Round 3 Strangers: My Neighbor Totoro
Mod note: If you don't watch this vid before reading synopses, you may regret it later. (It is AWESOME.)
My Neighbor Totoro
Vid Used
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Alberto L. Gonzalez (feedback @ studio59ag.com)
download: http://studio59ag.com/AMV03.htm
Grokker Synopsis
My Neighbor Totoro was one of the early animated films made at Studio Ghibli by Hayao Miyazaki, probably best known in the US for Princess Mononoke, Sprited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. It tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki (the older one) and Mei (the toddler), who move to the countryside with their college-professor dad in order to be closer to their mom, who's being treated for an unspecified illness at a hospital nearby. The house they move into is old and ramshackle, exactly the sort of place you'd expect to be haunted -- and it is. The house itself is fool of "soot sprites" -- little fuzzy black creatures that lurk in the shadows. The yard is populated by a family of Totoros -- a sort of friendly, furry trolls, ranging in size from "baby bunny" to "bigger than a house." All the creatures turn out to be harmless (and, in fact, ridiculously cute). The soot sprites are dispelled by laughter, and the Totoros make friends with the girls. Other magical creatures appear as the story meanders on and guess what? They're cute and friendly too. This is in fact, the cutest, friendliest haunted house movie you're ever likely to see -- and yet it manages to never be boring or saccharine.
Most of the movie focuses on the girls (with a little help from their dad, but mostly on their own) exploring their new home and the magical forest around it. There is a bit of token plot toward the end, involving a search for Mei, who gets lost trying to visit mom in the hospital, but it's really not the point of the film or the bit that most people are likely to remember after watching. It's all the vignettes showing Satsuki and Mei's encounters with the supernatural, and the idyllic child's eye-view of rural Japan, that tend to stick with the viewers.
Stranger Synopses
Stranger 1
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing, but when I showed my assignment to my girlfriend she started singing the theme song, so apparently she likes it. And now she won’t stop singing. >:(
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Strawberry and her sister Pigtails go to visit their Uncle Wide-Eyes at his house in the country. Unfortunately, when Strawberry goes outside to gather wood for a fire, she angers the Wind Demon, who scuttles about in the shadows and sends its wind magic to attack Strawberry. It steals her firewood, but she doesn’t heed its warning and grabs more before running back inside. The Wind Demon becomes truly enraged, but just when it looks like all hope is lost, Uncle Wide-Eyes remembers that the Wind Demon is allergic to water. They all get into the bath where they are safe. The Wind Demon keeps up its assault on their house, but it can’t reach Strawberry, and eventually it gives up in frustration.
Uncle Wide-Eyes knows he has to smuggle Strawberry out of the area before the Wind Demon attacks again, so he calls his twin brother, Uncle Glasses, to pick them up. He waits until the weather forecasts predict heavy rain and sends them out to wait for the bus. Little do they know, however, that the Wind Demon has enlisted the help of its cousin, the Demon of Fuzzy Things, who is not allergic to water. This demon may look cute, but do not be fooled - it is a terrifying, stone-cold killer wrapped in a deceptively adorable fur coat. It summons one of its fuzzy minions, Catipede the fuzzy bus, to do away with Strawberry, and they are so distracted they do not even realise the rain has stopped! They are no longer safe from the Wind Demon! Uncle Glasses arrives just in time to scare off Catipede.
Uncle Glasses, however, does not believe their story about the demons, and refuses to take them away from the countryside. Instead he takes them to his own house, little suspecting that with the help of a friendly owl, the Demon of Fuzzy Things has followed them. In the middle of the night, it summons its tiny fuzzy Tribble minions, along with Catipede, and sends them out on a mission of death and destruction. They infiltrate Uncle Glasses’ house and kidnap Pigtails! The Demon of Fuzzy Things ties a ransom note to her shoe and, as a final cruel taunt, leaves it floating in a lake to prove that nowhere is safe. The ransom note simply reads: OM NOM NOM STRAWBERRIES. This may or may not be the demon’s attempt to inform everyone that it is coming for Stawberry. The extent of its literacy is a matter of great debate, although hardly the most pressing point at hand.
