I just read Coraline yesterday. It was good and surprisingly scary. When I got to the end, where she realises that she isn’t nervous about going to a new school because after saving her house from the malevolent demon woman there is nothing about school that can scare her anymore it struck me how similar the book was to the movie Spirited Away. I’m not accusing either of copying the other but I think the parallels are pretty interesting:
Protagonist - Both stories feature a young girl of about 10 who has recently moved house. Both change out of their old clothes into new ones upon arrival in the new world, and both change back to their old ones after making important decisions. Both grow over the course of their journey from a whiny, easily frightened kid in Chihiro’s case and a perpetually bored one in Coraline’s to become tough, independent kids. Both realise in the end that going to a new school isn’t so bad.
Plot - Involves the girls being transported from a mundane world into a strange and magical one where they need to rely on their wits. The girl’s parents are held captive and must be saved. The girls meet other characters along the way who they try to free from the bad witch. The girls wager with the witches for their parents and the other characters, putting themselves on the line. The parents remember nothing of their experience.
Characters - The characters are varied and all slightly left of normal. This is true for the people in Coraline’s “normal” world and even more so for the inhabitants of the world beyond the door. The girls each have a guardian character who save them at one point, but who become dependent on the girls at another. There is a lonely shapeshifter. Both “alternate” worlds are ruled by a bad witch who hold the characters captive.
Other - Issues of names and identity are addressed - in Spirited Away, Yubaba controls her subjects by taking away their names. In Coraline, the nameless cat claims that names are for people who don’t know who they are. After their adventures Chihiro gets her name back and people finally start saying Coraline’s name right. Both stories bear a certain similarity to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe but not nearly as strongly as they resemble each other.
So… that’s all I can think of right now. My guess is that the stories are similar because they are both basically hero’s journey stories which both creators have been known to like. They have a few key differences too which I’m too lazy to point out right now but I might do it later if anyone is actually interested. Any thoughts?