Studio Ghibli Joins Efforts To Turn Real ‘Totoro’ Forest Into Nature Reserve

Image via Studio Ghibli / IMDb

Believe it or not, many of Studio Ghibli’s dreamscapes stem from the real world. The beloved animation studio and its co-founder Hayao Miyazaki are now giving back to one of their inspirations by helping to preserve the purity of the forest on which the mystical My Neighbor Totoro was based.

The lush forests that inspired this wonderland hail from the town of Tokorozawa, just north of Tokyo. This town has been the home of Miyazaki since 1970, so its wellbeing truly strikes a chord with him, SoraNews24 reports.

Now, Tokorozawa City mayor Masato Fujimoto has announced that 8.6 acres of land in the city’s rural Kaminoyama will be turned into a protected “urban green park,” as quoted by Crunchyroll. Understandably, this feat demands a fat budget; luckily, the government is getting some help from crowdfunding efforts and a personal contribution by Miyazaki himself.

Buying the land alone would cost about ¥2.6 billion (US$19.4 million). However, Miyazaki is dedicating ¥300 million (US$2.2 million) to the project, with the Tokorozawa government footing ¥1.8 billion (US$13.5 million) of the bill.

Seibu Lily Garden in Tokorozawa City. Image via Lily / Lilium /  Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki will also head a donation campaign to help pay for the conservation initiative. The animation studio is selling My Neighbor Totoro paintings and production materials from the film to raise funds, and it’s opening up this offer to both locals and fans living outside the city.

The site is currently home to 7,000 trees, and it’s about to become more enchanting.

[via SoraNews24 and Crunchyroll, images via various sources]