I watched My Neighbour Totoro (1988) yesterday for the first time. I’m not into animé in the slightest, I actively hate most of the pop culture that surrounds it, so I was bracing for impact before starting it. But man, it’s an incredible film. The background artwork was breathtaking, every frame was literally a painting, shown for a second or two then gone forever. The level of detail was overwhelming. There was something about the way it was animated and coloured and “lit” that made it feel like my soul was being nourished.

The youngest kid was so well-written and animated, reminded me so much of my nieces and nephews at that age. The way small everyday human things were included elevated the experience hugely. Like, the way the kid clumsily walks down the stairs, or the way someone puts their shoes on (they even animated the dad slipping his shoes off from the chest up, so you just see his shoulders move in a way that makes it clear what his unseen feet are doing, really masterful stuff).

My one criticism of it - and this may be a criticism of animated films in general - is the “frame rate” of the character animations. It was bordering on being a slideshow. Hand-drawn stuff that isn’t rotoscoped tends to have this issue, even in modern video games, and in Eastern animation in particular. For example, The Simpsons never had this problem, but Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon did (it’s probably one of the things that put me off the genre). It seems to be a stylistic choice, rather than just trying to save money by skipping the creation of every second frame. If so, it’s a choice I dislike and feel hurts the experience a little. Not hugely, just a little.

The story and acting were really pitch-perfect. Certainly a nice change from the grotesque shit I usually watch.

I’m going to be checking out the rest of Studio Ghibli’s oeuvre over the coming weeks. First on the list are: Grave of the Fireflies and Spirited Away. There are a few non-Ghibli animé films I plan to watch, too. Perfect Blue is one.

I just need to ensure I precede each film with 15 minutes of chanting “I am not now, nor have I ever been, nor will I ever be, a weeaboo”.