Chihiro and Yubaba from “Spirited Away” are surprised in Subaru’s new commercial

January 5th was a special day for Studio Ghibli fans. Not only was it co-founder and cult director Hayao Miyazaki’s 83rd birthday, it was also the first Kinyo Roadshow (Friday Roadshow) and the anime “Spirited Away” aired on prime-time television to celebrate the day.

These Kinyo road shows are often a TV event on Japanese television. During telecasts, the broadcaster provides more behind-the-scenes insights into the respective films on its social media channels to include more fans in the show. As a special surprise, a commercial from the car manufacturer Subaru was also broadcast, in which the characters Chihiro and Yubaba were heard.

“Spirited Away” goes a little further

Voice actors Mari Natsuki and Rumi Hiiragi reprise their roles as Yubaba and Chihiro once again, after appearing in “Spirited Away” 22 years ago. During the conversation, Chihiro and Yubaba talk about Macho’s work on cars. Chihiro reveals that she can see a lot more with the new Eye system, which has three cameras on the car’s windshield.

In dangerous situations, the system can help prevent rear-end crashes and collisions. Chihiro reports that the number of rear-end collisions is greatly reduced in cars with Eyesight, which can bring Yubaba into a real storm of passion. It should be noted that the system is installed in many Subaru vehicles.

Ghibli fans rejoice

While an ad like this wouldn’t normally get much attention, it worked very well between anime segments because the sounds were transferred directly from the movie to the ad. He commented online Many fans a very successful twist. Most of all, how Rumi Hiiragi sounds as an adult now surprises many anime fans, while Yubaba’s voice hasn’t changed much in the past 20 years.

Rumi Hiiragi was 14 years old when she first lent her voice to Chihiro. The current ad has fans dreaming of how Chihiro and Yubaba would talk if they really kept in touch for over 20 years. Since the commercial only works properly as part of the Kinyo Roadshow, it was televised only once. Now the organizers have set at least a very high bar for the next surprise during the show in the series.