When Strawberry gets the news of her sister’s kidnap she is devastated, and swears to bring Pigtails back home safely, whatever the cost. She leaves Pigtails’ lucky shoe with the townspeople as a memento should she not return, and runs off to face a daring battle with a near-immortal foe. The townspeople try to stop her but, uh, not very hard. They seem to believe that looking horrified and feebly waving your arm at someone constitutes a valid effort to restrain them. Strawberry puts on her brave little toaster face and leaps the creek that marks the edge of the Demon of Fuzzy Things’ domain (just because the Wind Demon is its cousin doesn’t mean they have to trust each other). Tribbles flee before her sisterly wrath. That, or they’re a bit worried about being doomed by association. It’s hard to tell with Tribbles.
Strawberry’s grand and dramatic entry is somewhat ruined by a stray tree root that sends her flying through the air, and then - more problematically - plummeting towards the ground. To her immense relief, her fall is broken by something soft. Fluffy. One might even call it… FUZZY.
OM NOM NOM STRAWBERRIES.
Stranger 2
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing. And I was less freaked out before I knew.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
I have a rare condition called ‘all characters in anything animated look the same to me’. I usually get through animated movies and anime series via the intermediary of constant narration. I signed up for this fandom because of some unholy combination of determination and over-confidence, so we’ll see how it goes.
My Neighbour Totoro is a public service announcement along the lines of ‘stranger danger’ and ‘don’t trust anything the television tells you, it is full of lies.’
The point of this PSA is: we are not alone. There is a whole world, co-existing with our own, entirely populated by mythical animals. Some familiar, some unknown. Who hasn’t heard the story of the giant angry multi-legged cat bus of the damned? I had not been aware that it could scale power lines, however.
There’s this creature that I am pretty sure is a bear, but also has hints of seal and bunny in it. But I’m just going to stick with bear. This bear is also clearly a marsupial and lighter than he looks. He also changes sizes from a smallish skulking black shadow (1:15) to giant (4:55).
There are also land based sea urchins with eyes. Maybe they are animated dust bunnies. Maybe they are spiders. No one can be certain.
These supernatural animals are not content with their own territory, however. They are after our children. The more ridiculous their pigtails, the more tasty they are.
To illustrate this point, the vid provides us with the cautionary tale of one family’s nightmare. A girl is gathering firewood, unaware that the storm raging outside blows an ill wind. What follows could happen to you.
While waiting at the bus stop, in the rain, for their father, the two girls meet the weird bear-seal-lemur for the first time. He is a passenger on cat of the damned #145, destination: underworld, via Wonderland. If the regular bus had not been so close behind the hell cat, who knows what would have happened. Instead, the seal-bunny must bide its time, and wait for the children to be isolated.
The dust urchins work as spies, tracking children for the lemur-bear. Crazy pigtails girl hastily grabs some provisions and tries to flee, but the 12 legged bus-cat is hot on her trail and cannot be outrun. What her final destination is, no one knows. What is known is that all that was left of her was her shoe.
The older girl is told of her sister’s fate by a boy in a sailor hat on a bike. His family know that when the time of the leaf-capped-lemur is at hand, biking is the only safe way to travel. Disbelieving, her grandmother tells her it’s all true and she falls to her knees. Overly brave, the older girl attempts to track her sister down by going through the looking glass into the world of the creatures. She is promptly eaten.
Hopefully, the My Neighbour Totoro says, by providing this information, YOU will be better able to protect your family. Steps that can be taken include:
a) not letting your children wait alone at bus stops
a. this may include some sort of anti-single parent commentary, since their father is clearly a single dad.
b) Once a beastie has been seen, under no circumstances should your children run anywhere. Especially not holding corn.
c) Never travel to their land or seek them out in any way.
Together we can work to prevent these kinds of senseless tragedies.
Stranger 3
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's anime. My little brother liked it. I've seen plenty of other Miyazaki stuff, but not this one. Otherwise, no clue what this one is about!
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is an animated film. It is about two young girls-Tall With Skinny Legs and Angry Cabbage Patch Face-and a single father who live out in the country. The girls explore and run around the country while their dad goes to work in the city.
One day while Tall With Skinny Legs is getting fire for the family bath, she sees lots of Foreshadowing. Windy windy foreshadowing about the Power of Nature (Miyazaki is a huge fan of the weirdness and awesomeness of natural and mythical creatures, so I don’t think I’m too far off on that part actually). Something scary is coming!
