The movie explores the concept of identity and the journey of self-discovery. Chihiro undergoes a transformation throughout the film, evolving from a timid and fearful girl into a brave and compassionate young woman. As she faces challenges and confronts her fears, Chihiro learns more about herself and discovers her inner strength and resilience. Like many of Miyazaki's heroines, she achieves her goals not by force, but through compassion and trust, and the emphasis on this is serious - there is only one fight scene in the movie.

The ever-expanding body of water surrounding the bathing house: at the beginning of the film it's just a river, but at the end it's already an ocean - symbolizes the dissonance between the magical and real worlds that Chihiro feels. Nature works as the face of the unknown, which is girls's greatest fear. Flight is the least dominant theme here (compared to other movies of Hayao Miyazaki), and the train running on the surface of the water is used here as a metaphor for freedom and escapism.

The universal visual language allowed Miyazaki to spell out many of the problems of modernity in the most accessible way possible. Food here, for example, is not only a symbol of excess, turning parents into pigs, but also a gift offered to the spirits who come to the baths. However, the people, oblivious to the deities, themselves devour the prepared viands. This is not only the greed of materialism, but also disrespect for ancient culture.

According to Miyazaki, industrial growth and the pursuit of money have spoiled both the inner, spiritual world of people and the outer world - the ecology. The symbol of the pollution of the physical world were two spirits, which in the baths met Chihiro. The spiritual collapse is represented in the face of parents who do not care about the future and the past. The past is the customs they violate by appearing in the ghost town, and the future is the daughter: on her way to the town, she asks her parents to return and shares her worries, but they are completely indifferent to her fears.