My Neighbor Totoro

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Lore & Background

The film is deeply rooted in animism, a major theme according to scholar Eriko Ogihara-Schuck. Totoro has animistic traits and kami status because he lives in a camphor tree in a Shinto shrine surrounded by a Shinto rope, and is referred to as mori no nushi (master of the forest). When Mei returns from her encounter with Totoro, her father takes Mei and her sister to the shrine to greet and thank Totoro, a common practice in Shinto tradition following an encounter with a kami. The film also engages with nostalgia for the Japanese countryside; cultural historian Timo Thelen argues that Totoro participates in a wider discourse about satoyama landscapes, idealised as an "absolute satoyama" that fuses nature and culture in harmonious balance. The film has been interpreted as drawing on the director's own childhood experience of a chronically ill mother and on lingering memories of wartime devastation.

In Their Own Story

In 1950s Japan, university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his daughters Satsuki and Mei (approximately ten and four years old, respectively) move into an old house close to the hospital where the girls' mother, Yasuko, is recovering from a long-term illness. The house is inhabited by small, dark, dust-like house spirits called susuwatari. Mei discovers two small spirits that lead her into the hollow of a large camphor tree, where she befriends a larger spirit that identifies itself using roars she interprets as "Totoro." Mei falls asleep atop Totoro but when Satsuki finds her, she is on the ground. Later, while waiting for a late bus, Totoro appears beside them, allowing Satsuki to see him for the first time. Satsuki offers her father's umbrella to Totoro, who gives her a bundle of nuts and seeds in return. A giant, bus-shaped cat arrives; Totoro boards it and leaves. Days after planting the seeds, the girls awaken at midnight to find Totoro and his fellow spirits dancing around the planted seeds. They join in, causing the seeds to grow into an enormous tree. Totoro takes the girls for a ride on a magical flying top. In the morning, the tree is gone but the seeds have sprouted. When Mei disappears after a planned visit by their mother is postponed, Satsuki pleads for Totoro's help. Totoro summons the Catbus, which carries Satsuki to Mei's location, and the sisters reunite. The bus takes them to the hospital, where they learn their mother has a minor cold but is otherwise recovering well. Eventually, their mother returns home and the girls play with other children while Totoro and his friends watch from afar.

Reader's Guide

The Kusakabe family relocates to an aging house in the countryside, hoping its proximity to the hospital will aid their mother's recovery. Satsuki, the pragmatic older sister, and Mei, the impulsive younger one, soon discover the home is infested with soot sprites—tiny, dust-like creatures called susuwatari that can be seen when moving from bright places to dark ones. The susuwatari leave to find another empty house. While exploring the overgrown garden, Mei chases two white spirits into the forest, where she tumbles into a hollow beneath an ancient Camphor tree and encounters Totoro. Days later, during a torrential storm, Satsuki realizes Mei has vanished. Desperation mounts until Totoro materializes at her side, offering guidance and warmth. The film's emotional peak arrives when the sisters, waiting at the bus stop, are joined by Totoro again. He gifts them a pouch of seeds and summons the Catbus—a giant, bus-shaped cat—that whisks them on a magical flight over the moonlit fields to check on their mother before dropping them home. In the end, a doctor's note confirms their mother is stable and will return soon. The film closes not with a battle won, but with a quiet miracle: the seeds Totoro gave them sprout overnight into towering saplings, dancing in the moonlight as Satsuki and Mei watch in silent, breathless joy.

Did You Know?

• The film was originally set to be an hour long but during production it grew to respond to the social context, including the reason for the move and the father's occupation.
• Eight animators worked on the film, which was completed in eight months.
• The rain for My Neighbor Totoro was 'scratched in the cels' and superimposed to convey a soft feel.
• One month was taken to create the tadpoles, which included four colors; the water for it was also blurred.
• The film and Grave of the Fireflies were released on the same bill in 1988, considered 'one of the most moving and remarkable double bills ever offered to a cinema audience.'