Akio Ogino

""Don't be such a scaredy cat, Chihiro. Let's just take a look.""

- Akio Ogino

Akio Ogino (荻野 明夫 Ogino Akio) is a working-class male, the husband of Yūko Ogino and the father of Chihiro Ogino in the Japanese animated film "Spirited Away".

As punishment for his crimes against the Spirit World, Akio is cursed and transformed into a pig for much of the movie.

Physical Appearance
Akio has lightly tanned skin, short, brown hair and small, dark-colored eyes. Compared to other characters in the series, Akio has a very bulky figure, though more of his bulk is attributed to body fat as opposed to muscle. He also grows a very slightly accentuated mustache on his upper lip. He wore a light blue polo shirt with white stripe and blue jeans.

Personality
While his personality is never fully elaborated on in the film, it is shown in the introduction to the film that he is extremely overconfident and brave, driving his car through an undeveloped footpath in Tochinoki after missing a turn. His curiosity, love for adventure and general carelessness first lands him and his family at the Red gate, the entrance of the Spirit Realm and subsequently places him under a curse.

Plot
Akio is first seen driving a car to his new home. Unfamiliar with the roads there, he misses a turn and compensates by driving over a footpath in hopes to eventually reach his new house. He nearly drives the car into a stone statue and revels in the architectural beauty of the Red Gate. Curiosity piqued, he then takes Yūko Ogino and Chihiro Ogino through the tunnel, unwittingly stepping into the Spirit Realm.

Akio is later seen picking up a scent of food and, with wife and daughter in tow, finds a whole street of unoccupied food stalls. Thinking that all expenses would be paid for (due to his owning of credit cards), Akio and Yūko begin to stuff themselves with food meant for spirits and immediately fall under a curse that prevents them from stopping. He is then seen at sunset where his consumption of the food has transformed him and his wife into large pigs. Whipped by angry spirit stall owners for eating so much food, He consequently forgets his previous life as a human.

He is next seen sleeping alongside his transformed wife (as pigs) in the pigpen, completely forgetting that he was once a human and ignoring Chihiro's calling. He is not seen until the end of the movie where he and his wife are waiting for Chihiro by the Red Tunnel entrance, forgetting about their experience as pigs after the dispelling of their curse. Completely unaware of how much time has passed, he exclaims at how dusty and dirty the car has become, and dismisses the mess as a prank as the film ends.

Symbolism
Even after he and his wife are turned into pigs they continue to eat. Hayao Miyazaki shows that people are not sensitive of their surroundings, continuing their destructive way. Akio and his wife cause trouble for their child Chihiro, who has now to save them.

Quotes

 * "Chihiro? Chihiro, we're almost there!"
 * "Look, Chihiro, there's your new school. Looks great, doesn't it?"
 * "I must've missed the turn-off."
 * "We're fine, I got four-wheel drive."
 * "What's that?"
 * "It looks like an entrance."
 * "This building's not old, it's fake. These stones are just made of plaster."
 * "I knew it. It's an abandoned theme park. See? They built them everywhere in the early nineties. But then, the economy went bad, and they all went bankrupt. This must be one of them."
 * "Look, they were planning to put a river here."
 * "Don't worry, you got Daddy here. He's got credit cards and cash."
 * "A new home and a new school? It is a bit scary."

Etymology

 * The name Akio means "bright" (明) (aki) and "man, husband" (夫) (o).
 * Akio's surname Ogino means "reed, rush" (荻) (ogi) and "field, wilderness" (野) (no).