One of Studio Ghibli’s best films inspired this song by Billie Eilish

The best songs on Billie Eilish’s latest album will transport you to a world of sonic delights, floating in a sea of ​​lush instrumentation and beautiful melodies. The rich imagery found in the songwriting, Hit me hard and soft combined with the multidimensional production of her brother/collaborator FINNEAS envelops you in a musical experience that feels like being in a cinema. This is especially true of the third track “CHIHIRO”, which actually has a direct cinematic influence that many Studio Ghibli Fans picked it up.

The name “CHIHIRO” goes back to the main character in Hayao Miyazaki2001 Movie, Spirited AwayAs the first hand-drawn film to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, and a film that has earned a permanent place on many lists of the most important films of all time in just a few decades, Spirited Away needs no introduction. Eilish certainly needs no introduction, as she has spoken about the film many times over the years, citing it as a personal favorite and a work that has inspired her own art over the years. CHIHIRO is the most direct example of Eilish taking lyrical and thematic cues from a Studio Ghibli film, but the films have been with her throughout her career and have shaped her artistic approach in interesting ways.

Spirited Away (2001)

During her family’s move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches and ghosts, a world where people are turned into beasts.

Release date

July 20, 2001

Pour

Rumi Hîragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashûin

Duration

125 minutes

Studio

Walt Disney Pictures

slogan

The tunnel led Chihiro to a mysterious city…

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Billie Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft” deals with loss and identity

Eilish’s third album explores love and heartbreak from a variety of perspectives. Many of the songs seem to be written from the point of view of someone experiencing a variety of conflicting emotions after the end of a relationship. While many of Studio Ghibli’s most famous films don’t necessarily revolve around romance, they do. Exploring complex human relationshipsand the internalized feelings that accompany these relationships.

On the album, Eilish reflects on feeling lost within herself and searching for validation for the future. The album cover, an image of Eilish falling through an open door into a vast body of water, is a surreal image that feels like it would fit perfectly into a fantastical sequence in a Studio Ghibli film. The image symbolizes feelings of isolation and disconnection. Water is a recurring motif throughout the record, as with many of Studio Ghibli’s films, which feature elements of nature throughout. Not every song on the record is directly inspired by a Miyazaki film, but her songwriting evokes many complex, rich feelings expressed through the films, particularly Spirited Away.

Billie Eilish’s “CHIHIRO” takes up the themes of “Spirited Away”

Although it is not a single, “CHIHIRO” has become one of the most successful songs on the album. From the perspective of a character who distances herself from the world around her, Eilish explained to Rolling Stone how the song is directly connected to Spirited Away:

“It’s kind of from (Spirited Away)’s point of view mixed with mine. The visual effects in that movie are some of the best ever – all that Studio Ghibli shit is incredible. There’s all these shots of the train in the water after the flood, and it literally looks like an ocean with train tracks. I had just seen Spirited Away and Finneas had made that beat. I love that movie. I’ve seen it so many times.”

The film centers on Chihiro, who is transported to a strange, spiritual world where people take on new names, lose memories, and meet all sorts of surreal characters that don’t exist in the real world. Chihiro is alone, detached from everything and everyone she once knew, and try to find comfort and strength in this difficult situation.

In “CHIHIRO,” Eilish writes from a similar emotional state about the feeling of loneliness and the longing for a better understanding of the direction of her life. Eilish’s lyrics are full of metaphorsand many of these can be directly related to the film. In the first verse, she sings about her name being forgotten, something that happens to Chihiro when Yubaba, a mysterious witch, strips her of her identity and makes her work at a bathhouse. In the second verse, Eilish alludes to seeing loved ones in a restaurant, only for them to turn around and have different faces. This part mirrors Chihiro realizing that her parents have turned into pigs and are unable to recognize her or communicate in any meaningful way, and both the film and the song reference the fear of feeling overlooked by loved ones In this regard.

The song’s final verse recalls Chihiro’s encounter with Haku, the mystical dragon, in a garden. In this scene, Chihiro remembers her own name and forms a relationship that later has deeper roots in her past. “A part of me recognizes you,” Eilish sings, a reminder that Chihiro finally realizes that Haku saved her years ago in the real world. These lyrical nods to the film’s story touch on similar themes of identity, growing up, fear of abandonment, and ultimately reconnecting with oneself.

Studio Ghibli has always been an inspiration for Billie Eilish’s music

Although CHIHIRO is the most obvious nod to Studio Ghibli in Eilish’s discography to date, the films have touched her since her debut album. With an extensive selection of some of the most iconic anime films of all time, it’s no surprise that one of the most gifted musicians of this generation would draw inspiration from Studio Ghibli. Eilish spoke about her love for Miyazaki in a 2019 video interview with VICE. She explained how she draws images to go with each song, and that her visual art is the starting point of a cohesive vision for a record. “I owe so much of it to Miyazaki,” Eilish says of her artistic vision. She also mentions having a crush on Haku, and draws connections between her first album and the aesthetic qualities of No Face.

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The music video and cover of “My Future,” the first single from Eilish’s second studio album, are a tribute to Studio Ghibli. In the animated video, Eilish is seen walking through a forest that comes to life in a psychedelic, dreamlike way. The images of nature will be familiar to every Ghibli fan, because The relationship between humanity and the environment is a central theme in many Miyazaki films, including Spirited Awayand especially Princess Mononoke.

Eilish is a groundbreaking pop star of her time, but her interest in the world of film continues to push her musically to new, interesting places. With two Oscars for best song already under her belt, and a variety of cinematic influences from which she draws, Eilish understands the value of the relationship between film and music better than almost all of their contemporaries. Spirited Away produced one of their most powerful songs to date and is about how a personal connection with a beloved piece of art can inspire something beautiful.

Spirited Away is available in the US on Max

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