Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie Review

Spirited Away Live on Stage is an ambitious and creative adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award winning animated feature-film. Spirited Away Live on Stage is the first of its kind theatrical stage production. The production featured two casts of actors with two different performers playing the role of Chihiro – Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi.

The production was done during a 2022 theatre run. The theatrical run was held at Tokyo’s acclaimed and historic Imperial Theatre. The 2022 run might not be the last but it’s certainly the first and epic adaptation of the beloved classic. From Tony Award Winning director John Caird, Spirited Away is lovingly brought to life for the stage. Produced for the stage by Haruka Ogi, Spirited Away remains imaginative, heartfelt, and moving in its stage adaptation.

The performances are impressive and of the essential parts of the production. The lead performances across the two shows are by Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraish as Chihiro. Playing Chihiro is certainly no walk in the park. Chihiro is a complicated character and role. Giving the role plenty of dramatic depth and dimension, the cast helped to bring the show to life by exploring the fears, anxieties, and dreams of Chihiro to life for the stage.

The supporting cast includes performances by Kotaro Daigo, Satoshi Hashimoto, Mari Natsuki, Romi Park, Koharu Sugawara, and Tomohiko Tsujimoto. These supporting performers show a love and dedication to their roles. The life and vitality brought to the performances helps to raise the bar throughout the production. The cast had to do well alongside the actresses playing Chihiro. The performances don’t disappoint and the cast clearly had a lot of fun playing their respective roles.

The sets are elaborate and far more sophisticated than some might expect to find for the adaptation. The sets are sometimes moving and the elaborate nature of the set changes makes one wonder how the producers and production team managed to make the sets adaptable in such a fast- paced manner – the sets sometimes rapidly change and the team did a great job on-the-fly to bring in the new set pieces to keep the story and excitement going. The creative production design is certainly a huge part of the fun and success of the stage play. Jon Bausor did great work with the set designs.

Spirited Away Live on Stage also features impressive music numbers. The music played a big role in the stage play and the play keeps the spirit of the feature-film by preserving the original score by the great composer Joe Hisaishi (Kiki’s Delivery Service, My Neighbor Totoro). The music is sweeping, epic, and heartfelt. Hisaishi is one of the most important composers in my entire life.

The music of Spirited Away is some of the best music ever recorded. The score pulls at my heartstrings and moves me in a deeply poetic and transcendent way. There is something unmeasurably powerful about the music and how it impacted the original film and the stage play. Sweeping, haunting, and melancholic, with a sense of adventure, too.

The puppetry is impressive and there are a lot of great uses of puppetry throughout the production. The most impressive puppetry takes place with the dragon. The creative puppetry is something that works wonders for the play. These elements seemed hard to pull off in theory but the director and puppetry team managed to do something special by adding these elements to the play. What a wonderful use of imagination in adapting the original film. Toby Olié mastered the puppetry creative direction and helped bring everything together.

The costumes by Sachiko Nakahara are outstanding and feel true to the original anime film. The costumes are true to the characters and the designs feel as though taken right out of the anime. This is an important, essential, and beautiful part of the adaptation process. The costume designer helped to bring the costumes to life in a profound way.

Directed by John Caird (Les Misérables: The Musical - The Dream Cast in Concert, McQueen), who adapted the feature-film alongside co-adapter Maoko Imai, Spirited Away Live on Stage is a true experience to cherish. The stage production is so creative and entertaining it had me swept off my feet. The production is so ambitious and Caird has a clear passion for the original anime masterpiece. This is a wonderful companion piece to the original anime classic. I would never think of it as a remake that takes something away – it’s a beautiful theatrical production that one can watch and cherish right alongside the original.

I was so fortunate to see the Spirited Away Live on Stage play on the big screen as a special theatrical engagement for my birthday last year and it was a magical night. I am also so lucky to be able to now own and have it in my permanent collection – I will always cherish it. (My wonderful doggy is named Chihiro after the main character in Spirted Away as well – I wanted to give her a good home). Spirited Away will always be my favorite anime film and one of my favorite films of all time and this stage play is special, too.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Released on Blu-ray by GKids and Shout Factory, Spirited Away Live on Stage is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high- definition in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. Everything about the stage play is ambitious and the encoding for the high- definition presentation manages to preserve the fine detail in the performance. The quality of the encode is worthwhile and capably showcases the beauty of the stage production. The visual quality is a lot greater than some filmed stage productions are and the cinematography was well done throughout these recordings.

Presentation quality looks excellent on Blu-ray disc and streaming services simply cannot bit-for-bit match the quality of the tangible physical medium. The Blu-ray disc format continues to offer higher video bit-rates and more data compared to streaming video services. For those who want to have the best possible video presentation, Blu-ray continues to be the best way to experience films – even stage plays.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release is presented in Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The lossless audio quality on the release is excellent and the audio dynamics are outstanding for a stage play production. The audio capably preserves the beloved score of composer Joe Hisaishi. The music understandably plays an essential role in the production. What a joyous wonder to the music. A wonderful testament to quality stage-play recordings, too.

The audio quality being lossless is one of the greatest strengths of the Blu-ray format – lossless audio allows for a more well-rounded and engaging experience. Streaming platforms – all streaming video services – compress the audio quality. This is an important aspect of physical media and the Blu-ray format. Those who appreciate and want the best possible audio quality, Blu-ray provides an even greater listening experience than any streaming platform can provide.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release does not include any special supplemental features delving into the production of the stage play. This is something that would have enhanced the package and made it even more special – some behind the scenes would have been great to see. As such, the main draw remains the performances.

The original print run of the release does include a o-card slipcover. The release also comes with a Target store exclusive variant (available only at Target). Those who purchase the Target exclusive receive a fold-out poster featuring the theatrical release artwork for the production. This edition certainly adds something extra special to the package.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Spirited Away Live on Stage is an incredible and ambitious stage play production. The production has sweeping visuals and fantastic sets. The fantastic craft of the play makes it something truly special: a fantastic companion piece to the original anime masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki. The music of composer Joe Hisaishi remains essential to the stage production, too. Fans of the anime classic will want to see the stage play.

The Blu-ray release provides both performances of the show with Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro during the respective shows. Director John Caird (Les Misérables: The Musical - The Dream Cast in Concert) made something special – a heartfelt tribute to the original –fans can appreciate it alongside the Academy Award winning Spirited Away. Highly recommended.