Sen to Chihiro babble
I've started reading Sen to Chihiro fanfiction in Japanese (http://tekipaki.jp/~kagami/nomad/chihiro/index.html), courtesy of Kristin's link (kujira1.pitas.com) and Jim Breen. As a result, I am thinking about the charaterization of Chihiro and Haku.
First, Chihiro is at her worst when she's bored and her best when she has a job to do. Once she got past fear for her life, she never wasted her time on indecisiveness. She idea of Chihiro pining for Haku until /he/ comes for her seems improbable: she knows one gate to the other world and the location of the river he personifies. If she decided that she did have to wait, she'd not then spend her time and precious energy moping. She might even have dates; I suspect Haku wouldn't mind. Not that he would forgive her, but rather that he would never consider that a schoolboy could be competition for him. I doubt the aristocratic airs he put on were just for show: people have deferred to Haku his whole life. When he, in his turn, decided that it was time to see Chihiro again, he'd assume that nothing and no one were more important to her. I'd like to see evidence that the strong, interesting characters of the movie improved with maturity.
First, Chihiro is at her worst when she's bored and her best when she has a job to do. Once she got past fear for her life, she never wasted her time on indecisiveness. She idea of Chihiro pining for Haku until /he/ comes for her seems improbable: she knows one gate to the other world and the location of the river he personifies. If she decided that she did have to wait, she'd not then spend her time and precious energy moping. She might even have dates; I suspect Haku wouldn't mind. Not that he would forgive her, but rather that he would never consider that a schoolboy could be competition for him. I doubt the aristocratic airs he put on were just for show: people have deferred to Haku his whole life. When he, in his turn, decided that it was time to see Chihiro again, he'd assume that nothing and no one were more important to her. I'd like to see evidence that the strong, interesting characters of the movie improved with maturity.