Irony of Parents
It is ironic that Sen/Chihiro’s parents display very little parental caution or sensibility: they cut across into a shortcut to a rural road that they knew nothing about, rudely help themselves to food obviously not prepared for them, and blatantly ignore all the eerie strangeness they encounter. They also display behavior that is decidedly un-Japanese, like brashly declaring that it’s ok to just eat the food that was set out because they had sufficient resources to pay for the meal.
Irony of The Bathhouse and No-Face
No-Face isn’t actually evil per se. He is lonely because the rest of the supernatural beings community, for reasons never clearly disclosed, shuns him. He is drawn to the bathhouse because of the kindness that Sen/Chihiro shows him. In order to gain entrance to the bathhouse he tempts a small frog-spirit with gold nuggets he produces and swallows him whole allowing him to speak with his voice. What turns him into a monster is staying in the bathhouse where starts to drink and consume more than what he needs, consuming more for the pleasure of it and because it generates so much attention for him. The real trouble begins though when he starts consuming the staff that put in the “extra effort” to try to curry more tips from him; when he starts consuming them, he also absorbs their brashness and crude behavior, demanding that they produce Sen/Chihiro for him.
Irony of Transforming into Pigs
Sen/Chihiro’s parents are turned into pigs as punishment for their gluttony and disrespect for the rules of etiquette governing the spirit world. These rules and acts of gluttony however are committed while her parents are still human and incomplete control of their mental facilities. It is ironic therefore that they are turned into pigs; changing them as if it were to match their physical forms with the behavior that they’ve displayed.
Irony of Haku
Haku is the spirit and embodiment of the Kohaku River; a river that unfortunately, has been dredged up and diverted and is now a row of apartment houses. It is ironic that the spirit of the river has somehow outlived the river that it is supposed to embody.
Irony of Returning to Civilization
When the Chihiro and her parents make their way back to the car they find it covered in a considerable amount of dust and dry leaves, indicating that they had been away for much longer than they think. It is ironic to think they could have been gone for a couple of days or even a month and have absolutely no recall of the ordeal that their daughter had gone through in order to save her parents.
