Spirited Away director Hayao Miyazaki has shared insight into one of the film’s most talked-about characters, No-Face. In newly published comments following a recent Japanese TV broadcast of the film, Miyazaki explained that No-Face was never meant to be a villain or a mystery creature in the usual sense.
Spirited Away aired again on Nippon Television’s long-running Friday Road Show block. After the broadcast, the network shared Miyazaki’s remarks on X, where he spoke about how No-Face reflects people he sees in everyday life.
“There are a lot of No-Faces around us,” Miyazaki said. He explained that No-Face represents people who want to be close to others but lack a strong sense of who they are. According to Miyazaki, No-Face has no fixed personality and simply absorbs the behaviour, desires, and emotions of the people around him.
カオナシとは一体何者なのでしょうか。
宮﨑駿監督いわく「カオナシなんて周りにいっぱいいますよ。(中略）ああいう誰かとくっつきたいけど自分がないっていう人、どこにでもいると思いますけどね」
とのこと。… pic.twitter.com/8vtJImJFhb
— アンク＠金曜ロードショー公式 (@kinro_ntv) January 2, 2026
Spirited Away follows Chihiro, a young girl who becomes trapped in a spirit world after her parents are transformed into pigs. Forced to work at a bathhouse for gods and spirits, she slowly learns independence, empathy, and resilience while trying to find a way back home. The film uses fantasy with everyday anxieties, using the spirit world as a reflection of modern life.
No-Face has a major role in this setting. He begins as a silent, lonely presence and later becomes dangerous after absorbing the greed and excess of the bathhouse. His transformation is not driven by evil intent, but by his environment. When surrounded by selfishness, he becomes destructive. When treated with kindness, he calms down and regains control.
Miyazaki’s comments frame No-Face as a mirror rather than a monster. The character changes based on who gives him attention and what values he encounters. In simple terms, No-Face shows how people without a clear identity can be shaped, for better or worse, by the spaces they exist in and the people they try to please.
Released in 2001, Spirited Away became a landmark film for Studio Ghibli and Japanese animation as a whole. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and remains one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of all time. Beyond its commercial success, the film is often praised for its themes, storytelling, and characters that feel deeply human, even when they are spirits.
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