One Hayao Miyazaki Movie Started Such a Dark Theory That Studio Ghibli Had to Intervene

Hayao Miyazaki has a lot of hidden meanings within his movies that have his audience scratching their heads. Some absolutely have some fruit to them, some are a big stretch to say nothing. One of these theories involves a beloved movie, My Neighbor Totoro. The movie is so simple yet beautiful without having to really overthink it beyond two sisters dealing with big changes. However, it seems fans have investigated too hard into the message behind this Miyazaki movie.

It’s good to note that this theory is definitely not true or the theme of the film at all, as Studio Ghibli even had to speak up about it. It’s a conspiracy from fans who perhaps got too bored and wanted something much darker from Hayao Miyazaki. While the parallels are strong, it doesn’t exactly hold up with the overall narrative of My Neighbor Totoro.

The My Neighbor Totoro Conspiracy: From the Sayama Incident to God of Death

The mysterious nature of the titular creature, Totoro, is a mix between a cat, an owl and a tanuki (a Japanese racoon-dog). He’s meant to be a coping mechanism for Mei and Satsuki, who are dealing with moving to a whole new town and their mother being ill. Being surrounded by nature has endless potential for imagination and the soot sprites and Totoros became that. That’s the story Hayao Miyazaki wrote.

While these creatures seemed like a mere coping mechanism, some suggest that the soot sprites indicate someone at death’s door and that Totoro was actually the God of Death, seen by the dying or dead. But how would the sister be able to see them?

This ties into a true case that occurred in the city of Sayama in Saitama, Japan. A young girl, just 16 years old, was brutally murdered and the killer is supposedly still out there. Shortly after, her sister also committed suicide. The incident also happened in May, which matches Mei’s pronunciation and Satsuki’s name also means May. Moreover, the town of My Neighbour Totoro is hinted to be inspired by Sayama, although this isn’t confirmed at all.

Were Mei and Satsuki Already Dead?

So, according to this conspiracy, Mei is already dead via drowning in one scene, paralleling the young girl in Sayama’s murder, and Satsuki looking for her in a dark tunnel was the elder sister’s suicide. At the end of the film, they also don’t visit their mother in the hospital, opting to stay on a tree nearby. It would be a truly tragic parallel if true but Studio Ghibli issued this statement when things got out of hand:

The theory has also been debunked as the sisters reunite with their mother in the credits of the film, happy and healthy, and are also acknowledged by other characters several times in the film. The creatures are also a child’s imagination at its best.

Not every children’s film has to have a hidden dark meaning. Miyazaki’s intention with the film is to just depict the young girls clinging onto their childhood innocence after the decline of their mother’s health, something any child would do. This in itself is a fairly dark message but much more realistic and executed in a wholesome way.

My Neighbor Totoro is available on Netflix.