ricepikachu asked: It's not that hard to deny something during an interview as to not ruin the childhood idea of the movie. There's way too many coincidences in the movie as the incident, like the EXACT location of the hospital, & the "Giant raccoon monster" & "giant cat monster" the older sister "saw" after her sister died. As to the Turkish bathhouse one, look it up, it's not as "accurate" or "coincidental" as Totoro but you can see it.

You very well could be right, BUT your argument here is, “there’s just so much coincidence!!” Well, um. Okay, but also coincidentally as a filmmaker Miyazaki, hasn’t made any other lighthearted films contrasted against a horror backdrop. I’m saying, if this happened with a bunch of his other films, then yeah, that’s probably true. Coincidental, even. But they don’t. His films tend to all have a motif of feminism and environmentalism. True, this is an early film for Miyazaki and maybe it was different from the others… but if a creative says his own work is or isn’t in reference to something, I tend to believe what they say. I don’t think either of us can be proven or disproven on this one. Reasonable? Personally I’m going to continue to take it for what it is for my own enjoyment of the film—maybe you enjoy yours better your way. That’s OK too.