The scary wind does not prevent her from taking a bath with her Angry Cabbage Patch Face sister and their dad. Yay for family bonding!
But while the girls are continuing to run around and enjoy themselves, the whole land is being invaded by small little black creatures--Dusty Tribbles--and something furry with claws and goofy eyeballs. Frightened yet precocious, the girls wait for their father at the bus stop while the gigantic Magical Bunny With Claws stares at them in the rain.
Creepy!
A magical Cheshire-Cat shaped bus passes them, and then finally, the bus that brings their father home arrives. Yay! “Dad will totally save us from the Tribbles and the Bunny!”
Angry Cabbage-Patch Face girl sees more Dusty Tribbles as they start to take over the house. She runs away, chased by the flying bus that looks like a cheshire cat. She suffers the intense trauma of being alone in a field with nothing but several ears of corn to protect you from the crazy eight-legged Cheshire Cat bus. The Cheshire-Cat Bus attacks!
All that is left of Angry Cabbage-Patch Face is her lone, poignant flip-flop, floating in the nearby pond. Tall With Skinny Legs runs around like a crazy-face looking for her sister and crying a whole lot when a nosy old woman shows her the lone shoe.
Ohnoes! “My sister is gone!”
Afraid for her sister’s life, and/or determined to find/save her, and/or in search of bloody vengeance, Tall With Skinny Legs turns to the tree where the Magical Bunny hangs out. Running through an Alice in Wonderland like rabbit hole, past all the tribbles and Tall With Skinny Legs lands bouncing on the Gigantic Bunny With Claws. Who eats her. Because children are tasty.
The end!
Stranger 4
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's a Miyazaki film, and the Totoro thing seems to be popular on, like, hats and toys and stuff.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
TERRIFYING MONSTERS WILL COME TO EAT YOUR CHILDREN, OH HOLY CRAP HIDE IN THE BATHTUB, BECAUSE THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU AND WILL GET YOU, ESPECIALLY IF YOU EVER LEAVE YOUR HOUSE. OMG SCARIEST EVER.
A young girl is gathering wood for some reason when a storm comes and she and her little sister and their father must cower in the bathroom in case the house (neat, tidy, family-sized) falls down. Later, the girl and little sis are out waiting at a bus stop while it is raining. They have a huge umbrella to shelter themselves from the rain, so they don't notice at first when a HUGE FUZZY BEARMONSTER comes and stands next to them, seemingly also waiting for the bus.
But it is not a bus the bearmonster is waiting for, but a CATBUS. Part bus, part cat, this creature is clearly in cahoots with bearmonster. Catbus and bearmonster gallop off into the night, and when the real bus comes the two girls fairly leap upon their father, who is presumably surprised by such an enthusiastic greeting.
Later that night, a tiny bearmonster calls the tribblemonsters (also seen carrying candy stars in "Spirited Away") to swarm the house. The little sister spots them in a crack in the wall, and they swarm her too, driving her out of the house with nothing but a cob of corn for company. She is chased across the countryside by catbus, who eventually pounces upon her and presumably gobbles her up, leaving nothing but a tiny shoe behind.
The main girl notices her little sister is missing and runs all across the land trying to find her. She discovers the shoe and is distraught, knowing what it must mean. Despite the pleadings of friendly townspeople, she runs into the mysterious forest as if compelled. There she falls right on top of bearmonster, who grasps her in his claws and swallows her up with a satisfied grin.
I should probably note that the summary on the vid when I downloaded it said it was a parody, so I'm guessing this is not the actual plot of the movie. I would imagine from the footage used that the actual plot has the monsters being friendly and living in monster paradise and helping the lost girls home. But maybe that's not true! Maybe it really is a movie about cuddly-looking monsters who gobble up little girls! PEDOPHILE MONSTERS, probably.
Stranger 5
All I knew about this fandom was:
Zilch.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is an anime'd mishmash of children's stories, complete with a windstorm ('The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'), a Tzippy clone ('Where the Wild Things Are'), a Cheshire Cat car ('Alice in Wonderland'), bugs in the closet ('The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'), the Hogwarts Express ('Harry Potter'), a hobbit child running with a vegetable ('Lord of the Rings'), a boy wearing a sailor hat ('Little Lord Fauntleroy'), a missing shoe ('Cinderella'), an old woman offering a girl something ('Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'), crawling through underground tunnels (either 'Wind in the Willows' or 'Winnie the Pooh'), and a dead kid ('Bridge to Terabithia').
