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There are still strange creatures like these in Japan, supposedly.

As I'm revisiting some of my favourite Ghiblis I thought of writing about them as I go. Started this with Spirited Away. This is not much of a review, merely some of my thoughts on the film.

Totoro is only a figment of Miyazaki's boundless imagination, but I wholeheartedly wish it was a real forest spirit. As it is widely known, the movie was released as a double bill alongside Takahata's haunting feature 'Grave of the Fireflies', which in itself is very ironical cause both of them are on the very opposite ends of the spectrum as ... far as the subjects go.
As I said in my write-up about Spirited Away, Miyazaki's quality is to trap you into a universe of his own. Does it matter what is real and what is not? To me as a viewer it does not, at least for the entirety of its runtime, like a child I believe in everything that happens on the screen infront of me. After the credits roll however, I wish more and more of it was. This draws comparisons to the Toy Story franchise which is a collection of some of my favourite animated movies of all time. But Totoro preceded everything.
This is not to say that the movie doesn't have other aspects except it's world, it surely does. But humour, love, joy and care are so deeply ingrained into it that you don't have to look for them to feel these emotions. Because the movie is not about a conflict or an impending danger, it is about the experience and wonders of adventures. The monsters, the ghosts, the animals are provided a different meaning altogether because it's just a new perspective to look at things. Or is it really new? I wonder if as children, we too had this sense of looking at different things. But that has definitely been lost and you'll find moments in the film that might bring out the child in you. It's the work of the mind of Miyazaki, a child aged 78.

“I also believe that you met the King of the Forest, Mei, and meeting him is a sign of good luck. But there’s no guarantee that you’ll see him all the time.”

I find this dialogue to be very special. Unlike the usual cynicism of day to day life and the general narrative of the seemingly light hearted movies, adults don't assume the role of guarding spirits. They simply believe in what the children are saying, there is no misunderstanding, the adults just find it to be true, perhaps from their own perspective, but true all the same. Perhaps it's not seen in the current world but I know as a kid that this is what a lot of children look for, perhaps the world isn't as kind as Miyazaki makes it, perhaps the characters don't behave in the same manner as real life human beings; regardless, all of us look for this aspect in human life all the time. But as it goes, "there’s no guarantee that you’ll see him all the time." You just find it from time to time. I know all of us do. And this emotion is what Miyazaki manifests into his characters, the goodness of the human soul.