My Neighbor Totoro 1

[cornerofmadness]

My Neighbor Totoro 1 by Hayao Miyazaki

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This looks like a printing of the movie itself, in color. I'm not sure if its the paper quality or what but it is rather muted and dull but that is minor. My bigger complaint is this is about half the size of a normal manga for no reason I can see.

I have a fondness of My Neighbor Totoro which was one of the holy grail's back in the 80s because it wasn't shown anywhere in the States and you had to hunt it down, usually see it shown at a con and like many of us, I fell in love with it there.

Satsuki and Mei and their father have moved to a rural, old and 'haunted' house and this whole volume is that moment. It's the kids running around looking at their new home and opening it. We get our first hints of the paranormal with the soot sprites all over the place. Also there are acorns everywhere and yes it could be a squirrel or something but you know it isn't.

And literally that's all that happens. If I didn't know I loved this story I would have rated this lower because it's a bit slow. It's all set up. In the movie it doesn't feel slow because it's only a few minutes but when the entirety of a manga is two girls running around opening doors, it's not that engage. There a few other characters popping in, Kanta, a shy boy and Granny who is there for soot sprite exposition. The weirdest thing (to someone from outside Japanese culture) is dad taking a bath with his two daughters.



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