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!

[–] asprettyasme 11 years ago

The father saw and heard Totoro too. He saw the tree and heard the flutes but he ignored it. I thought that scene was weird but he didn't die so that crushes the theory. I like reading the replies to this thread because I was so sad when I read this theory and now after reading so many post that states how the theory is false makes me feel so much better. This theory reminds me of the crazy Rugrat theory on youtube. Miserable people like to ruin everything! Save that depressing stuff for Halloween >.<

[–] neojanus-1 11 years ago

I think the strength of this movie is that it can be watched on several levels. On its surface it is a fun-loving family movie about sisters who ultimately love each other. And so it is.

There is a lot of death imagery that goes on in this film (so it should, the mother is struggling with tuberculosis after all), and a viewer can certainly put up a strong argument regarding the death theory.

The statues are the biggest clue to me that perhaps Mei is dead... But once again, that is just one reading.

Aren't the best films the ones that allow us to argue and disagree on multiple levels?

Regardless of how the viewer chooses to interpret the themes, this a clever film and one of Japan's most enduring animated features.

[–] deecats 11 years ago

Um, NO!

Firstly: The story is based on the writer's REAL LIFE! Not some urban ledged.
Secondly: The Totoro represent the "ancient spirits" and/or beliefs in them.
Thirdly: The events in the Ending Credits are what happens after the movie. Mom gets better, everyone lives happily ever after!

There's "reading a movie" and then there's "reading WAY too much into it" eh?

[–] got_my_head_in_the_clouds 10 years ago

this is actually very interesting and puts the film in a completely different angle.

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act like a bitch, get slapped like a bitch.

[–] velcronewsletter 10 years ago

its an interesting theory but i don't believe it. it leaves the story too unfinished

[–] kevinchengxin 9 years ago

I love such theories, even though they don't usually hold up.

One thing though, was the slipper thing ever properly addressed in the film? To me it looks just like Mei's.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] tj19 9 years ago

I just figured Totoro was their imaginary friend so they could cope with a busy father, absent mother, and new home.

[–] ejazasi 8 years ago

Not BS or coincidence. Interesting theories. Theories should be taken as they are.

However, here are few things to consider from Trivia http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096283/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv :

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"Hayao Miyazaki originally conceived the characters Satsuki and Mei as a single girl. He wanted to add suspense to the latter half of the film, and he felt it wouldn't work with just a single girl, so he split her into two separate girls. The original girl had features of both Satsuki and Mei, and was 7: halfway between the ages of Satsuki (10) and Mei (4)."

This easily negates the Murders in Japan in May, 60s.

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The sequence where Mei gets lost attempting to deliver an ear of corn to her mother includes her sitting by a row of statues. In Japan, such statues represent the Bodhisattva Jizo, the Buddhist deity who is the protector of children. Thus, the effect Miyasaki is conveying is a subtle reassurance to the audience that Mei, although lost at the moment, is otherwise in no immediate danger while her sister and King Totoro are coming to her aid in the Cat Bus.

This takes care of the dead Mei and even Satsuki.

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Totoro actually comes from Mei mis-pronouncing Tororu, which means troll in Japanese. This comes from a book Mei had read, which turns out to be the Billy Goats Gruff, as can be seen in the end sequence which contains mother and that book. And if one looks closely, it is seen to have a totoro on the cover.

This answers the Totoro being messenger of death.

As you can see I am fairly lazy bones so I am only sharing from Trivia but I am sure fine folks out there will point out more answers to this otherwise interesting story.

[–] tristanmmarshall-78532 8 years ago

I think the info about the two sisters originally being one only lends more credence to the idea that the Sayama incident inspired the story to some extent. That piece of info should also silence the people claiming it's based entirely on Miyazaki's own childhood. The character was probably split into two in order to avoid too much direct correlation to the incident which is still quite unresolved.

If one were to put this info together with the fact that Miyazaki was making Totoro at the same time Isha was making Grave of the Fireflies then you see there is a chance Miyazaki was making his own fantasy period piece about a tragic incident. Totoro just happens to be presented in the classic Miyazaki style of innocence and happy endings. Since the Sayama incident is still possible a point of contention in Japan, unlike the sentiment for WWII in Grave if the Fireflies, I would expect the connections to be less obvious.

I also don't see why this theory would spoil the movie fir anyone. It only adds to the depth and beauty of the film and the esteem of Miyazaki's master storytelling .