Yubaba

Yubaba, (湯婆婆, yubaaba) is established the proprietor of The Bathhouse and the main antagonist of the Japanese animated film Spirited Away. She is the identical twin sister of Zeniba.

Appearance
Yubaba is Zeniba's twin sister and, as such, is almost completely identical to her. She has an inhumanly large figure and a large mound of discolored hair combed into a bun-like style. To tell of her age Yubaba has a great amount of wrinkles on her personage. She has dark brown eyes accentuated with purple eye shadow as well as a very large and prominent crooked nose. She also wears golden earrings identical to those of her twin sister's. Unlike her sister Yubaba is not shown with glasses in the film.

Personality
As the main antagonist of the film, Yubaba has an extremely overbearing and intimidating personality. Like many other workers of her infamous bathhouse Yubaba obsesses greedily over gold and is shown to be willing to view gold as a priority over her own family (especially Zeniba, whom she expresses hatred for). However, she has in some instances shown a great amount of motherly care for her son Boh, and is seen completely devastated when the latter states that he will "hate her" if she continues to treat Chihiro unfairly.

She is quite selfish and frugal (when it comes to workers), having given herself an opulent office with immeasurable amounts of unoccupied space and her many workers a single cramped room as living space. From the other side, she also readily takes both disgusting and dangerous tasks herself (like meeting the stinking Unnamed River Spirit or shielding the house from the monstrous No-Face). She appears highly profesional in these tasks.

Her magical capabilities have allowed her to "steal" the names of her workers, binding them in a contract to her bathhouse forever unless they manage to miraculously recall their full names (the only two people seen doing so are Haku and Chihiro, both of which relied on each other to remember). She is also seen to be able to spit fire when angered to a certain extent. (seen when Haku mentions that her precious son Boh has been "taken" from her).

While her attributes are seen as incredibly antagonistic in the film Yubaba has (on occasion) shown several redeeming qualities, such as her willingness to praise Chihiro after her excellent work and motherly softness for her son Boh. In the end she simply places gold over most things, causing others to disagree with her due to their varying mindsets.

History
Not introduced until mentioned by both Haku and Kamajii, Yubaba quickly establishes herself as a very terrifying authoritarian figure to Chihiro during their first meeting. She uses various methods of harrassment to force Chihiro into speaking about her saviors and is shown to be angry when the latter repeats the same question over and over. Calling Chihiro stupid, useless and spoiled, Yubaba's tirade was abruptly ended by one of Boh's tantrums, during which to reluctantly gave a contract to Chihiro. Remarking on how long Chihiro's name is Yubaba quickly removes several characters from the signature, renaming Chihiro "Sen". She is then seen ordering a very stoic Haku to take Chihiro to the lower floors.

Yubaba is next seen with her bird, wrapping herself around in a cloak that transforms her body into one similar to a bird's and flying off into the distance, allowing Haku to visit Chihiro without interference. She returns to realize that a "filth spirit" is trying to sneak into the bathhouse during the rain and orders her workers to chase the spirit away. Realizing later that the guest was not a filth spirit, she ordered Chihiro to serve him and subsequently hugged her in happiness, revealing that the dirty spirit was a very wealthy and powerful figure in the Spirit Realm. Some time later, she orders Haku to steal a golden seal from Zeniba.

With No-Face causing an uproar in the bathhouse, Yubaba angrily blames Chihiro on the phone for letting No-Face in, and promptly tells her subordinates to dispose of Haku, who was of no use to her anymore. She is then seen coming out of a monstrous No-Face's guest room and quickly dismisses her (then transformed) son for being a "dirty mouse" and pushes Chihiro in the room to face No-Face alone. When questioned by Chichiyaku of Chihiro's safety Yubaba asks if he is willing to be the replacement and leaves.

As No-Face regurgitates all the food he has eaten whilst chasing Chihiro, Yubaba remarks that what No-Face has done is unforgivable and tosses a fireball at him only to be puked on by the monstrous spirit. She is next seen in her office having washed herself. Realizing that "Boh" was really just the Three Heads and that the "gold" she received from No-Face was merely mud she storms into Boh's room looking for her son asks Haku, with blazing anger, where her son is. When told he was at Zeniba's place, Yubaba immediately extinguished the flames in her mouth and seats herself in a chair, threatening Haku with a gruesome death in the future in exchange for Chihiro's freedom.

She is then seen on the bridge entrance to The Bathhouse with a contract in her hand. Having lost her challenge to Chihiro, Yubaba reluctantly tells Chihiro to go. Unlike her workers and son, Yubaba did not bid a friendly farewell to Chihiro, but nonetheless remained to see her off.

Externa Links

 * Yubaba at Studio Ghibli Wiki