The legend goes as follows: Totoro is the God of Death, and anyone who can see him is either dead or close to dying. The affirmation is strong enough on its own. We know Miyazaki looooves metaphors, and Studio Ghibli seems to have a weak spot for gods and spirits.

How is Totoro the God of death?

Totoro is no cuddly critter. He is a killer. The rumour says that Totoro is the God of Death, so the persons that can see Totoro are actually close to death, or already dead. What that means for the story is that when Mei goes missing and a sandal is found in the pond, Mei actually drowned.

What is Totoro a spirit of?

Totoro, as supported by a number of accounts, is said to be a spirit of the forest. Some sources reveal that there is not only one huge totoro but medium and small sized totoros as well. In different depictions, Totoro appears to hold different colors varying from white, blue, to gray.

Is Totoro a Kami?

Satsuki, the older girl in the film, calls Totoro an “obake”, which translates to ghost or monster, and he's not a recognised kami, although he lives in a sacred tree on the grounds of a Shinto shrine. For what it's worth, Miyazaki defines Totoro as a woodland creature who eats acorns.

What are Totoro powers?

Apparently a popular household character in Japan, Totoro is a furry forest sprite with magical powers ranging from the mystical to the superhuman. He also can only be seen by children, though adults recall his memory fondly.

Is Totoro The Angel Of Death?! The My Neighbor Totoro Theory

What sort of animal is Totoro?

A well-known cartoon character around the globe, Totoro, is an adorable chinchilla in Hayao Miyazaki's animated movie "My Neighbor Totoro". In the movie, Totoro is a gentle, gray and giant rat; however, in reality, the chinchilla is a furry little creature that you can hold in one palm.

What yokai is Totoro based on?

Some claim Totoro is based off of specific Japanese folk creatures like Koropokkuru. And a few years ago, a wild conspiracy theory categorized him as a 'god of death.

Is Totoro a goblin?

Sometimes Miyazaki refers to Totoros using a Japanese word translated as “goblins,” although he clarifies that they have an “easygoing, carefree” attitude and don't try to frighten people. Sometimes he denies they're spirits and insists they're “animals,” pointing out the resemblance to owls, cats, badgers, or bears.

Is Totoro about Shintoism?

In fact, whether Totoro is a Shinto spirit or not is a mystery. He lives in a sacred tree on the grounds of a Shinto shrine. The girls' father even takes them there to thank Totoro for watching over Mei early in the film.

Is Totoro in Spirited Away?

There is no concrete evidence that all the films exist in the same world, though minor characters do cross over. For example, the soot sprites who appear in the first act of My Neighbor Totoro, later appear in Spirited Away.

Why is the mom in Totoro sick?

Trivia (25) The film is partially autobiographical. When Hayao Miyazaki and his brothers were children, his mother suffered from spinal tuberculosis for nine years, and spent much of her time hospitalized. It is implied, yet never revealed in the film, that Satsuki and Mei's mother also suffers from tuberculosis.

What does the name Totoro mean?

The name "Totoro" comes from Mei mispronouncing (she has a tendency to do so, though it wasn't clear in the dub) the word "tororu", which is the Japanese word for "troll".

What is the main message of Totoro?

Miyazaki understands that kids may not bear the weight of reality that adults do, but that the darkness of life, and even death, affects little ones as well, no matter how hard adults try to shield them from it.

Is the mom dead in My Neighbor Totoro?

After Mei ran away, she got lost in the woods and Satsuki never found her little sister (ever again). In other words, Mei never returned home, as she died. In addition, Yasuko was suffering from a terminal illness instead of a minor cold as shown in the film. Satsuki was going to eventually lose her mother as well.

What Totoro means in Japanese?

One of those words is トロル (tororu, meaning “troll”), which she pronounces as トトロ (totoro). The name of the film and the fluffy creature we all love is just Mei's way of pronouncing troll.

Who is God in Shinto?

"Shinto gods" are called kami. They are sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami.

Who is Blue Totoro?

Chu Totoro is blue, and has a muddy grey belly with three arrowheads, similar to the big totoro. He is the medium Totoro and is usually seen carrying a bag of acorns. He is less than a foot tall in height. He has no whiskers and he has a worried and/or neutral expression.

What are the black balls in Totoro?

The Soot Sprites (すすワタリ, Susuwatari, lit. "Travelling Soot" a.k.a. "Mak-kuro Kurosuke") are spirits that appear in the films My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. They are small, round balls made from the soot that dwells in old and abandoned houses and leave black dirt in their wake.

What are soot sprites called in Totoro?

Susuwatari, meaning "wandering soot" in Japanese, or simply soot sprites or dust bunnies in English, are little spirits created by Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. They make appearances in the animated films "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) and "Spirited Away" (2001).

Is Haku a Mizuchi?

Mizuchi (Spirited Away)

Haku is actually short for Nigihayami Kohakunushi, or “god of the swift amber river.” Unfortunately for Chihiro, mizuchi weren't always believed to morph into cute, green-haired, preteen boys who would save you even if it meant crashing headfirst into Yubaba's wall.

What does the radish spirit represent?

The Radish Spirit is often used as an example of how one ought to treasure and revere even the humblest of the elements of our lives. "Even the radish is worthy of veneration."

What do the acorns mean in Totoro?

They're seeds for trees, and food for animals. Miyazaki doesn't tell us that, but we know it, and so do Satsuki and Mei. The acorns lead to the soot sprites. They're NOT natural objects, at least not in the REAL world. They're creatures of fantasy, the first ones we see in the film.

What is Totoro tattoo?

Totoro Tattoo Meaning

The obvious meaning of the Totoro tattoo is to give the person with the tattoo a sense of nostalgia. We've also gathered that the Totoro Tattoo symbolizes sincerity, spontaneity, belief in miracles, optimism and an obvious interest in Japanese anime.

Is Totoro in Toy Story 3?

“Totoro has a cameo appearance in “Toy Story 3,” he acknowledged. “We do little homages in our films, and we thought it was a very appropriate homage to let [Miyazaki and his film company] Studio Ghibli know how much they mean to us.”

What time period is Totoro set in?

What's the Story? In MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, it's 1958 Japan, and 10-year-old Satsuki (voiced by Dakota Fanning for the English-dubbed version), 4-year-old Mei (Elle Fanning), and their father (Tim Daly) move to the countryside where their mother is hospitalized with a long-term illness.