when the sea became a giant

i went to Japan recently and it was a weird trip. the country was overwhelming. in the city you feel like a bee - small, clueless, just sorta buzzing around. the cities are bustling with this intense urgency that, in a way, made me feel very uncomfortable. there's too much to experience at once. if you go a bit out of town though, into the mountains, you feel like a god. i can't imagine the scenery anywhere else being better.



near the end of my stay in Japan i visited the Studio Ghibli museum. if you're unfamiliar with them, Studio Ghibli are the people behind animated films like Grave of the Fireflies and Howl's Moving Castle. in 2001 they released a little gem called Spirited Away, featuring one of the dopest dragons i've come across.

YEAH BRO SPOILERS BRO

so Spirited Away follows a teenage girl who is transported to a spiritual world where she must work at a bathhouse for gods and monsters to save her parents who have been turned into pigs. what a weird and fantastical plot! you can expect that only from the Japanese, huh? at this mystical bathhouse, the young girl meets a boy named Haku who can also assume the form of a white dragon. as a Japanese film, the appearance of Haku follows the conventional asian dragon: long, sleak, wingless, serpentine.



the film is so refreshing and imaginative and the animation is very lush. it truly is a pleasure to see at any age. Haku is an amazing character (i always wanted to be him when i was younger) and the animators obviously spent their time into making him look special. Spirited Away was the best film of my childhood and probably my most watched film of all time. it's just so damn close to my heart.

dragons will never die but you will!