Stranger 6
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's called My Neighbor Totoro.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is a story about the dark side of gentrification. Most of the time, gentrification is dominant racial group/lower racial group, straight people/queer people, or rich people/poor people. In this particular univers, the gentrification is Magical Animals/Human Beings.
There's a little girl, who I will, for the sake of argument, call Dorothy. Her father is sort of creepy, with the inappropriate bathing with small children and the depending way too much on his oldest daughter to take care of the younger children. Dorothy is especially close to one sister, whom I will call Glinda. Anyway, they live out in the sticks together. They have some human neighbors they aren't very close to, but they know them enough to say hi or borrow the Japanese equivalent of a cup of sugar.
One day, while waiting for her dad to come home from work, Dorothy notices there are New People in the neighborhood. Specifically, there is a giant hamster! And he is waiting to catch the Catbus! Understandably, Dorothy is totally freaked out by her new, magical animal neighbors. The magical animals are not very friendly. I mean, they smile at you, but it's a very creepy smile. Mostly people try to stay out of their way.
There are rumors about the magical animals eating kids, but everybody knows that anytime "new people" show up, somebody polishes off the blood libel to apply it to them. So, Dorothy, being a sensible girl, completely ignores the warning.
Unfortunately, Dorothy doesn't find out that the Magical Animals send Tribble Scouts into people's homes, looking for tasty young children to eat, until after her sister Glinda is eaten by the Catbus. Dorothy goes looking for her sister, but gets eaten by the hamster.
I'm going to guess the rest of the series is about Dorothy's creepy dad and the old neighbor lady trying to get the police to avenge the deaths of these two kids, but the police brushing them off because, really, we don't want to cause trouble with the magical animals. Probably (say the police) Dorothy just ran off with her sister Glinda to go make their fortunes in Emerald City.
Eventually, Dorothy's Dad and the old neighbor lady wll get married, drawn together by their adversity and battle against the child-eating magical animals.
Stranger 7
All I knew about this fandom was:
(did not specify)
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Worst. Meteorologist. Ever.
My Neighbor Totoro
Vid Used
Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Alberto L. Gonzalez (feedback @ studio59ag.com)
download: http://studio59ag.com/AMV03.htm
Grokker Synopsis
My Neighbor Totoro was one of the early animated films made at Studio Ghibli by Hayao Miyazaki, probably best known in the US for Princess Mononoke, Sprited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. It tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki (the older one) and Mei (the toddler), who move to the countryside with their college-professor dad in order to be closer to their mom, who's being treated for an unspecified illness at a hospital nearby. The house they move into is old and ramshackle, exactly the sort of place you'd expect to be haunted -- and it is. The house itself is fool of "soot sprites" -- little fuzzy black creatures that lurk in the shadows. The yard is populated by a family of Totoros -- a sort of friendly, furry trolls, ranging in size from "baby bunny" to "bigger than a house." All the creatures turn out to be harmless (and, in fact, ridiculously cute). The soot sprites are dispelled by laughter, and the Totoros make friends with the girls. Other magical creatures appear as the story meanders on and guess what? They're cute and friendly too. This is in fact, the cutest, friendliest haunted house movie you're ever likely to see -- and yet it manages to never be boring or saccharine.
Most of the movie focuses on the girls (with a little help from their dad, but mostly on their own) exploring their new home and the magical forest around it. There is a bit of token plot toward the end, involving a search for Mei, who gets lost trying to visit mom in the hospital, but it's really not the point of the film or the bit that most people are likely to remember after watching. It's all the vignettes showing Satsuki and Mei's encounters with the supernatural, and the idyllic child's eye-view of rural Japan, that tend to stick with the viewers.
Stranger Synopses
Stranger 1
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing, but when I showed my assignment to my girlfriend she started singing the theme song, so apparently she likes it. And now she won’t stop singing. >:(
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Strawberry and her sister Pigtails go to visit their Uncle Wide-Eyes at his house in the country. Unfortunately, when Strawberry goes outside to gather wood for a fire, she angers the Wind Demon, who scuttles about in the shadows and sends its wind magic to attack Strawberry. It steals her firewood, but she doesn’t heed its warning and grabs more before running back inside. The Wind Demon becomes truly enraged, but just when it looks like all hope is lost, Uncle Wide-Eyes remembers that the Wind Demon is allergic to water. They all get into the bath where they are safe. The Wind Demon keeps up its assault on their house, but it can’t reach Strawberry, and eventually it gives up in frustration.
