Ghibli’s Spirited Away remade entirely in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Meg Bethany Koepp

An insanely talented Studio Ghibli fan has recreated Spirited Away in its entirety in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, making for one of the best crossovers you’ll ever see.

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away has become one of the top anime movies of all time since its release in 2001. It’s the highest grossing film of all time in Japan, pulling in over $347 million worldwide. It follows the story of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl who accidentally stumbles into the world of spirits while moving to a new town with her parents.

After her mom and dad are turned into pigs, the girl claims a job at the Bathhouse in an attempt to find a way to transform them back so they can go home. Along the way, she meets Haku, who tries to help her to return to the human world. Millions around the world love the movie, so it comes as no surprise that one skilled fan brought the fantasy film to Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Yubaba runs the Bathhouse, and turns Chihiro’s parents into pigs.

Spirited Away in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Twitter user ‘AlmightyMe’ brought the popular movie to the life simulation game by using the Custom Design tool to create clothing, and also modelled certain areas after locations in the film.

The fan starts off with the scene where the human family first stumble across the entrance to the spirit world, and goes onto act out the part where the mom and dad are transformed into pigs after eating some street food.

They then progress through to the infamous bridge act, where Haku tells Chihiro to hold her breath while crossing the bridge leading to the Bathhouse, otherwise other spirits will be able to detect her presence. Obviously, she fails, and she’s ultimately spotted and has to flee.

The user then depicts when the girl finds her way to the boiler room, where she meets Kamaji and the soot sprites. After some persuasion, the old man convinces Lin, a fellow worker, that “Sen” is his granddaughter, and that they must help her convince Yubaba to give her a job.

In another scene, AlmightyMe shows Sen after getting work and helping to clean the “stink spirit.” After this, she causes havoc by accidentally letting No Face into the Bathhouse, who tempts workers with gold before swallowing them whole.

After this, Yubaba’s sister Zeniba ends up turning her son, Boh, into a mouse after it’s revealed that Haku took her magical golden seal. Another scene shows the mouse travelling alongside No Face and Chihiro on the train to see the sister and to return the stolen item, and they find out that she’s actually much nicer than her sister.

In one of the last depictions by the AC player, the Bathhouse owner orders the pigs to be slaughtered, but is stopped by Haku after he reveals that Boh has been “kidnapped” and offers to retrieve him, but only if she lets the girl and her parents return home.

Eventually, the family leave the spirit world, with the mom and dad not remembering a single thing that happened after they were turned into pigs. The ordeal gives Chihiro newfound courage, and the movie ends with her feeling set to face a new school and a new home.

The movie recreation just goes to show how talented Animal Crossing fans can be. You can view the Twitter thread with all the scenes in full here.

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