My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro is another one of Miyazaki’s films.  This film is a great animated movie that Miyazaki animated and directed. Like Spirited Away, it was quite popular, though this one towards a younger crowd. This movie truly shows how group oriented Japan are, and show a lot of traditional Japanese values.

The movie starts out with a family moving into their new home, a father and his two daughters, driving through the rice patty fields and welcoming the neighbors as they go. Upon arriving, the neighbor’s grandmother, called Granny, came over to help them move in. The two sisters, Mei and Satsuki, search the house. Upon opening a door leading inside, they see a bunch of black puff balls swarming around and then hide into the walls. They find these are ‘soot sprites’ that Miyazaki also has in Spirited Away, which were living in the house since it was empty. Mei, Satsuki, and their father later go to visit their mother who is sick in the hospital. Later, when the younger sister Mei is exploring, she sees a little totoro, which she follows and ends up at a huge camper tree. She falls into a hole in the trunk of the camper tree and finds another large totoro. There, she falls asleep. Her older sister later finds her asleep in the bushes, wondering how she fell asleep there

One evening, the sisters decide to go meet their father at the bus stop. He had missed the first bus so they had to wait a while for the next one.  While waiting, Totoro comes to wait next to them, shocking the girls. Satsuki sees he doesn’t have anything to cover him from the rain, so gives him their father’s umbrella. Then they see him get onto a cat bus that runs off into the distance. They stand in shock as their father gets off the bus.

Also, Mei and Satsuki’s mother was supposed to visit home, but they find from the hospital that she can’t because she had gotten a cold. This greatly upsets the girls, and causes Mei to go running off to try and take a gift to her mother. Everyone from the town goes off looking for her, everyone pitching in. Satsuki went for miles and miles looking for Mei, and finally goes to ask Totoro for help at the camper tree. He calls the cat bus, and the cat bus takes Satsuki to where Mei is. Everyone is relieved to have found Mei and everything goes back to normal.

Something that is shown quite well in Totoro is the feeling of community that Japan has, the whole neighborhood pitching in to try and find Mei and what not. Also, the importance of family is greatly emphasized.

In the original concept for the movie, there was only going to be one daughter, but upon starting the film Miyazaki decided to have two. The younger sister’s name is Mei, or the American version of May. Then the older sister Satsuki is named after the Japanese version of May (Toyama).

Also, Totoro was considered the spirit of the forest. The tree that he was living under had rice straw and ribbons tied around it to show that it is sacred. The worship of this tree and nature itself is a reflection of Shintoism, hence why the family bowed to the tree and Totoro helped Mei. It is believed that respecting the spirit is what protected Mei.

Are there any sacred areas common around the US?

Is family and community as important in America as Japan?

Toyama, Ryoko. "Totoro FAQ // My Neighbor Totoro // Nausicaa.net." Totoro FAQ // My Neighbor Totoro // Nausicaa.net. Studio Ghiblink, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/totoro/faq.html>.