Uncle Wide-Eyes knows he has to smuggle Strawberry out of the area before the Wind Demon attacks again, so he calls his twin brother, Uncle Glasses, to pick them up. He waits until the weather forecasts predict heavy rain and sends them out to wait for the bus. Little do they know, however, that the Wind Demon has enlisted the help of its cousin, the Demon of Fuzzy Things, who is not allergic to water. This demon may look cute, but do not be fooled - it is a terrifying, stone-cold killer wrapped in a deceptively adorable fur coat. It summons one of its fuzzy minions, Catipede the fuzzy bus, to do away with Strawberry, and they are so distracted they do not even realise the rain has stopped! They are no longer safe from the Wind Demon! Uncle Glasses arrives just in time to scare off Catipede.
Uncle Glasses, however, does not believe their story about the demons, and refuses to take them away from the countryside. Instead he takes them to his own house, little suspecting that with the help of a friendly owl, the Demon of Fuzzy Things has followed them. In the middle of the night, it summons its tiny fuzzy Tribble minions, along with Catipede, and sends them out on a mission of death and destruction. They infiltrate Uncle Glasses’ house and kidnap Pigtails! The Demon of Fuzzy Things ties a ransom note to her shoe and, as a final cruel taunt, leaves it floating in a lake to prove that nowhere is safe. The ransom note simply reads: OM NOM NOM STRAWBERRIES. This may or may not be the demon’s attempt to inform everyone that it is coming for Stawberry. The extent of its literacy is a matter of great debate, although hardly the most pressing point at hand.
When Strawberry gets the news of her sister’s kidnap she is devastated, and swears to bring Pigtails back home safely, whatever the cost. She leaves Pigtails’ lucky shoe with the townspeople as a memento should she not return, and runs off to face a daring battle with a near-immortal foe. The townspeople try to stop her but, uh, not very hard. They seem to believe that looking horrified and feebly waving your arm at someone constitutes a valid effort to restrain them. Strawberry puts on her brave little toaster face and leaps the creek that marks the edge of the Demon of Fuzzy Things’ domain (just because the Wind Demon is its cousin doesn’t mean they have to trust each other). Tribbles flee before her sisterly wrath. That, or they’re a bit worried about being doomed by association. It’s hard to tell with Tribbles.
Strawberry’s grand and dramatic entry is somewhat ruined by a stray tree root that sends her flying through the air, and then - more problematically - plummeting towards the ground. To her immense relief, her fall is broken by something soft. Fluffy. One might even call it… FUZZY.
OM NOM NOM STRAWBERRIES.
Stranger 2
All I knew about this fandom was:
Nothing. And I was less freaked out before I knew.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
I have a rare condition called ‘all characters in anything animated look the same to me’. I usually get through animated movies and anime series via the intermediary of constant narration. I signed up for this fandom because of some unholy combination of determination and over-confidence, so we’ll see how it goes.
My Neighbour Totoro is a public service announcement along the lines of ‘stranger danger’ and ‘don’t trust anything the television tells you, it is full of lies.’
The point of this PSA is: we are not alone. There is a whole world, co-existing with our own, entirely populated by mythical animals. Some familiar, some unknown. Who hasn’t heard the story of the giant angry multi-legged cat bus of the damned? I had not been aware that it could scale power lines, however.
There’s this creature that I am pretty sure is a bear, but also has hints of seal and bunny in it. But I’m just going to stick with bear. This bear is also clearly a marsupial and lighter than he looks. He also changes sizes from a smallish skulking black shadow (1:15) to giant (4:55).
There are also land based sea urchins with eyes. Maybe they are animated dust bunnies. Maybe they are spiders. No one can be certain.
These supernatural animals are not content with their own territory, however. They are after our children. The more ridiculous their pigtails, the more tasty they are.
To illustrate this point, the vid provides us with the cautionary tale of one family’s nightmare. A girl is gathering firewood, unaware that the storm raging outside blows an ill wind. What follows could happen to you.
