#i think an extremely powerful witch like zeniba who is wise beyond comprehension with the ability to see through people

[senkamikakushi]

yeah. this. people can take the relationship any way they want, but stubbornly insisting to others that they're siblings is just spreading misinformation

I also think haku's relationship with chihiro transcends romantic and platonic titles as quite a few ghibli pairings tend to do, but it's undeniable that the love is there (they literally beat us over the head with it in the dialogue lmao). im just sick of the theory that it's purely familial/sibling love because what. where did they even get that. I can understand all the reasons as to why people would steer away from chihiro and haku in a more romantic context (mainly the awkwardness of the whole age thing or preferring to see them platonically) but I find just the notion of the sibling theory absurd. because siblings where?? they don't even look remotely alike. he is literally stated to be a river spirit. there's also the spirited away Q&A where miyazaki himself described chihiro's relationship with haku as "falling in love with a manager" (noteworthy to mention that this is in response to the haku age question specifically). I can respect people wanting to see their relationship in a non-romantic way out of personal preference, but my issues are with the people that push the sibling misinfo as if it's canon and use it as a "gotcha" against others. it's just not true, like, at all.

I'd be less annoyed by the theory if it hadn't kept spreading everywhere... now it's so popular that a bunch of people have genuinely fallen for it.

I’ve ranted about this before but that stupid sibling “theory” (if u could even call it a theory. all the “evidence” is made up conjecture) about chihiro and haku is legitimately insane when this line is literally in the movie. You think they’d put in this line and not any sort of hint or line of dialogue saying they’re siblings if that “theory” was true??

Not only did she say this but she said it in english so there would be zero confusion and yet people still get it wrong. Granted it’s not in the english dub but both kamaji and zeniba use the word love when referring to chihiro and haku and say it in sort of a cheeky elbow nudge teasing way that you wouldn’t say about a pair of siblings.