I have been trained, pavlovian-dog-like, to want to watch a Miyazaki movie every time it rains. It turns out that these staples of my childhood, specifically My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away , were quite a bit a darker than I ever realizedβ that is, if everything you read on the Internet is to be believed.
The basic theories go like this: My Neighbor Totoro , the heart-warming story of two girls moving into a spirit-infested house in the countryside is actually about the very nonfictional Sayama Incident , a horrible tragedy that began with the rape and murder of one girl, and went downhill from there.
You can read about the theory as it pertains to My Neighbor Totoro here. And then we have Spirited Away , the bildungsroman tale of a girl who, through no fault of her own, finds herself employed in a fairy world bathhouse, in a desperate attempt to save her suddenly porcine parents from being eaten.
This ostensibly innocent story is, it turns out, actually the dark perverted story of prostitution and the corruption of children. For the basic outline, look no farther than here. I brought up the two of these together because I usually see them mentioned together, but I want to primarily talk about Spirited Away for the rest of this letter.
It came out in America in , and I saw it right away, and then proceeded to watch it about times a year thereafter. Actually, that seems low to me. I love this movie. The voices are annoying? This is the best movie, and nothing can mar it. A few quick rebuttalsβ¦. Which is related to what Obnoxious Face is saying, but is significantly different. The River Spirit scene. Miyazaki is the best, preach brother. Also, this scene, while disgusting and weird, is also the best.
