thelifeofaricepikachu: ricepikachu: Did you...

17th février 2012

Diaporama reblogué depuis Free Mind Free Body avec 44033 notes • Reblog

thelifeofaricepikachu:

ricepikachu:

Did you guys know that My Neighbor Totoro is actually based on a murder of a little girl that occurred in the 1960’s? I did research for my film studies class. The whole movie is actually kinda fucked up.

Okay I just posted this this morning… Anyways, in reference to “It’s just coincidence” there are too many “coincidences” for this to just be “coincidence”. For those of you curious, it has to do with a murder called the “Sayama Incident” in May 1963. Satsuki (the older sister) is Japanese for “May”. & The younger sister’s name is Mei (pronounced May). The little black dust balls are called susuwatari, & when those (or Totoro) are seen it is said “death is close”. Totoro is actually a shinigami, or grim reaper type, meant to transport & protect the souls of young children who have tragically passed. The nekobus (the many legged cat bus) is what is used to bring the children to the next world. In the movie, the first time the bus is seen, the two destination characters read “Grave” & “Road”. There is a part where Mei goes missing & Satsuki is asked to identify a pink slipper found in the water during the village search for Mei. Satsuki denies it, but notice after this, the characters stop having shadows. This is because Mei died & Satsuki is soon to follow, once she asks Totoro to help her find her sister & he allows her to ride the Catbus.

The whole thing is tragically cool, honestly. But it does have a lot to do with the Sayama Incident, & there are WAY to many coincidences to not be noticed. I love Miyazaki & how he goes about stories. Spirited away is no different, there’s a secret meaning of how Sen (Chihiro) is working as a sex slave in a turkish bath house.

Trying to be a film major, after watching these movies you kind of notice the details. But it’s really nit-picky things people don’t notice. Why would halfway through the movie, Miyazaki decide “The character’s don’t need shadows”?

http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro

Cool read, I suggest checking it out.

From this blog :

UPDATE: 11/02/12

It should also be noted that, of course, Studio Ghibli has denied these connection. Some arguments saying that even if it were true, it would be terrible PR to have the studio’s mascot be tainted by such an image.

It is worth mentioning that there exists a sequel to Tonari no Totoro that follows the story of Mei and the Kitten-bus. The short is 13 minutes and is regularly shown in the Ghibli museum, and has once been shown in America.

A few updates from discussions in the comments: From the Wikipedia entry concerning this unconfirmed dark understory: The real life hospital which became the inspiration for the hospital in the movie was one specializing in serious illnesses like tuberculosis in the 1950s, which again fits into the calendar theory.

It is said that this is why the mother was able to briefly sense her (already dead) daughters nearing the end; she too is near death. Tuberculosis, while better than the previous decade, killed a lot of people in the 50s. This gives more credit to the interpretation of the ending credits being rather imagination, a memory, or a version of heaven made by the girls.

Well, even Ghibli has denied these assumptions, i like this interpretation very much ! ♥

Source : ricepikachu

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