World's First Anime To Win An Oscar!

The most popular Anime Film ''Spirited Away' (Hepburn: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) is the only hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win the Oscar. ''Spirited Away' a Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki was released on 2001 and soon it became the first anime to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature on March 23, 2003, at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles, California, USA.  

After deciding that the picture would be based on the ten-year-old daughter of his friend Seiji Okuda, the film's associate producer, who visited his home every summer, Miyazaki developed the screenplay. Miyazaki was working on two personal projects at that time, but they were turned down. 'Spirited Away' was put into production in 2000 with a US $19 million budget. The Japanese director's buddy and Pixar animator John Lasseter persuaded Walt Disney Pictures to purchase the North American distribution rights, and he also served as executive producer of the film's English-dubbed edition. The screenplay was subsequently written by screenwriters Cindy and Donald Hewitt to mirror the characters' original Japanese lip motions, and Lasseter then engaged Kirk Wise as the director and Donald W. Ernst as the producer. Later on it was animated by Studio Ghibli. 

The huge break though was achieved by this anime in Japanese Animation Industry. As an anime of the 2000's, its a big deal to get the name in Guinness World Records by winning Oscar.

The protagonist 10 year old Chihiro Ogino is stubborn, spoiled, and naive, so when she and her parents come across an abandoned amusement park while traveling to their new home, she is less than happy. She cautiously enters, and as twilight approaches she begins to see that there is more to this area than first meets the eye. Chihiro has unintentionally entered the spirit world, which has already manifested itself in the form of ghostly apparitions and food that turns her parents into pigs. Now that she is imprisoned, she must find the strength to labor and live among spirits, with the help of the mysterious Haku and the assortment of interesting people she encounters along the way. Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, a vivid and captivating book that chronicles Chihiro's voyage through a new world. The plot is marvelous and filled with fantasy.

At the start of the film Chihiro says to her parents "I Finally Get a Bouquet And It's A Goodbye Present. That's Depressing." which explains her childish feeling to the kind gesture that her friend made, thus establishing a point that she'll grow up through out the film and so on. Moreover, 'Spirited Away' is a manifestation of fears and anxieties as seen through the lens of its young lead female character, Chihiro. This Anime's story is full of lessons and adventures of life.

Source: Madman Anime