Today marks the 30th anniversary of two of Studio Ghibli's most acclaimed movies, My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies. The two were offered as a double bill in Japanese theaters, which has always bemused and befuddled fans around the world.
My understanding of the whole saga is that Hayao Miyazaki wanted to create his movie but couldn't convince Tokuma Shoten (the owners of Studio Ghibli in those days) to finance the project. So he convinced Isao Takahata to create a film adaptation of the famous novel Grave of the Fireflies and then piggyback Totoro onto that.
It must have been an enormous strain on both the filmmakers and the studio's finances to create two feature animated films at the same time, but they successfully managed to release them on time (more or less). Unfortunately, the Japanese moviegoing public wasn't very interested that summer, or perhaps they just couldn't handle the emotional whiplash. I'd also like to think that Akira-mania also played a role, as the two Ghibli movies were radically different and didn't fit in with the times.
The Totoro/Fireflies double bill was a financial flop for the studio, their biggest until My Neighbors the Yamadas in 1999. Thankfully, Tokuma Shoten continued to support Miyazaki and Takahata and believed in them unconditionally, and Ghibli rebounded the following year with Kiki's Delivery Service, which became their first box-office hit.
Meanwhile, both Fireflies and Totoro would become widely respected classics over time, thanks to home video and a little thing called merchandising. Once the kids had Totoro toys and plushies to play with, and enough time to watch the videos over and over a million times, they came around. And the rest, as they say, is history.
