MovieChat Forums > Tonari no Totoro (1990) Discussion > Bizarre theory: Totoro is Death?

Bizarre theory: Totoro is Death?

posted 17 years ago by whaleking
98 replies | jump to latest

Okay I came across this bizarre theory about Totoro the movie, note that this is not my intepretation, just what I saw other people were discussing:

1.It is saying that Totoro is in fact messenger of Death, and whoever sees him will soon die. The hospital that the sister's mother was in was based on a real hospital for terminally-ill patients.

2. Later in the story the villagers find a slipper in a pond, which is in fact May's, at this point she has already drowned in the pond. Satsuki lied that the slipper wasn't Mei's out of denial. Ever since this scene, the sisters appeared to have no shadow.

3. Satsuki pleaded the Totoro and the cat-bus to take her to where Mei is, while on the cat-bus, says "Nobody can see us...", this scene is Satsuki leading herself to the land of the dead (by taking the cat-bus).

4. At the hospital, the mother says "I think I feel May and Satsuki smiling there in that tree..." Why don't the sisters go and see their mom if they are already there? Why do they just leave the corn there instead? It is said that the sisters were dead at that point, and the Japanese pronunciation of "corn" is similar to "kill child".

5. The final scenes seem to be a happy epilogue, but they in fact happened "before" the major events in the movie.

6. The movie was set in a place in Japan where there was a case of murdering of two sisters which happened in the 60s. This event took place on May 1st, while the sister's names are Satsuki (May in Japanese) and Mei (May in English). In the real life case, the younger sister was missing first and the older sister was seen to be looking for her frantically. Nest day, the younger sister's body was found in the forest (stabbed to death). The older sister was in such a state of shock and kept rambling ambiguous words about seeing a "cat monster", "great big racoon monster" etc to the police. The sisters were in fact from a single-parent family (mother died of illness).

Ever since these rumors started to circulate, people have been calling Ghibli for verification "is Totoro Death" "Why don't the sisters have shadows later in the movie", and Ghibli made announcment on their blog site about the shadow issue saying that there was no shadow because the animators decided there was no shadow needed in those scenes (maybe bc of light source etc).

Here is Ghibli's blog site with the responses (anyone knows Japanese, can you verify?): http://www.ghibli.jp/15diary/003717.html

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I personally was a bit shocked to learn of this theory, kind of skeptical really, because the details of the "real-life" murder event are really sketchy, and how the older sister died was not said. It's just hard to verify. And 5. the issue with the epilogue being prologue, wasn't there a baby brother at the end?...How can that be before the story...

So what do you think...Too much BS? Or eerie coincidence?

Let nobody tell you what to do, gotta be the judge and the jury, too!

[–] amica_bambina 17 years ago

Hi, I am a Japanese person who grew up in Japan.

Just for information, Japanese nerds love to come up with this kind of theories, and a lot of famous Japanese cartoons have various theories which are often related to the main characters' death.
So those theories have just become like urban legends.

And the Japanese Wikipedia says that this Totoro theory was officially denied by the Ghibli's PR department in their official blog in May 2007.

It is kinda interesting to read about this kind of theories, but it also makes me sad because I love the film for its uprightness and purity...

Anyway I am so surprised that this urban legend has reached overseas!!
Am delighted to see how people around the world are passionately discussing this Japanese masterpiece.

[–] bluebonnetbee12 17 years ago

So right, the best thing about this movie is uprightness and purity! It's all about the innocence of children, not death! It's an interesting theory that gave me chills to read, but it's obviously not related to death. You want death and spirits, we have Spirited away obviously. It's supposed to pretty much be a light hearted movie, other than the mother being sick but she DOES get better!

<3 to Totoro, loved it since I was little

[–] nickmuller22 15 years ago

the real theory is the totoro was a child molester one

[–] got_my_head_in_the_clouds 10 years ago

thanks for clearing this up! it is an interesting theory, though.

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act like a bitch, get slapped like a bitch.

[–] kendoka-azhrei 17 years ago

An interesting theory, but wrong nonetheless.

"2. Later in the story the villagers find a slipper in a pond, which is in fact May's, at this point she has already drowned in the pond. Satsuki lied that the slipper wasn't Mei's out of denial. Ever since this scene, the sisters appeared to have no shadow."

I don't know about the shadows, but Mei's slipper has a different coloured stripe running across the front.

"4. At the hospital, the mother says "I think I feel May and Satsuki smiling there in that tree..." Why don't the sisters go and see their mom if they are already there? Why do they just leave the corn there instead? It is said that the sisters were dead at that point, and the Japanese pronunciation of "corn" is similar to "kill child"."

Well, they did leave the corn there, but they saw that their mother was out of bed and laughing while talking to their father - they were worried that she was seriously ill or even worse, when they saw that everything was fine there was no need to go down. Mei did leave her corn there so her mother could get better faster.

"5. The final scenes seem to be a happy epilogue, but they in fact happened "before" the major events in the movie."

The final images running during the credits clearly show their mother returning, with Satsuki and Mei absolutely delighted to see her. Otherwise, why show their mother exiting the car at all? Another point I will make here is that Mei, Satsuki and their mother are having a bath in the same circular bath that they have in the new house... which the mother has yet to see!

