Hayao Miyazaki’s 1988 film My Neighbor Totoro(Official Studio Ghibli) gives us Kanta, Satsuki’s classmate and, to my eye, a boy plainly in love with her. But does that feeling ever reach her?
Perhaps the key to Kanta’s future is the couple who appear in a passing farm truck. Satsuki encounters them while searching for Mei. Why those two? Someone else could have filled the same role, yet the film shows a young couple.
Why put a couple in Satsuki’s path at that moment? Here is my reading of what the encounter might suggest about Kanta’s future.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
- Affection He Cannot Quite Express
Kanta’s staring, his “haunted house” taunt, and the umbrella he lends Satsuki all suggest that he likes her. He cannot seem to find a way to tell her. - A Future as “Friends”
The couple in the farm truck and Kanta struggling with an adult-sized bicycle make an unkind contrast. I read it as a hint that his feelings will not be returned; the end credits show him as Satsuki’s friend. - Miyazaki’s Own First Love
Miyazaki’s account of an unfulfilled first love echoes Kanta’s awkward affection. For me, it adds to the sense that this may not become a romance.
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My Neighbor Totoro (1988): How Kanta’s Affection Is Portrayed
My argument begins with the idea that Kanta is in love with Satsuki. That may already seem clear, but let’s look at the particular scenes.
The “Love-at-First-Sight” Stare
The very first time Kanta lays eyes on Satsuki is during the opening sequence when her father greets the locals working in the rice paddies.
He stares intently at her. To me, this is his love-at-first-sight moment.
Whether Kanta understands his own feelings is another question. From the outside, though, he looks as if he has been struck down in one blow.
The Classic “Haunted House” Insult
Kanta’s most memorable line comes when he visits Satsuki’s home on an errand for his mother: “Your house is a haaauuunted hooouse!”
It looks like a familiar case of teasing the girl you like. Kanta himself may not know why he said it.
Kanta’s insult is extremely simple in the English subtitle, but its childish rhythm and emotional purpose become clearer when it is compared with the original Japanese. See the Japanese line, romanization, English subtitle, and literal translation in our analysis of “You live in a haunted house!” from My Neighbor Totoro.
When he next encounters Satsuki, he is utterly silent. She seems to have thrown his feelings into confusion.
Lending a Rather Useless Umbrella
On the day Mei turns up at school instead of staying with Granny, the sisters are caught in the rain on their way home.
Enter Kanta: a boy with the heart of a gentleman.
With little more than “Nn! Nn!” he lends Satsuki his umbrella—or presses it on her—and runs home, apparently pleased to have done something good. Too embarrassed to tell his mother, he offers the rather difficult excuse that he forgot his umbrella on a rainy day.
Lending someone an umbrella full of holes might seem a mixed blessing. For Satsuki that day, however, I think it matters a great deal.
At home, Satsuki must help with the housework and care for Mei. School should give her precious time to be a child herself. Mei’s arrival intrudes on that time, making an already demanding day harder.
At the end of such a day, being on the receiving end of someone’s kindness—even in the form of a battered umbrella—may offer Satsuki a little comfort. Kanta does what needs doing when it needs doing. Good work, Kanta.
Watching Satsuki from a Distance
The last scene I want to consider is Satsuki’s anxious telephone call to her father after the telegram arrives from Shichikokuyama Hospital.
Kanta stands in the background, keeping a distinct physical distance while watching her intently.
He is probably worried about her. But Satsuki’s top also leaves her upper back visible, and I suspect that “that sort of feeling” is mixed in with his concern. You could call it inappropriate at such a moment, but people are like that.
What I find saddest is the distance between Satsuki and Kanta, standing there unable to help. I read it as the emotional distance he longs to close—a distance that must still seem almost infinite to him.
I want him to close that gap. My conclusion, however, is the sad one that he cannot. Let me explain why I have arrived at it.
My Neighbor Totoro (1988): Kanta’s Sad Future
Kanta and Satsuki’s brief encounters leave room to imagine what may follow. The reading below considers that future without treating it as an established part of the film.
The Couple in the Farm Truck
Let’s turn to the couple Satsuki encounters in the farm truck.
For the plot to move forward, she only needs to ask someone whether they have seen Mei. An older woman or man would do; if another man would repeat the previous encounter, a young driver alone would be enough. There is no practical need for a couple.
Their presence therefore seems to call for another explanation. I think it is a contrast with Kanta.
Immediately afterwards, Satsuki meets Kanta. He is making an extraordinary effort to pedal an adult-sized bicycle. His determination is admirable, yet beside the man she has just met, he looks painfully young.
It is a merciless contrast. To me, it seems to hint that the still-immature Kanta’s feelings will not be returned.
In the end-credit illustrations, he appears as Satsuki’s friend. I imagine a future like Sugimura’s in Whisper of the Heart: a trace of affection remains, but it never reaches the girl he loves.
That may sound like a strained reading, as though I have gone out of my way to invent a sad future. There is a little more behind it—though it may still be a stretch.
Director Hayao Miyazaki’s Own Unrequited First Love
Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki’s close collaborator and the power behind Studio Ghibli, once recalled looking for a site for their new studio in Koganei (Reference: Studio Ghibli’s Location Was Near Hayao Miyazaki’s First Love’s House… Producer Suzuki Reveals an Episode(in Japanese)).
Miyazaki told Suzuki that his first love’s house was in Koganei, and that his feelings had not been returned. It might have ended as a small, amusing reminiscence. Instead, according to the story, he became absorbed in those memories and trudged all the way to Musashi-Sakai Station.
That need not mean he was still nursing the disappointment. Perhaps it simply means that he could remember those feelings vividly.
When a director with memories like that portrays Kanta, what do you think he will draw: the dream he wanted to come true, or the reality he could not change?
The seemingly unnecessary couple in the truck makes it hard for me not to be pessimistic. But wasn’t first love rather like that for all of us?
Your Take
What is your view? Choose the answer that comes closest to your own response.
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