How can I convince my brother to watch Spirited Away with me?

First off, a bit of context.

My brother is slightly younger than me (I am 17, while he is 15, but he turns 16 in November). He is mainly into Marvel and Star Wars, but he also likes animated movies quite a lot, too. However, for whatever reason, he has never gotten into anime. Yeah, he watched Ponyo, Totoro, and a bit of Star Wars: Visions, but aside from that, nothing else.

As stellar as Spirited Away, everytime I suggest it to him, he always says no. Perhaps I am kind of a jerk, because I feel like I am forcing it on him.

However, I really want to show him what a masterpiece of animation it is. Plus, with me going off to college next year, watching movies with my bro won't be as regular as it is.

So, people of the forums, I ask you this question: How can I convince my brother, who isn't much of an anime fan, to watch Spirited Away with me?

I mean, you could do a double feature where you pick one film (*cough* Spirited Away) and he gets to pick the other.

But forcing a movie on someone is rarely the way to go. It will predispose them to not wanting to like it.

Look for the common ground between Spirited Away and what he likes. It;s possible he'll have to watch other movies first.

I suggest the Ludovico Technique.

Reverse psychology maybe? Tell him you are glad he doesn't want to watch Spirited Away because you realise he is not mature enough to handle it and you forbid him from watching it. He will then immediately insist he can and should watch it.

He's 15? Tell him the animated boobs are awesome.

I had to look that up. Very funny,

Bribe him, money talks!

There are no boobs in this movie.

I know but you lie, just like he lied to him when he said it was worth watching.

Just tie him down and clamp his eyes open Clockwork Orange-style, of course.

The Ludovico Technique has already been suggested.

I like the idea of doing a double feature where he picks one of the movies.


You can't really push these things though; if someone is resistant to it.


You say he likes other animation. Do you have examples of what you mean by that? That can be a pretty broad range e.g. Waltz with Beshir is pretty different than say, The Secret of Kelles?
Ideally, can you think of some animated movies that he likes that specifically might seem similar to Spirited Away? (Yeah, that seems hard).


Otherwise. You can maybe ask him, "so, when I suggest watching Spirited Away and you don't like the idea, what are you thinking this is going to be like? Because this is one of those night and day differences between tv anime and theatrical anime. Not all are necessarily that different in quality and characteristics, but this one is."

Absolutely spot on.
This will definitely work on a teenager.

I imagine some old-school RT'ers with a viewing-torture dungeon where their victims are forced to sit in the Clockwork Orange chair and watch New Wave Cinema until they love it.

[Voice Off-Screen] "Now describe the mise-en-scene of the denouement!"

Ha, I don’t know. I love Spirited Away, but I’ll also admit it massively traumatised my best friend and I when we were kids. For whatever reason we both, independently (as we didn’t watch it together and only talked about it years later) found it Human Centipede-level unpleasant/disturbing (though again, I fully appreciate it’s a masterpiece). But I, too, endorse reverse psychology here, as suggested above - highly doubt that you can sell it as an extreme horror film, though that’s how I perceived it at the time.

I've never gotten into anime either but I've watched and enjoyed several Miyazaki movies, Spirited Away among them. Also Ponyo, Princess Mononoke and Porco Rosso. Loved them all.

Trick him. Give a false name and say that this is one of the main inspirations for Doctor Strange or another Marvel character that he likes. If you like, I can post a good "deceiving" post about it here to fool your brother, and you can show it to him. Lol. Trickery is awesome!

Tell him Hayao Miyazaki was inspired by George Lucas and Stan lee.

And tell him Stan Lee makes a cameo!