My Neighbor Totoro

My Neighbor Totoro is an anime film produced by Studio Ghibli that premiered in Japanese theaters on April 16, 1988. Hayao Miyazaki wrote the original story and directed the film, while Joe Hisaishi composed the musical score. Kazuo Oga served as the art director, painting rural backgrounds based on real locations in Tokorozawa.

Set in rural Japan during 1958, the narrative follows university professor Tatsuo Kusakabe and his daughters, ten-year-old Satsuki and four-year-old Mei, as they move into a weathered country house near Matsugo. The girls explore the rooms and discover small soot spirits dwelling in the corners of the dark attic. Their move allows the family to live closer to a local hospital where their mother rests while recovering from a long illness. While wandering through the yard one afternoon, Mei chases two small creatures into the hollow base of a massive camphor tree and meets a sleeping forest spirit.

Noriko Hidaka supplied the Japanese voice of Satsuki, while Chika Sakamoto voiced her younger sister Mei. Studio Ghibli adopted the silhouette of Totoro as the official company logo seen at the start of all its films. Miyazaki later wrote and directed a 13-minute sequel short named Mei and the Kittenbus, which began screening in 2002 at the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. In North America, the English version first streamed on the platform HBO Max in 2020 after an initial television broadcast in 1997.

In 1988, the Mainichi Film Awards presented the film with the award for Best Film and the Noburo Ofuji Award. The 1988 Kinema Junpo Awards selected the film as the Best Japanese Film of the Year on its annual critics list. Readers of the magazine Animage awarded the film the Grand Prix prize at the 11th Anime Grand Prix in 1988. The 31st Blue Ribbon Awards presented a Special Award to the film in 1989. Worldwide box office receipts reached $41.8 million, which included $25.8 million generated during a theatrical release across China in 2018.