In Miyazaki Hayao's animated film Spirited Away, Miyazaki presents a young girl Chihiro who visits an abandoned amusement park, only to become trapped in a fantasy world where spirits reside. Although most of these creatures are very unique and quite different from others, most of them have one thing in common: their body features are very disproportionate to their body size. This uncanny similarity depicted by Miyazaki elicits strong feelings of fear and appreciation, especially from the viewer. Although many characters have a menacing and frightening ghost-like appearance, they still have large eyes, teardrop-shaped bodies, and make little to no noise. These three characteristics emphasize the helplessness – the kindness – of these creatures. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The characters' disturbing appearance, however, quickly begins to conflict more obviously with their cute driving factors. In a particular early scene, Chihiro encounters a radish spirit: a large, round creature whose body shape resembles a radish. At first, the creature is threatening to the viewer, as it is large compared to most of the characters and its appearance is foreign and bizarre. But even though the spirit seems frightening, Chihiro stays around it briefly and the viewer is invited to observe more of its figure. At this point, the roundness of the spirit radish's silhouette becomes more apparent and the viewer is led to see him not only as menacing, but also cute. But cute objects are generally considered attractive, while something threatening is generally considered repulsive. This begs the question of how can a creature be considered scary and threatening while still being cute at the same time? Additionally, why does Miyazaki apply these opposing connotations to the radish spirit as well as other characters in Spirited Away? This tension between kindness and menace can help us illuminate an obscure but profound relationship between Miyazaki's film and consumer culture. The definition of "cuteness", as defined by Sianne Ngai in her journal article "The Cuteness of the Avant-Garde", holds that "cuteness" comes from our instinctive desire to manipulate or control other objects (Ngai 816 ). This is especially seen in the way people treat infants or children who still have baby characteristics – for example: a round face or puffy cheeks. People can often be seen pulling babies' cheeks, turning them to fit them, and all the while calling babies "cute." Additionally, characters who appear "blobbish" and malleable, without many defining characteristics, are considered cute, as they can easily be shaped at will. Ngai calls these characteristics the determining factors of kindness. These factors demonstrate why the radish spirit in Spirited Away seemed cute despite its strange appearance; he was very round, had indistinct facial features, and appeared to be able to be easily transformed and manipulated. But these factors don't answer the question of how the radish spirit and many other characters in the film can be considered both scary and cute. Although Ngai's definition of kindness is applicable to many cases, it is important to remember that thethe radish spirit in Spirited Away seemed both creepy and cute. Ngai argues that just as there are characteristics that define kindness, there are also characteristics that are completely contradictory to kindness. She brings up the example of glamour, always perceived as something edgy and untouchable. Models are beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but people usually feel helpless in the face of such perfection. But on the other hand, objects that look cute seem like they could be easily controlled, as shown above. Because of this direct contradiction, Ngai asserts that if kindness (or weakness) were ever imposed on any type of model, it would "immediately break the Schein of glamour" (816). Furthermore, Ngai characterizes kindness as something “subjectively imposed” (816). But in the case of mirage, it is a threatening domain that cannot be violated by those below. And so, kindness cannot be forced into the realm of glamour. The fear of a strange, horrible creature is the same fear that places glamor in a realm of its own above ordinary people. So if glamor cannot be associated with cuteness, why can the radish spirit be considered cute? We can answer this question by delving deeper into Ngai's article – especially in the sections that deal with Japanese culture, as Spritied Away is primarily based on Miyazaki's Japanese origins. At one point, in the middle of Ngai's article, she states that the word "kawaii" is used in Japanese culture to embody cuteness, but that it has "a sonic proximity to kowai, which means 'scary' …” (822). This similarity should not be considered a coincidence, as it is very likely that these two words derive from one; this similarity may imply that Japanese culture associates kindness with fear or threat. Therefore, it makes sense that Miyazaki could combine kindness and menace in many of Spirited Away's characters. For further evidence of the connection between kindness and threat, we can examine Ngai's opposition to the idea that "kindness traditionally implies an absolute absence of anything threatening..." (823). Ngai states that because observers view cute objects as easily controllable, a violent desire for control is "always implicit in our [recognition of a] cute object..." (823). And this violence that observers direct toward cute objects turns back on the observer, creating a semblance of aggression or threat. Therefore, as Ngai says, “it is possible for cute objects to be both helpless and aggressive” (823). Looking at the tension between kindness and menace in Spirited Away through the lens of Ngai's paradoxical definition, we can see that purity and corruption in consumer culture are represented in the film; this is key to recognizing Miyazaki's underlying caution toward economies based on greed. We can therefore see that Japanese culture presents a relationship in which kindness may well be associated with threat; However, why does Miyazaki use this unusual tension in the film? We can find an answer to this question in one of the film's main characters, No-Face: a large ghostly spirit who is depicted as alternately cute and menacing throughout the film. In No-Face's first interaction with Chihiro, he has a neutrality between threat and kindness. He has a dark, looming figure that appears menacing due to his resemblance to a ghost, but on the other hand, he possesses many.