DVD numerous times, and the theater dub once. I don't see No Face as a sinister creature trying to entrap Sen. I see him as a lonely creature trying to fill his loneliness. He only makes a half-hearted attempt to eat her after she tells him that he doesn't have anything she wants and he should go home. A truly evil creature wanting to devour Sen wouldn't be stopped by a mouse. He chases her because he is enraged that she fed him something that caused him to vomit. Once he is purged of his over-consumption and leaves the bathhouse, he calms down. This is his true nature, as Sen points out to Lin."

Kevin sent back,

"I didn't mean to suggest _sinister_. No-face is obviously a rich metaphor open to much interpretation. What I'd like to suggest is that when he offers the tokens to Sen, the complexity of that metaphor are not yet apparent - there has not yet been enough development for an audience to know its true nature. And at such a point, the viewer might equate No-face's behavior with something it is not."

Andrew Osmond wondered,

"Well, the line in the sub is 'He's only bad in the bathhouse.' To argue from that to 'His true nature is calm/good' would involve some rather complex philosophical assumptions."

Robin replied,

"When I say, "half-hearted attempt" I am talking about his action, not motivation. The attempt didn't look like he was trying very hard. I don't know how you would tell whether he was trying to scare her, or was just not sure about what he wanted to do. . . His true nature is how he is outside of the bathhouse. How you characterize that is up to you. I don't know what the Japanese version of that line literally says, but I could see Sen saying something like, "It is the bathhouse that makes him crazy." and meaning much the same thing.
I see the allegorical meaning of this to be that the Japanese society isn't bad, but when it is in the consumer mania imported from the West, it is out of control."

Deborah Goldsmith broke out the books and wrote,

"The original line (according to the film comic, I'm too lazy to get out the DVD) is "ano hito, yuya ni iru kara ikenai no. asoko wo deta hou ga ii n da yo." One literal translation would be "Because he's in the bathhouse it's/he's no good. He should get out of there."
"He's only bad in in the bathhouse" is a pretty literal translation, too."

Chris Kuan closed off with,

"I just got back from my first "Sen" viewing. . . my audience didn't react at all. I think they just took it as a mysterious helper trying to repeat their earlier successful trick together. Why not go for the gusto?"

Nu begrijpen we volledig waarom een bepaald persoon de No-Face koos als kostuum voor een Halloween Party... it's SO him!