One of the conflicts between man and the natural world is pollution. This shows up in Studio Ghibli’s 2001 film, Spirited Away. Sen’s first customer is the spirit of a polluted river. They smell so bad that practically all of the staff are forcibly trying not to gag in front of the spirit. When Sen finds a bike handle sticking out of the spirit, she understands that the bike is not supposed to be there, and all of the workers work together to pull the bike , and consequently other garbage, out of the spirit.
The fight to pull the garbage out of the river spirit makes it obvious that in order to clean a river, it’s an all-hands-on-deck situation. All of the workers and guests in the bathhouse had to take a part in pulling the garbage out of the river spirit, whether it was to help pull or offer encouragement. Pollution is a man-made issue, and everyone has to participate in cleaning up the pollution for an effective solution.
The garbage is pulled out of the river spirit, and they leave Sen with a vomit-inducing dumpling as a reward. They pay the bathhouse in gold pellets.
