Line #8 WMG/MYNEIGHBORTOTORO


1	[[WMG:The Catbus was an 'ordinary' shadowalking cat with some shapeshifting]]
2	But, like the Bathhouse spirits inhabiting the abandonned amusement park, they're adapting to the new world and finding new jobs for themselves.
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4	[[WMG:The sandals that were found in the lake were [[Anime/SpiritedAway Chihiro's]] sandals.]]
5	* It was connected to the Kohaku river and (ko)Haku saved her and then the shoes drifted downstream until they eventually hit a pond. The river was then filled in years later.
6	** Only problem is that the events of Totoro are occurring 1952-1956 (depending how you interpret the calendar behind the mom at the hospital) and Chihiro's time is shown to be contemporary 1990s. Kohaku River (the spirit) could easily be around that long and not age but it would make Chihiro at least in her 50s by the time of ''Anime/SpiritedAway''! And I do not think that you can stretch ''Spirited Away'' to occurring in the late 1950s - early 1960s because the technology was all wrong. The car was too modern for one thing.
7	*** Time flows strangely in the world of spirits. Perhaps Chihiro lost her shoe in the '90s, but it was found in a different time period.
8	** Much as I like this WMG, Chihiro's lost shoe was shown to be a pink sneaker in a flashback, the shoe in Totoro is a sandal.
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10	[[WMG: Totoro is the far future of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'']]
11	All the talk about spirits and such? It all fits snugly in with the world. Even more so with ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', so it may not even be all ''that'' far into the future.
12	* Wait. WAIT. Are you...? You...Dude? ''This movie was made '''long''' before that series was even '''conceived!'''''
13	** ^ Someone's new to [=WMGs=].
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15	[[WMG: Anyone can see spirits, but it takes more effort the older you are.]]
16	At the end of the film, it's hinted that the girls are getting too old to see spirits. However, if Mei's too old to see spirits, then surely Satsuki should never have been able to see them at all. It's possible that the end of the film was supposed to imply that the girls are getting too old to see spirits ''clearly''. And this also ties in with Dad's suggestion that he may be able to see spirits someday.
17	* It seems like the spirits have some choice over whether they can be seen or not, even though they usually only choose to appear to younger children. It's possible that Totoro just wanted to be visible to Satsuki for practical reasons, like making certain that Mei would be believed and protected.
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19	[[WMG: [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]] is set 57 years after My Neighbour Totoro, with a surprisingly linked storyline.]]
20	(As far as I can tell based off my own personal viewing of the film and what the internet tells me) [[Anime/MyNeighborTotoro My Neighbour Totoro]] is set in 1958, with Satsuki Kusakabe aged 11 at the time. This would mean Satsuki was born in 1947. It's entirely reasonable that she would grow up to get married in the late sixties or early seventies and in 1977 bears a child, but here's the twist. The man she married's name was Ikari. Having taken that family name she named the child Yui, who, wait for it, would grow to marry Gendo and give birth to Shinji. This would explain why (when the differing animation styles of the film are taken into account) Yui and Shinji appear so similar to Satsuki.
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22	Another twist comes with Mei (apparently born 1954). Say Mei marries at some point in the seventies, she may go on to have a family, and there's nothing to stop her doing that with a man named Ibuki. In 1991 (The year of Maya '''Ibuki'''s birth) Mei would still only be 37, still a perfectly reasonable age to have children, and could well be Maya's mum. Although she may not have directly inherited the family appearance as dominant genes, she may still still carry the gene's recessively and pass them onto Maya, hence Maya looking so similar to Yui.
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24	Also, Totoro is [[spoiler:Kaworu's earliest form to appear on earth!]]
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26	* That leads into some FridgeHorror: Totoro exemplifies how beautiful Japan is, and if this is true, it will all be ruined in a matter of decades.
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28	[[WMG:The three Totoros in the movie are 'siblings', spiritually if not biologically.]]
29	O Totoro (big gray one) is the fun-loving, gregarious, but protective big brother. Chibi Totoro is the shy baby of the 'family', the middle blue one (Chu) is the middle sibling that is learning responsibility from Big Bro, so he gets to hold the bag and play his little flutelike instrument.
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31	Alternatively -
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33	[[WMG: The three Totoros are a family]]
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35	Specifically, the big grey Totoro is the dad (or father figure if the spirits aren't biologically related) and the the little ones are his children. They sorta mirror the Kusakabe family. Both Dad and the big grey Totoro are fun loving but protective. Satsuki and the medium blue Totoro are growing up and learning responsibility, and the baby Totoro mirrors Mei's childlike curiosity, as well as their tendency to wander off and explore.
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37	[[WMG: Everything O Totoro (the biggest one) owns that isn't natural was a gift from a child.]]
38	His top may have once belonged to the old woman. Years after the events in the film, some kid is going to wonder why he owns an umbrella.
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40	[[WMG: Satsuki and Mei's mother was cheating on their father.]]
41	Don't you find it kinda weird how everyone in the Kusakabe family has black hair except for Mei, who has brown hair? Well, that's because Yasuko (the mother) was secretly in a relationship with another man long before the movie's events, and that man got her pregnant with Mei. This also explains why Yasuko is in the hospital - the same man gave her an STD.
42	* Or she just has some illness that doesn't involve adultery. Mei might just have lighter hair because she's only four years old; Both of my parents are dark haired, and yet I was blonde as a small child. Also, Satsuki's hair is dark brown, not black.
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44	[[WMG: Satsuki is [[Anime/PonyoOnTheCliffByTheSea Sousuke's]] grandmother.]]
45	Sousuke's mother Lisa can be heard singing ''Sanpo'' to make herself feel better. The reason why? She is Satsuki's daughter, and Satsuki might have sung her this song when she was a child. Furthermore, if Satsuki is eleven years old in the 1950s setting of ''My Neighbour Totoro'', then in the 2000s setting of ''Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea'' she'd be well into her sixties, old enough that her children might have started having children of their own. Case in point: Lisa seems to be in her mid to late twenties, and Sousuke is only five years old. In that same vein...
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47	[[WMG: Mei is [[Anime/SpiritedAway Chihiro's]] mother.]]
48	I don't really have any proof for this one, Mei and Mrs Ogino just look a lot alike, from their coloring down to the apparent BlushSticker that Chihiro seems to have inherited.

Context WMG / MYNEIGHBORTOTORO