While waiting at the bus stop, in the rain, for their father, the two girls meet the weird bear-seal-lemur for the first time. He is a passenger on cat of the damned #145, destination: underworld, via Wonderland. If the regular bus had not been so close behind the hell cat, who knows what would have happened. Instead, the seal-bunny must bide its time, and wait for the children to be isolated.
The dust urchins work as spies, tracking children for the lemur-bear. Crazy pigtails girl hastily grabs some provisions and tries to flee, but the 12 legged bus-cat is hot on her trail and cannot be outrun. What her final destination is, no one knows. What is known is that all that was left of her was her shoe.
The older girl is told of her sister’s fate by a boy in a sailor hat on a bike. His family know that when the time of the leaf-capped-lemur is at hand, biking is the only safe way to travel. Disbelieving, her grandmother tells her it’s all true and she falls to her knees. Overly brave, the older girl attempts to track her sister down by going through the looking glass into the world of the creatures. She is promptly eaten.
Hopefully, the My Neighbour Totoro says, by providing this information, YOU will be better able to protect your family. Steps that can be taken include:
a) not letting your children wait alone at bus stops
a. this may include some sort of anti-single parent commentary, since their father is clearly a single dad.
b) Once a beastie has been seen, under no circumstances should your children run anywhere. Especially not holding corn.
c) Never travel to their land or seek them out in any way.
Together we can work to prevent these kinds of senseless tragedies.
Stranger 3
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's anime. My little brother liked it. I've seen plenty of other Miyazaki stuff, but not this one. Otherwise, no clue what this one is about!
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is an animated film. It is about two young girls-Tall With Skinny Legs and Angry Cabbage Patch Face-and a single father who live out in the country. The girls explore and run around the country while their dad goes to work in the city.
One day while Tall With Skinny Legs is getting fire for the family bath, she sees lots of Foreshadowing. Windy windy foreshadowing about the Power of Nature (Miyazaki is a huge fan of the weirdness and awesomeness of natural and mythical creatures, so I don’t think I’m too far off on that part actually). Something scary is coming!
The scary wind does not prevent her from taking a bath with her Angry Cabbage Patch Face sister and their dad. Yay for family bonding!
But while the girls are continuing to run around and enjoy themselves, the whole land is being invaded by small little black creatures--Dusty Tribbles--and something furry with claws and goofy eyeballs. Frightened yet precocious, the girls wait for their father at the bus stop while the gigantic Magical Bunny With Claws stares at them in the rain.
Creepy!
A magical Cheshire-Cat shaped bus passes them, and then finally, the bus that brings their father home arrives. Yay! “Dad will totally save us from the Tribbles and the Bunny!”
Angry Cabbage-Patch Face girl sees more Dusty Tribbles as they start to take over the house. She runs away, chased by the flying bus that looks like a cheshire cat. She suffers the intense trauma of being alone in a field with nothing but several ears of corn to protect you from the crazy eight-legged Cheshire Cat bus. The Cheshire-Cat Bus attacks!
All that is left of Angry Cabbage-Patch Face is her lone, poignant flip-flop, floating in the nearby pond. Tall With Skinny Legs runs around like a crazy-face looking for her sister and crying a whole lot when a nosy old woman shows her the lone shoe.
Ohnoes! “My sister is gone!”
Afraid for her sister’s life, and/or determined to find/save her, and/or in search of bloody vengeance, Tall With Skinny Legs turns to the tree where the Magical Bunny hangs out. Running through an Alice in Wonderland like rabbit hole, past all the tribbles and Tall With Skinny Legs lands bouncing on the Gigantic Bunny With Claws. Who eats her. Because children are tasty.
The end!
Stranger 4
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's a Miyazaki film, and the Totoro thing seems to be popular on, like, hats and toys and stuff.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
TERRIFYING MONSTERS WILL COME TO EAT YOUR CHILDREN, OH HOLY CRAP HIDE IN THE BATHTUB, BECAUSE THEY ARE COMING FOR YOU AND WILL GET YOU, ESPECIALLY IF YOU EVER LEAVE YOUR HOUSE. OMG SCARIEST EVER.
A young girl is gathering wood for some reason when a storm comes and she and her little sister and their father must cower in the bathroom in case the house (neat, tidy, family-sized) falls down. Later, the girl and little sis are out waiting at a bus stop while it is raining. They have a huge umbrella to shelter themselves from the rain, so they don't notice at first when a HUGE FUZZY BEARMONSTER comes and stands next to them, seemingly also waiting for the bus.
