Initially, I interpret this slice-of-life story My Neighbor Totoro as narrating the
coming-of-age struggle faced by an ordinary girl and her younger sister,
hinting at the theme of respecting tradition, nature, and a child’s
imagination. Yet death still plays a significant role in the film and its basic
themes, thus legitimizing the connection between the actual plot and fan-made
theories. Raz Greenberg—content editor, Hebrew
translator, and freelance writer—examines Miyazaki’s coming-of-age themes and
their western roots in his essay “Giri and Ninjo: The Roots of Hayao Miyazaki's
My Neighbor Totoro in Animated Adaptations of Classic Children's Literature.”
At the center of his research are the Japanese concepts of Ninjo and Giri,
similar to the Freudian concepts of id and superego. Ninjo represents raw
emotion and desire, whereas Giri represents social responsibility, which often
contradicts those societal conventions and/or morals. Greenberg claims the
central development of Totoro is that
of Satsuki and Mei transitioning from Ninjo to Giri, yet coping with the
hardships of Giri through the fantastical elements (re)introduced by Totoro, an
embodiment of Ninjo (Greenberg). It is explicitly stated by Mei and Satsuki’s
father that Totoro is a forest spirit, a deity of nature (Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro). Nature itself is a
driving force behind Ninjo, as the latter is a form of raw instinct. Since life
and death (day and night) are the two faces of nature, it would not be
farfetched to suggest Totoro symbolizes the latter, if not both. After all, the
plot is driven by the possibility of death just as much as it is driven by the
possibility of Totoro’s existence.
Inevitable in any bildungsroman is the loss of innocence, a universal
theme conveyed through the imminence and immanence of death in the case of My Neighbor Totoro. Satsuki more than
any other character grapples with the bleakness of death, made most obvious
when faced with the fact that her mother will not return home as planned. She
cynically remarks about her mother, “They said it was just a cold… when she
went into the hospital. But what if she dies!” (Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro). At this point Satsuki’s veil of Giri breaks
and she cries helplessly, plunging back into the emotions of Ninjo; not much
later she seeks Totoro, the embodiment of Ninjo, for help. Satsuki’s catharsis
of despair is significant considering her mature composure throughout most of
the film. As Greenberg points out while discussing the fear of orphanhood, “Mei relies on the guidance of Satsuki in the adult
world of Giri because her mother is absent - and here we see Satsuki not only
functioning as the big sister, but also as a replacement for the mother.”
If Satsuki is a mother figure and her own mother is bordering on death,
Satsuki’s own childhood life is commensurately put in jeopardy.
Greenberg also
points out that Mei offers the perspective of Ninjo, and Satsuki offers the
prospect of Giri. Children who watch the film are more likely to identify with
Mei, to see the story from an innocent point of view. But once a fan grows up
and faces the adult world him/herself, he/she is more likely to identify with
Satsuki, thus shifting the entire interpretation of the film to fit such a loss
of innocence. The very existence of an alternate, darker version of My Neighbor Totoro serves as an extra
and external metanarrative frame. The older fans are Satsuki. When she falls into hopeless despair, and Mei—her
innocence, her Ninjo—is nowhere to be found, we the audience join her. Mei’s
disappearance itself is timed perfectly with the sudden threat of death, so
with the death of innocence comes the death of Mei. However, a paradox arises
when Satsuki seeks help from Totoro; as soon as she falls down the rabbit hole
and is whisked away to be reunited with her little sister (happy ending
ensues), she regains her innocence. In reality of course, innocence is not so
easily recovered. To make sense of this anomaly, fans scramble to find a
down-to-earth answer: the only possible way, at least in literature, to return
to innocence is to die. Once Satsuki exits the adult world after having already
existed in it, she is dead to the adult audience, no matter how much we want to
believe in the happy ending.
(See next post: Legitimacy of Dark Side of My Neighbor Totoro)
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