History Fridge / MyNeighborTotoro

* The possibility Mei may have drowned in the lake.

* In the beginning, the little girl just smacked a soot gremlin, and probably killed it.

* If the sandal they found wasn't Mei's is there another missing girl?

* In the beginning, the little girl just smacked a soot gremlin, and probably killed.

* In the beginning, the little girl just smacked a soot gremlin, and probably killed it.
* If the sandal they found wasn't Mei's is there another missing girl?
** Here's some retardant for you: You can lose a shoe without losing a whole person.

* They find a little kid's sandal in the pond when [[spoiler: looking for Mei]]. Because it is [[spoiler: identified as not Mei's]], it makes you wonder who the sandal belonged to...
** It can easily be dismissed as just some garbage. There's way more than one way that sandal could have ended up there.
** More importantly, the reason it was considered such cause for alarm was because there was a small girl's sandal floating in a pond at the same time as a small girl was lost. If all the area's kids had been accounted for at the time, the sandal probably wouldn't have caused more comment than "damn littering kids."
** The villagers with the poles in the background? ''They're dredging [[spoiler:for Mei's body.]]'' One even calls for a longer pole.
* After you discover the many connections between this film and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Incident Sayama Incident,]] you'll never see it the same way again. This blog post [[http://www.tofugu.com/2013/08/15/conspiracy-theory-totoro/ here]] has a detailed explanation.
** However, several points in the Sayama theory are clearly debunked by the movie, most plainly the one that suggests the sandal [[spoiler: really is Mei's, but her sister, in stunned denial, lies about it]]. Both sandals are shown in closeup, and there's really no room for doubt.
** Man, that blog is garbage. Regarding the soot sprites: "Early in the film the girls see these things, which apparently in Japanese folklore mean you're about to die" ... no, they were made up by Miyazaki. "If you can see the Totoros (aka the God of Death), it means that you're either dead or almost dead" which is based on... nothing and in fact contradicts Granny saying she used to see spirits. I'd go on, but I stopped there. I'm sure it's still full of holes.
** Also, the "many connections" between the movie and the Sayama incident are practically nonexistent. As the extra material on the DVD/Bluray shows, while Miyazaki drew inspiration from the countryside near Tokyo, the village in the movie and its surroundings were not based on one particular real-life location. The hospital where Mei and Satsuki's mother resides ''was'' based on a similar hospital in Sayama, but that doesn't mean the movie takes place in Sayama, as several other locations inspired its setting too. So if we ignore the fairly incidental connection the movie has to the city of Sayama, the supposed death of Mei doesn't really resemble the Sayama incident at all. The Sayama incident involved a 16 year-old teenage girl, who was kidnapped and ransomed, then later on raped and killed by the kidnapper. The movie's supposed secret story involves a 4 year-old girl getting lost and accidentally drowning in a pond. So what's the connection?
* In the scene where Mei climbs on Totoro's chest while he's sleeping, there's something a little unsettling about how close she came to falling down his throat.

* Also on the subject of the soot gremlins, why are they frightened by smiling and laughter? There are hundreds if not thousands of little spirits in the attic that apparently have ''an aversion to positive emotion''.
** Granny says that when the soot sprites are sure that a family is happy and that the house will be well cared for, then they leave to find another place to live (the camphor tree?); so they are responding positively to the family's laughter.
* On the subject of soot sprites, they show up again in ''Anime/SpiritedAway''. It's a good thing they met Totoro instead of Yubaba, or things could've turned out much worse.

* After you discover the many connections between this film and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Incident Sayama Incident,]] you'll never see it the same way again. This blog post [[http://www.tofugu.com/2013/08/15/conspiracy-theory-totoro/ here]] ] has a detailed explanation.

* ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'': They find a little kid's sandal in the pond when [[spoiler: looking for Mei]]. Because it is [[spoiler: identified as not Mei's]], it makes you wonder who the sandal belonged to...

* On the subject of soot sprites, they show up again in ''Anime/SpiritedAway''. It's a good thing they met Totoro instead of Yubaba, or things could've turned out much worse.

* After you discover the many connections between this film and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Incident Sayama Incident,]] you'll never see it the same way again. This blog post [[http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro here]] [DEAD LINK] has a detailed explanation.

** Granny says that when the soot sprites are sure that a family is happy and that the house will be well cared for, then they leave to find another place to live (the camphor tree?); so they are responding positively to the family's laughter.

* Also on the subject of the soot gremlins, why are they frightened by smiling and laughter? There are hundreds if not thousands of little spirits in the attic that apparently have ''an aversion to positive emotion''.

* ''MyNeighborTotoro'': They find a little kid's sandal in the pond when [[spoiler: looking for Mei]]. Because it is [[spoiler: identified as not Mei's]], it makes you wonder who the sandal belonged to...

* After you discover the many connections between this film and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Incident Sayama Incident,]] you'll never see it the same way again. This blog post [[http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro here]] has a detailed explanation.

* In the beginning, the little girl just smacked a soot gremlin, and probably killed it.

* In the scene where Mei climbs on Totoro's chest while he's sleeping, there's something a little unsettling about how close she came to falling down his throat.

** However, several points in the Sayama theory are clearly debunked by the movie, most plainly the one that suggests the sandal [[spoiler: really is Mei's, but her sister, in stunned denial, lies about it]]. Both sandals are shown in closeup, and there's really no room for doubt.

* After you discover the many connections between this film and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama_Incident Sayama Incident,]] you'll never see it the same way again. This blog post [[http://my.opera.com/sukekomashi-gaijin/blog/tonari-no-totoro here]] has a detailed explanation.