One of Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time-Totoro

iblog992009-10-23

My Neighbor Totoro Cosplay, is a 1988 Japanese anime film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The movie won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1988.

Hayao Miyazaki has invented enough lovable characters to fill a whole list of his own, from the mighty flying pig who took the lead in Porco Rosso to the quirky little coal-demon from Howl's Moving Castle. One of them stands out above all the rest, which becomes especially obvious if you ever happen to visit a Japanese Toys R Us. In his home country, and even abroad to a degree, Totoro is eternal.

The interesting thing about Totoro, as heroes of children's stories go, is that he isn't completely…safe, might be the word. He's cheerful and friendly and fuzzy, true, but he's huge and loud and wild, too. He's a spirit of nature, with all that entails, and that might be what's helped give him serious staying power over the decades since.