Totoro Is a God of Death and You Cannot Convince Me Otherwise

Everyone remembers My Neighbor Totoro as a wholesome movie about two sisters befriending a giant fluffy forest creature. That’s cute, but there’s another interpretation that makes the entire movie way more interesting: Totoro isn’t just a forest spirit. He’s a god of death… or at least some kind of psychopomp that appears to people approaching the boundary between life and death.

Think about who actually sees Totoro. Adults don’t. Mei discovers him first, and later Satsuki becomes capable of entering his world too. Then Mei disappears, a child’s sandal is discovered near the pond, and suddenly the movie gets extremely dark. Satsuki desperately turns to Totoro for help, and the Catbus takes her somewhere ordinary people seemingly can’t go. Under the death-god theory, these aren’t just magical creatures conveniently helping the protagonists, they exist between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The hospital scene makes the theory even creepier. Satsuki and Mei don’t simply walk inside and talk to their parents. They watch them from outside and leave the corn for their mother to discover. Their parents never directly interact with them. You can interpret that innocently, obviously, but if you’ve already accepted Totoro as a guide between worlds, the scene suddenly looks a lot more like two spirits making one final visit.

Studio Ghibli has denied the related theory that Mei and Satsuki are dead, so no, this isn’t secretly confirmed canon. But that’s not going to stop me. Totoro shows up to children, transports them through a supernatural realm, and becomes most important precisely when death enters the story.

That’s not a giant forest hamster.

That’s the Grim Reaper with good PR.