Meet the subject
となりのトトロ
My Neighbor Totoro is a Studio Ghibli animated feature written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, also credited with its original story. Released in Japan on 16 April 1988, it runs about 86 minutes. A father and his two daughters move to the countryside while their mother recovers in a nearby hospital; the house and woods introduce unexpected neighbours.
The feature film, its title creature and later adaptations are distinct subjects.
Satsuki and her younger sister Mei are the central human characters.
Its first theatrical release preceded wider television exposure, merchandise and adaptations.
The father and sisters move to a country house near their mother’s hospital. In the old house they discover small black soot creatures, which the neighbour’s grandmother identifies as susuwatari. Neighbours, school and concern for their mother form the everyday setting of these encounters.
Mei follows two smaller creatures from the garden to the roots of a camphor tree, where she meets the much larger Totoro. Satsuki first learns of him through her sister. Later, Mei goes missing and Satsuki searches for her. The Cat Bus combines a cat-like body with windows and space for passengers, making a creature into transport.
Miyazaki supplied the original story, screenplay and direction. Yoshiharu Sato supervised animation, Kazuo Oga directed the art, Michiyo Yasuda designed the colours and Joe Hisaishi composed the music; Azumi Inoue performed the theme song. These team members developed the moving figures, painted settings, colour choices and music.
| Work | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Original story, screenplay, direction | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Animation direction | Yoshiharu Satō |
| Art direction | Kazuo Oga |
| Colour design | Michiyo Yasuda |
| Music | Joe Hisaishi |
| Theme-song performance | Azumi Inoue |
Museum curator Itō describes the search for Mei through changing background light: evening gives way to sunset and night. Detailed foreground painting and softened distant washes also create depth and humid atmosphere. Azumi Inoue’s Sanpo is the opening theme and Tonari no Totoro the ending theme, alongside Hisaishi’s instrumental film score.
Light changes as the search continues into the night. These colour swatches explain the time relation; they do not reproduce film frames.
Ghibli’s studio history describes concurrent production with Grave of the Fireflies and their April 1988 double-bill release. Its retrospective account distinguishes favourable reception from disappointing initial theatrical business. The film’s later familiarity should therefore not be projected back as immediate commercial success.
Critic Yutaka Tsukada’s exhibition report for the Agency for Cultural Affairs MACC connects the 1989 television broadcast with growing popularity, drawing on Toshio Suzuki’s recollection. Ghibli’s history also describes plush toys about two years after the release helping recover production costs, and Totoro becoming the studio mark. These were additional routes to audiences.
Overseas distributors offer subtitled and dubbed editions. Dakota and Elle Fanning voice the sisters in the English edition listed by GKIDS; Noriko Hidaka and Chika Sakamoto voiced them in the original Japanese film. Viewers thus encounter different language performances of the same characters and story.
The Ghibli Museum’s October 2002 diary records screenings of Mei and the Kittenbus. Made as a separate museum short, it extends the world associated with Mei and the Cat Bus. The theatrical feature and museum animation therefore have distinct presentation settings.
The Royal Shakespeare Company production premiered at London’s Barbican in 2022, adapted by Tom Morton-Smith and directed by Phelim McDermott. Live arrangements of the music and puppetry helped turn an animated feature into a performance. Its physical forms and timing required a new production process.
| Work or presentation | Relation to the 1988 film |
|---|---|
| Japanese feature | The original film |
| English dub | Another language performance of the same film |
| Mei and the Kittenbus | A separately made museum short |
| 2022 stage production | Live adaptation using puppetry and music |
Ghibli credits Miyazaki with the original story as well as screenplay and direction; this subject concerns that original 1988 animated feature.
No. They are different figures in the film.
Changing light moves from evening through sunset to night, making the passage of time visible.
The sisters move with their father and worry about their mother, while meeting soot creatures in the house and Totoro near the tree roots. The strange encounters grow out of their new everyday surroundings.
Mei at the tree opening. My Neighbor Totoro, 1988. ©1988 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli.
©1988 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli. Local noncommercial study preview only.
Totoro and the Cat Bus together: a round belly and pointed ears contrast with a cat-like head, windows and long tail. ©1988 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli.
©1988 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli. Local noncommercial study preview only.