Spirited Away Announces Live Action Stage Play

The world of anime is no stranger when it comes to live-action stage plays, with the likes of Naruto, Beastars, and Yu Yu Hakusho having been given performances of their own, and one of the most beloved animated movies of all time is making its way to the stage with Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away. First released in 2001, the Studio Ghibli movie became the first and only film from the legendary animation house to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Picture, putting it on a pretty high pedestal when it comes to anime films in general.

The film producer for Spirited Away, Toshio Suzuki, had this to say about the upcoming adaptation and the involvement of director John Caird:

"We, Hayao and I, both liked John's vision. He is a person we can trust. I am looking forward to seeing Chihiro grow on stage under his direction. I could tell how much he adores this story from his delighted face when I gave him a No-Face (Kaonashi) piggy-bank."

The stage play will be performed at the Toho Imperial Theater through March, with the live-action adaptation then taking the opportunity to tour across the country of Japan following its initial run.

The director of the adaptation, John Caird who had previously worked on adaptations of Les Miserables, Daddy Long Legs, and Nicholas Nickelby, had this to say about the stage play and the work that he is putting into it:

"I feel so excited and privileged to be working on the first-ever stage adaptation of Sen to Chihiro. I have for many years now regarded Miyazaki Hayao as one of the pre-eminent geniuses of world cinema and the greatest ever proponent of the anime form. I share a belief in all the most dominant themes of Miyazaki's work, themes that are at the core of the Sen to Chihiro world - care for the environment, reverence for nature, a belief in the force of the good spirits within us and the empowerment of young women and men to change the world for the better. I am looking forward with great pleasure to deepening my partnership with my dear friends at Toho through a new relationship with Studio Ghibli and Suzuki Toshio, their most generous and inventive lead producer."

What do you think of Spirited Away receiving a live-action adaptation? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Studio Ghibli.