A Totoro Creature?

[at] darkonix Totoro was a kids' movie, I don't believe this 😢 Anyway the author is said to be a pacifist so I don't think he aimed to show that in the anime. Just that magic exist in parallel worlds!

I remember watching "My Neighbor Totoro" In a Japanese class I used to take in school. It's a sad film, it is.

The film mentions that the black things are soot sprites, not Totoro.

If the film's had a big effect on you guys, the black things could easily be a tulpa, something "created" simply by the mass belief that it exists.

Fun fact, The rumor says that Totoro is the God of Death, so the people that can see Totoro are actually close to death, or already dead. What that means for the story is that when Mei goes missing and a sandal is found in the pond, Mei actually drowned. When Satsuki is asked about the sandal she cannot face the truth and lies about it not being Mei's sandal. So Satsuki goes on a desperate search for Totoro, calling for him and actually opens up the door the realm of the dead herself. With Totoro's help she finds her dead sister and they together go to their mother's hospital. There, the only one who actually noticed that the sisters were there, was the mother, who also soon is going to die.

And in the ending scene, Satsuki and Mei don't have shadows, some say.

The story takes place in Sayama hills where Hachikokuyama Hospital is, which is believed to be the model of the hospital where the mother is.

There is also a murder-case, the Sayama incident. Which has many scary coincidences with Tonari no Totoro. Especially that it all happened in May and both of the sisters names actually are May - Satsuki, the name of the older sister that means May in Japanese and Mei), the name of the younger sister, which is how Japanese people pronounce May.
Furthermore, the fact that the little sister went missing and that both sisters later turned up dead. According to some rumors, the big sister saw her little sister's corpse and went crazy and later should have mumbled something alike "I saw a ghost/monster cat" and "I met a big raccoon" = Totoro, before committing suicide.

-Dark0nix

PS: Sorry for ruining the movie with my fun fact!

Hi Junai,

Very interesting what you wrote. Thanks for sharing it.

The creatures you saw in Miyazaki's Totoro (and also in Spirited Away) are usually called Soot Sprites but are called Susuwatari in Japanese. They don't have any basis in Japanese culture and it's just kind of assumed Miyazaki made them up but you could be right in believing he might've seen something. Miyazaki is known to believe in the Shinto gods and goddesses.

Hi Maymay!

The entity we have seen looks like the description you make, but we never felt anything like "evil" or "good" about it. My children have seen this creature many times and not only secluded to a particular place, because they have seen it outside in the street and at one point even at the airport! (We were waiting to check in when my son said to me: Look at it! Do you think these creatures follow us here?. But as I said, I haven't seen them anymore. I moved to another flat and even though I live in the country side, I haven't seen them anymore. 😕

I did a google search of a description of an entity that my fiance has been seening in our home for over two years now, and came across this post. It is round, baseball size, dark black, almost void like, and it looks hairy. It has eyes but no arms or legs. And it seems to crawl across the floors, counters, and walls. He said that he has never seen any arms or legs and so he doesn't know how it is crawling but it moves in kind of a spider motion. I asked him if it looks like the little soot sprites from Totoro, we had watched the movie for the first time a few months ago and I thought the description sounds similar to that. He said it did not make him think of those because this entity felt very bad. He said he remember seeing the same thing in a house he lived in when he was a child, but that the entity in that house was much bigger, soccer ball size.
The house we live in is the house I grew up in. I have seen many spirits and entities in the home ever since I was a child. I have never seen anything that looked like this but then I have never SEEN anything that I felt was evil in the house. However I have been attacked a couple of times by something in my years there. And often get a very heavy dark feeling in certain rooms. Has anyone else seen or felt anything like this?

...I wrote this story because I wasn't sure of what this was... And I wanted to know if somebody else had seen something ilike

Hi Shlain:

You're right, we were never afraid because this always caught us by surprise. Besides if you read my story "The Goblin" you would understand that seeing things like this is not new to us. Me and my children has paranormal experiences with the fairy people, and Sweden is so rich in forest and natural areas that I have seen many different kind of nature spirits 😉

Silene,

I hope this doesn't offend you, but I was smiling as I read this story.

While reading it, and before reading the comments, I immediately thought of fairy folk or gnomes. It reminded me of the stories you hear as a child (probably based on folklore) about the fae coming into homes to steal odd little trinkets.

You and your family don't seem to be frightened. Rather you're all perhaps baffled and a little caught off guard. I think the reason your son saw this entity staring at it was that he perhaps that HE caught IT off guard that time?

Thank you for sharing this remarkable story.

Shlain ❤

Shadowyne33:

Thnak you for sharing your experience. Yes, I also tried to explain this thing logically but it jut don't fit. It was black, bigger than a mouse, hairy and round and too quick to move to be compared to a mouse. Besides it goes trough walls and sometimes floats in the thin air. The diffenence with your case is that, there was no paranormal activity in this flat, not at all, apart from the few times me and my children saw this creature.

Rookdygin:

I made some investigation at that time when I saw this thing. The only legend I found that could be near to what we saw is the one about "vätte" or "vättar" which are old nature spirits, little people who lives near or under peoples houses. They dress in grey. But somewhere in the web I found that vättar don't like to be seen or disturbed by people and therefore, they turn into a dark hairy creatures to make people believe they are rats or mouses. 😠

Hi Silene! I have to tell you that I have seen this very same thing. And only one like you. It was in my old house (I live in Oregon, USA) and I saw this thing zipping across my bathroom floor. The logical part of my mind wanted to explain it away as a mouse, but honestly it was bigger than a mouse and pitch black and fuzzy and completely round. I have no explanation for it, but a lot of paranormal activity happened in that house. So you are not alone, and not crazy:) Also here in the house I live in now, just the other day, my mom saw what looked like a black liquidy thing zip fluidly up our stairs and turn and disappear into the wall. She said it moved like how liquid would if it was flowing down, only backwards and up. And we also have a lot of frequent paranormal activity here. Thanks for sharing your story:)
~Amber

Silene,

YouTube clips aside, what does the folklore in Sweden say, if anything, concerning creatures/spirits like the one you saw?

The two best tools we have are Journals (to keep all the details) and Research (so we know what kind of myths,folklore, spirits/entities and factual events that have happened or been described throughout the history of the area we live in).

I'm not sure what you and your Family may have seen, but maybe with a bit of research you can discover what it may have been.

Thanks for sharing.

Respectfully,

Rook