Did We Misunderstand Totoro?

The secret tragedy of Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro has brought joy to the masses since its release in 1986. But surprisingly, it was initially supposed to be screened alongside Studio Ghibli's most depressing film ever: Grave of the Fireflies. Can watching the two films side by side teach us anything, and will doing so change the meaning of Totoro? Let's find out in this Wisecrack Edition: Did We Misunderstand Totoro?

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Written by Amanda Scherker and Tom Whyman
Hosted by Michael Burns
Directed by Michael Luxemburg
Edited by Kim Su Labby
Produced by Olivia Redden and Griffin Davis

Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound

#Totoro #GraveoftheFireflies #Ghibli

© 2022 Wisecrack / Omnia Media, Inc. / Enthusiast Gaming

[tedrex]

I seem to recall that Totoro was based on Miyazaki's life, obviously not meeting a giant furry troll, but his mother was seriously ill with tuberculosis and they moved to the countryside for the cleaner air hoping that it would help, but sadly she passed away despite the move.

[jacobdriscoll]

Oh jeeze, Grave of the Fireflies. Thanks for making me WEEP LIKE A BABY, Wisecrack. Even summarizing that story is devastating. Makes sense to juxtapose that with Totoro. Adds a bit of relief after that heartbreaker.

[gogongagis]

I had the chance to see Totoro in a western cinema a few years ago. The audience laughed loudly at the moment where Mei bursts into tears and marches off with the corn to find her mother. I know the animation is cute, but it was a strange feeling.

Grave of the fireflies is still on TV in Japan every year to commemorate the end of the war. Everyone should watch it once.

[MrQuantumInc]

At first it seemed like an attempt at maximum emotional whiplash, but with Totoro's slow beginning and the girls being sad about their mother it actually makes sense. The characters are bummed because of the sick mother, the audience is bummed because they just watched "Grave of the Fireflies" but they both get to cheer up as the movie goes along.

[thehangmansdaughter]

Grave of the fireflies was devastating. It was an emotional gut punch. I was sobbing in my bed watching, to the point my daughter heard me and came in. She thought someone must have died.

[oqasho.]

Grave of the Fireflies is the first movie ever that made me cry.

When I was a kid, I watched it dubbed and I was really young that almost every experience on an emotional level in the movie was new to me, and the ending was the first time I ever cried while watching a movie.

Years later, I remembered the emotions I had watching it, but I didn't know what's the name of the movie. untill i finally found it and was glad to know that the movie is actually still good and emotional!

[GeahkBurchill]

I live in Portland, Oregon. We have thousands of people living in tents on sidewalks and under freeways. Last December, just before Christmas I found a tent with a rigid body inside, outside my studio. I never saw the person’s face. The city came to take them away.

We aren’t at war here. There is abundant food and blankets in the stores. What’s our excuse for letting someone die, anonymously, in a tent in a parking lot?

[vladimirlagos]

Grave of the Fireflies is hands down the most scarring movie I have ever watched. The sheer mention of it in this video gave me an unsettling feeling. I think watching Totoro right after that would only have filled me with an even deeper sense of melacholy and loss of innocence. Good thing I watched them separately.

[fuzzyhair]

Damn you, crying my eyes out now. Grave of the fireflies is a movie you see once and leaves a mark on you

[stefangonzo]

The best way to watch Grave of the Fireflies, is alone and with no clue going in...
It took me a decade to stop crying, whenever I heard the soundtrack.

[whitepanter]

Grave of the fireflies, is still the best movie I have ever watched. I have seen it 6 times now. It is a masterpiece.
No movie has ever been able to show the horrors of war like this one

[FearTheVikingYT]

F*** you, Wisecrack, for finally making my watch Grave of the Firefles! I was successfully avoiding it for years b/c I wasn't ready for the sad but you had to go recontextualizing My Neighbour Totoro. And now here I am, weeping all over my keyboard at 8AM on a Tuesday. Thanks! Not sure that even Totoro can unfuck my mood after being being punched right in the feels for 90 minutes straight.

Best animated tragedy I've ever seen and I never want to see it again.

[kw]

Given the timeline of the movies, the father in Totoro is roughly the same age (maybe a few years older) as the boy in Grave of the fireflies, had he lived ...

[BrandG.]

I'm at the 2:00 minute mark wondering if I should go on... Grave of the Fireflies broke me in an emotional way so bad that I still feel uncomfortable thinking about it. I was alone, sick with the flu, very mucusy, and GotF just slayed me. I was ugly sobbing, this was maybe 15-20 years ago and it still affects me. I'm going to try it.

[ScreenDiaries]

Also, Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue (1997) and Millennium Actress (2001) are sister pieces. Together they paint a beautiful, intricate painting of our (parasocial) relationships with our "idols" and the human condition.

[raymondtrabulsy]

I watched Grave of the Fireflies once and wept. It don't think I have it in me to see it again.

[rodylermglez]

This really shows how we, as societies, really do prop artists up to help us sublimate feelings and anxieties in an attempt to process trauma. I thought the same watching both Black Panther movies, and so I feel this was a similar experience for the Japanese audience watching these two movies back then when they premiered.

[Pandaemoni]

I never considered the two films together before but I think the similarities are obvious and they do seem like a good pairing to compare and contrast. Grave of the Fireflies is always a hard film to rewatch, though. I think it's important to see it, at least once, and there is a lot to take from that film, but it is chock full of despair.

[QBG]

Grave of the Fireflies is so fucking sad that I have tears falling out of my face right now just from hearing a dispassionate analysis of it.

[edo]

You also need to take into consideration the audience at the time of watching these films. The directors of both films lived through wartime and understood that a younger generation who did not live through war were prospering. This was a way to have them acknowledge their history but still be hopeful for the future.