No Face

No-Face (カオナシ Kaonashi, lit. "Faceless") is a spirit in the Japanese animated film Spirited Away. He is shown to be capable of reacting to emotions and ingesting other individuals in order to gain their personality and physical traits.



Physical Appearance

When first introduced, No-Face appeared in a semi-transparent state while shifting in and out of visibility. His organs are visible, pulsating in several states. His figure resembles that of a long, black tube. While it is unknown if No-Face has a physical body, it is shown that he can develop arms and legs with the capability of leaving footprints as he walks. An ominous, expressionless mask with grey-violet highlights is painted on his "head" of sorts, and while there is a "mouth" painted on the mask, No-Face has shown that his real, expertly-hidden mouth is larger than the one present on his mask.

Personality

No-Face is a lonely spirit who begins to follow Chihiro Ogino after having developed an interest in her sincerity. His vocabulary consisted of grunts and moans as opposed to coherent words. Not knowing much about the Bathhouse  or about other spirits in general, No-Face learned by example and adapted to his surroundings.

Exposed to the corruptive thoughts and greed of the workers, he quickly grew to encompass their personalities, hoping that his endeavor to be like those around Chihiro would eventually garner her affection for him. While this ultimately brought upon the opposite effect, Chihiro was somewhat true to No-Face after she invited him and accepted help from him.

No-Face becomes obsessed with Chihiro, and wants to see her and her only. He becomes extremely volatile after being fed the River Spirit's emetic dumpling by Chihiro, and, while fleeing from the obviously now-hostile spirit, she calls out to him twice to follow her. She accepts him as a co-journeyer into the train ride on her way to Swamp Bottom after he calms down and is out of the Bathhouse. At this stage, No-Face is no longer aggressive and is quite docile, even obeying Chihiro's orders, like "sit" and "behave yourself."

As a monstrous, out-of-control being, No-Face exhibits all the negative traits of those he had swallowed (most significantly, Aogaeru), becoming a brash, arrogant, loud and selfish creature whose obsession with Chihiro proved troubling for everyone around it.

Towards the end of the film, No-Face meets with Zeniba, another witch who works alone, in contrast to Yubaba, who runs her bathhouse with a complex hierarchy. Perhaps attempting to match the rules of the new tiny society, No-Face starts spinning and knitting and appears proficient in that. Happy with his new environment, he accepts Zeniba's proposal to stay with her as an apprentice.