"My Neighbor Totoro" is a movie that always stands in the top of popular Japanese animation. It's a children's classic, with details that Miyazaki-directed film can hide a dark and lurid story behind the lovely and cute characters of the movie. This is exactly what Miyakaki wanted to reveal when making this movie.
According to legend: Totoro is the god of death, and anyone who sees it is dead or dying.
The assumptions made on a more certain. As we all know, Miyazaki is a famous director with a sublime narrative style, with many metaphorical details and Glibli has hit the mystical and spiritual element, the theme of nature, the human with the strokes typical culture of Japan. But there is something else that makes the legend right and proper. There is a connection between the details in the story that mingled strangely with the fact that a terrible, tragic murder occurred in a city called Sayama in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. On May 1, 1963, a 16-year-old girl named Yoshie Nakata was missing on her way home from school. That night, a sum of ¥ 200,000 (equivalent to $ 556 USD) was claimed by the abductee to redeem Yoshie, but her sister brought the counterfeit money to the location he had designated. Unsuccessful when the kidnappers have discovered the police there so he escaped. On May 4, Yoshie's body was found, buried in an alley on a farm. The girl was raped and then murdered. Her sister felt remorseful and irresponsible, and committed suicide shortly thereafter.
Thirty-one years later, the culprit was released and released from prison. This decision was controversial when the man was of the "burakumin" class of tribal people (a group of people who had been a part of the society since Tokugawa), but he kept calling for his arrest. The police have failed to arrest the suspect when they have a chance. For these reasons, this incident is not just a murder but also a political one.
The house in the movie is located in Sayama Kyuryo, meaning "Sayama Hills". The scene depicted in the film is set in the town of Tokorozawa, right next to the town of Sayama, where the incident occurred (this explains the name "Neighbors" of the film).
The Sayama case took place in May, and both sisters in the movie are called "May" ("Satsuki" means "May" in Japanese and "Mei" is the Japanese pronunciation of "May". "). The hospital where Satsuki and Mei's mother is located is called Shichikoku Byouin and in the city of Sayama there is a hospital called Hachikoku Byouin.
After the incident with his sister, Yushie's sister committed suicide. Some of the nearby people who witnessed the incident said that when her sister was abducted, she ran around to find her sister, but after discovering her sister was killed in the forest, she became mad and said Strange things like seeing a fox or ghost cat. You can see Totoro in a bit like weasels and cats in some way.
At one of the scenes in the film, she was with Satsuki and Mei unpacking, the bin on the back of her with the note "Sayama tea" in Japanese. In addition, the hospital where the mother of two girls is located is actually a hospital in Sayama.
In other details, when Satsuki tries to join her sister, the girl sees the Soot sprites and Susuwatari (the small soot particles and the dust rabbit). In Japanese culture, seeing these two things means you're dying, so this is not a good sign (and you think the black things in Sprited Away are cute?). Although in Japanese stories, usually the children can see magic, Kanta, the grandson of the old woman in the movie can not see Totoros, but Satsuki and Mei see them again.
If this theory is true, it means Mei is dead, Satsuki goes looking for e and opens the door of death and walks into it. Because of the grief, Satsuki followed Mei like her sister committed suicide. Satsuki cried and felt relieved that it was not Mei's slippers. However, fans said that she was crying because it was too heartbreaking and refused to accept the fact that her sister was dead. And the strange thing is Susuwatari also appeared in this scene.
When she crossed over to the other side, Totoro then helped Satsuki find her sister and then they visit their mother. Strangely, no one noticed them except her, who was dying. To make it shiver and to crush your heart more, she said, "I seem to have just seen Satsuki and Mei laughing on a tree out there." In fact, the two sisters in the Sayama incident also In addition, Shichikokuyama Hospital, whose mother and two sisters were inspired by the Hachikokuyame Hospital, is actually a hospital for TB patients.
Finally, Satsuki and Mei jumped on the Neko (meaning cat) Bus. Cat buses are supposed to represent a one-way trip to heaven. When forced to do this, I am quite convinced the conspirators here may be on the right: One of the stops on the Neko Bus is called the "Grave Road". But this seemingly cute vehicle in the eyes of "analysts" suddenly becomes more horrible than ever. The letter that shows the top of the vehicle or the upcoming destination of the Japanese translation bus means "Path to Grave / Grave Road," which is known as the "Road to the Great Blue". Those who do not know Japanese and the Kanji script will probably easily overlook this. These interpretations are quite possible because Studio Ghibli has historically made psychic films, moreover, which also conceals many layers of meaning connected with many historical and historical references. Controversial oral stories.
And one more, as the two Satsuki sisters and Mei (in the movie) take refuge in a small temple along the way, the temple was erected as a statue of the children dying and the statue placed in the temple. is Ojizou's god, the patron god of children according to Buddhist concept.
Satsuki and Mei asked the gods for rain shelter thanks to it and when Mei was found she also sat next to a statue of Ojizou. It has been suggested that this suggests that the two Satsuki and Mei sisters were related to death and that Mei was found next to the god Ojizou when she was already dead. However Studio Ghibli has another explanation, it is Ojizou Shen has protected Mei to be peaceful.
In 2015, Toshio Suzuki, one of the well-known producers of Studio Ghibli and the host of weekly radio talk show Ghibli Sweaty who discussed Ghibli related issues, explained that Totoro is not "Death" as the judges, but the details of the film is still very likely inspired by this Sayama event.
In addition, there was an official announcement from Ghibli that the scene was that Satsuki and Mei had no shadows and that they were no longer alive. Specifically, the notice reads as follows:
These people, think simple! Theories about Totoro's death and Mei's death and the rumors surrounding it are not really true.
Some people make this point because it seems to be interesting to them, but it seems to have gone too far on social networks. As for why "Satsuki and Mei do not have the ball in the final scene," we just simply do not see it as necessary, so we decided to skip it in the production process. We hope that people will not believe in these crap. The media department officially announces this here.
Anyway, now you know some scary stories and conspiracy theories around this character. Do you want Totoro to become your neighbor again?