"6. The movie was set in a place in Japan where there was a case of murdering of two sisters which happened in the 60s. This event took place on May 1st, while the sister's names are Satsuki (May in Japanese) and Mei (May in English). In the real life case, the younger sister was missing first and the older sister was seen to be looking for her frantically. Nest day, the younger sister's body was found in the forest (stabbed to death). The older sister was in such a state of shock and kept rambling ambiguous words about seeing a "cat monster", "great big racoon monster" etc to the police. The sisters were in fact from a single-parent family (mother died of illness)."

That's interesting, I've never heard of this... but to put another dampener on the theory, the film is set in the 50's and comes from Miyazaki's own experiences when his mother became fatally ill with tuberculosis. He said that it would have been too painful to make the film about two little boys, so he created Satsuki and Mei. Interesting story, though, have you a link to a page about it?

Anyway, to finally crush this theory, in an interview Miyazaki once said that after the end of the film, the sisters never saw Totoro or the Catbus again, but that the spirits would always watch out for them. Why does someone who has already died need a forest spirit to take care of them? ;)

[–] badtothebono 17 years ago

A hilarious theory made by people with no life hoping everyone else will follow them down their hole.

No shadows late in the movie proves something? WTF? Did you watch the movie? I am currently. The use of shadows is handled, shall I say, casually and even strangely.

In the beginning of the movie, they run around outside in the AM with no shadows. Well, not exactly NO shadows, there are micro shadows under their feet as if it is noon. It is not noon. It is early morn. The guy helping them move has no shadow outside either. Hehhh?

Then they go into the house and shadows start appearing everywhere, even though there is an overhang from the roof, so there would be no shadows unless the sun were low in the sky. But if the sun is low in the sky, why are there NO shadows outside? Then Satsuki crawls into the house with shadows from behind. She turns 90 deg right and continues crawling and the shadow is still from behind. When they go outside again ... NO shadows except for directly under the body/foot.
It is almost as if two different people drew the inside/outside scenes and the insider loves to draw shadows and the outsider has no use for them.

Then, when they go to the hospital to see the mother, the daughters and mother sit facing each other and they both have shadows coming from the front of their face. Hehhh? Again, they move around but the shadows don't move accordingly.

Hehhh?

[–] badtothebono 17 years ago

the movie just ended. great theory.
She didn't say "Nobody can see us" while on the bus. Seh said "how come nobody can see the bus" while she was standing in the tree with Totoro, waiting for the bus.
Why no shadows at the end? Well, that may be the movie's most accurate use of shadows. It is late at night ... no shadows.

[–] ryanmkealy 16 years ago

Mom and Dad, while sitting and talking in the hospital are none too broken up about it. It's after dark, if something HAD happened, phone calls would have been made.

Mom is making plans to get home and spend time with her daughters.

In the credits, the kids are shown playing with other children and Mei is looking dubiously at what is obviously a new sib.

The real life murder case: interesting, but smacks of urban legend.

My $.02

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dballred 16 years ago

So what do you think...Too much BS? Or eerie coincidence?

I think the BS description is closer. The hospital was not for terminally ill people. Putting it in blunt terms, there are no hospitals for terminally ill people. Terminally ill patients go to normal or specializing hospitals--along with their non-terminal peers. In the movie, it was a sanitorium for tuberculosis patients. As for the closing scene, you need to see the credits. This clearly shows that the mother returns from the hospital and they have a baby brother. The scene where Mei and Satsuki are sitting with the Totoro watching the hospital was purposely meant to be ambiguous as to whether the Totoro was real or just imaginary.

[–] no-haya-banda 16 years ago

thats what i thought when i saw the movie, at the end when the mum says, " i think i saw satsuki and may up at that tree). but at the end they walk along with the boy and granny so it couldnt have been true.

cant think of anything clever to write

[–] nights1515 16 years ago

Nice theory but without proof of the whole 60's murder thing I call a load of bull.

[–] punkteaparty 16 years ago

My Japanese boyfriend told me last night that his friends told him a kinda similar theory, that the girls were dead before the film begins and the father moved to the country alone. He said he was the only one of his friends who hadn't heard it, and everybody else was like "You didn't know that?" He said the girls yukata or jimbei (it's been a while since I saw it) is wrapped the wrong way, like for someone who has died...

Anyway, seemed like everyone at the bonenkai knew except him...
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This situation. Frastrate on me.

[–] CapnKaos 16 years ago

My Japanese boyfriend told me last night that his friends told him a kinda similar theory, that the girls were dead before the film begins and the father moved to the country alone. He said he was the only one of his friends who hadn't heard it, and everybody else was like "You didn't know that?" He said the girls yukata or jimbei (it's been a while since I saw it) is wrapped the wrong way, like for someone who has died...

Anyway, seemed like everyone at the bonenkai knew except him...

That's pretty funny because strangely enough it came up at our bonenkai as well. A few drinks, people start talking, they refer to movies and one mentions something about how Totoro is death and the two girls are actually dead. However, the girls are definitely alive at the beginning of the movie. There is interaction between them and their father as well as with other people.

Later on, again we see interaction and during the final credits we see what happens afterwards.

So no, Totoro isn't death and the girls are definitely alive.

[–] punkteaparty 16 years ago

Haha, maybe it's a common bonenkai topic??

Like I said I haven't seen it for a while so I can't really remember, but I guess if they are interacting with people they can't really be dead... maybe we're all too M Night Shyamalan-d these days

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This situation. Frastrate on me.

[–] CapnKaos 16 years ago

Haha, maybe it's a common bonenkai topic??

First time for everything, but I'm thinking it was just drunk talk. Either that or it's some freaky co-incidence and your BF and I work at the same company.