Haku of Spirited Away Fanlisting

Welcome to the TAFL approved fanlisting of the Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi from Spirited Away, entitled, "Eternal Promise." Please remember to read the rules before Joining. Thank you!

Other Characters of Spirited Away

Chihiro Ogino/Sen

Chihiro is the 10-year old protagonist of the movie. Chihiro is in the process of moving to a new town when her family stumbles upon the entrance to the bathhouse. During her adventure she matures from a whiny, self-centered, and pessimistic child to a hard-working, helpful, optimistic young woman. She is re-named "Sen" (lit. "a thousand") by the proprietor of the bathhouse, Yubaba. Note that in Japanese orthography, the character for "Sen" is one of the kanji of her true name, "Chihiro".

Voiced by:
Rumi Hiiragi (Japanese)
Daveigh Chase (English)

Yubaba (lit. "bath crone")

An old sorceress with an unnaturally large head and nose who runs the bathhouse. She also appears to be extremely intuitive. She reluctantly signs Chihiro into a contract, taking her name and re-naming her "Sen" in order to hold power over her for the duration of the contract. Yubaba has an over-bearing and authoritarian personality, but she does show a soft side through her love for Bou. In contrast to her simple and hospitable sister, Yubaba lives in opulent quarters and is only interested in taking care of guests for money. Though she is very intuitive (she senses the approach of No Face and realizes that the River God is not a stink spirit as he appears), she doesn't notice on her own that her baby is gone. When Haku prompts her, her first reaction is to scrutinize the gold.

Voiced by:
Mari Natsuki (Japanese)
Suzanne Pleshette (English)

Kashira

A trio of heads living in Yubaba's office that move around by bouncing. They do not speak except in small grunts when they bounce about. They are later changed into an illusion of Bou by Zeniba in order to trick Yubaba.

Kamaji (lit. "boiler old man")

An old man with six arms who runs the boiler room of the bathhouse. A number of Susuwatari (?????, Susuwatari?) (Soot balls) work for him, by carrying coal into his furnace. Also, he has a large cabinet where he keeps all the herbs that are used in the baths. After some persuasion, he allows Chihiro to work at the bathhouse and even pretends to be her grandfather to protect her. He also takes an injured Haku into his boiler room and cares for him while Chihiro journeys to Zeniba's cottage.

Voiced by:
Bunta Sugawara (Japanese)
David Ogden Stiers (English)

Lin (Rin)

A worker at the bathhouse who becomes Chihiro's caretaker. Although cold at first, she warms up to Chihiro and grows a strong bond with her. She warns No Face, who had previously gone on a rampage, not to harm Chihiro or there would be trouble. At the end, she is very happy for Chihiro when she finally manages to find her way home.

Voiced by:
Yumi Tamai (Japanese)
Susan Egan (English)

No Face (Kaonashi, lit. "No face")

No Face is an odd spirit that takes an interest in Chihiro. Chihiro lets No Face into the bathhouse through a side door. At first he is merely a strange cloaked and masked shadowy thing that merely breathes and smiles.

No Face is a lonely being who seems to feed on the emotions of those he encounters. He is helpful to Chihiro since she helped him. After observing the bathhouse staff's reaction to gold and attempting to win them over with more gold, he reacts to their greed by becoming a grotesque monster and eating lots of food and some of the staff. He calms down and reverts back to normal after he leaves the bathhouse's influence, and at the end he stays with Zeniba as a helper.

No Face's mask, movement and even name share many similarities with the Japanese Noh theater.

Voiced by:
Tatsuya Gashuin (Japanese)
Bob Bergen (English)

River God (kawa no kami, lit. "river god")

A customer of the bathhouse originally thought to be a "stink spirit" who is assigned to Chihiro and Lin. Yubaba suspects that he may be something more than a stink spirit, and when Chihiro helps him by pulling trash that had been dumped into his river out of his side, her suspicions are proven correct. He is in fact a famous river god. As a reward, he gives Chihiro a ball of plant material which we are told by Kamaji, in the English-subtitled version, is a "healing cake." In the English dubbed version he just states that it is medicine from the river god. The "healing cake" is later used to heal an injured Haku through ingestion and to cause No Face to vomit the people and vast amounts of food he ate during his rampage.

Bou

Bou is Yubaba's son. Although he has the appearance of a young baby, he is twice Yubaba's size. Yubaba spoils him and goes out of her way to give him whatever he wants. He believes that going outside will make him ill; Sen tells him staying in his room all that time will make him sick. Later, Zeniba turns him into a mouse. Though the spell wears off, Bou stays as a mouse simply because he doesn't want to change back. He becomes good friends with Chihiro while in his mousey form and eventually stands up to Yubaba to protect Chihiro. In the original, Bou tells Yubaba he had a good time when he was with Chihiro. His little adventure may be seen as an analog to Chihiro's adventures and growing up. This idea suggests that Bou is so overgrown because he has never really matured under Yubaba's doting care.

Voiced by:
Ryunosuke Kamiki (Japanese)
Tara Strong (English)

Zeniba

Zeniba is Yubaba's twin sister and rival. Although identical in appearance, their personalities are almost polar opposites. At first she appears no better than Yubaba when she becomes enraged at Haku for stealing her magic seal and threatens to take it back regardless of what happens to Haku. Hoping to set things right, Chihiro journeys to Zeniba's cottage to return it and apologize. It is then that Zeniba reveals her true character as being a kind, grandmotherly figure not at all like Yubaba. She even tells Chihiro to call her "Granny" in the English version, makes dessert and tea for her and No Face and does her best to help Chihiro while realizing that there are limits to what she can do. She forgives Haku for stealing her seal (in the Japanese version she states that she no longer blames him, prompting some fans to speculate that when Chihiro told her about the control-slug that Yubaba put in him that she realized that Yubaba was more guilty than Haku ever was) and sees everyone off, assuring Chihiro that she will be just fine. She also takes No Face in as a helper, giving him a place to call home at last.

Note: Zeniba is voiced by the same actors as Yubaba in both the English and Japanese versions.

Information from Wikipedia.