But it is not a bus the bearmonster is waiting for, but a CATBUS. Part bus, part cat, this creature is clearly in cahoots with bearmonster. Catbus and bearmonster gallop off into the night, and when the real bus comes the two girls fairly leap upon their father, who is presumably surprised by such an enthusiastic greeting.
Later that night, a tiny bearmonster calls the tribblemonsters (also seen carrying candy stars in "Spirited Away") to swarm the house. The little sister spots them in a crack in the wall, and they swarm her too, driving her out of the house with nothing but a cob of corn for company. She is chased across the countryside by catbus, who eventually pounces upon her and presumably gobbles her up, leaving nothing but a tiny shoe behind.
The main girl notices her little sister is missing and runs all across the land trying to find her. She discovers the shoe and is distraught, knowing what it must mean. Despite the pleadings of friendly townspeople, she runs into the mysterious forest as if compelled. There she falls right on top of bearmonster, who grasps her in his claws and swallows her up with a satisfied grin.
I should probably note that the summary on the vid when I downloaded it said it was a parody, so I'm guessing this is not the actual plot of the movie. I would imagine from the footage used that the actual plot has the monsters being friendly and living in monster paradise and helping the lost girls home. But maybe that's not true! Maybe it really is a movie about cuddly-looking monsters who gobble up little girls! PEDOPHILE MONSTERS, probably.
Stranger 5
All I knew about this fandom was:
Zilch.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is an anime'd mishmash of children's stories, complete with a windstorm ('The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'), a Tzippy clone ('Where the Wild Things Are'), a Cheshire Cat car ('Alice in Wonderland'), bugs in the closet ('The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'), the Hogwarts Express ('Harry Potter'), a hobbit child running with a vegetable ('Lord of the Rings'), a boy wearing a sailor hat ('Little Lord Fauntleroy'), a missing shoe ('Cinderella'), an old woman offering a girl something ('Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'), crawling through underground tunnels (either 'Wind in the Willows' or 'Winnie the Pooh'), and a dead kid ('Bridge to Terabithia').
Stranger 6
All I knew about this fandom was:
It's called My Neighbor Totoro.
Here's what this fandom is really about:
This is a story about the dark side of gentrification. Most of the time, gentrification is dominant racial group/lower racial group, straight people/queer people, or rich people/poor people. In this particular univers, the gentrification is Magical Animals/Human Beings.
There's a little girl, who I will, for the sake of argument, call Dorothy. Her father is sort of creepy, with the inappropriate bathing with small children and the depending way too much on his oldest daughter to take care of the younger children. Dorothy is especially close to one sister, whom I will call Glinda. Anyway, they live out in the sticks together. They have some human neighbors they aren't very close to, but they know them enough to say hi or borrow the Japanese equivalent of a cup of sugar.
One day, while waiting for her dad to come home from work, Dorothy notices there are New People in the neighborhood. Specifically, there is a giant hamster! And he is waiting to catch the Catbus! Understandably, Dorothy is totally freaked out by her new, magical animal neighbors. The magical animals are not very friendly. I mean, they smile at you, but it's a very creepy smile. Mostly people try to stay out of their way.
There are rumors about the magical animals eating kids, but everybody knows that anytime "new people" show up, somebody polishes off the blood libel to apply it to them. So, Dorothy, being a sensible girl, completely ignores the warning.
Unfortunately, Dorothy doesn't find out that the Magical Animals send Tribble Scouts into people's homes, looking for tasty young children to eat, until after her sister Glinda is eaten by the Catbus. Dorothy goes looking for her sister, but gets eaten by the hamster.
I'm going to guess the rest of the series is about Dorothy's creepy dad and the old neighbor lady trying to get the police to avenge the deaths of these two kids, but the police brushing them off because, really, we don't want to cause trouble with the magical animals. Probably (say the police) Dorothy just ran off with her sister Glinda to go make their fortunes in Emerald City.
Eventually, Dorothy's Dad and the old neighbor lady wll get married, drawn together by their adversity and battle against the child-eating magical animals.
Stranger 7
All I knew about this fandom was:
(did not specify)
Here's what this fandom is really about:
Worst. Meteorologist. Ever.