In the world of My Neighbor Totoro, Giri and Ninjo affects the movie in different perspectives of the two girls, mei and satsuki. It's a movie of childhood as well as adulthood in life, and in fantasy. The most important transition in the world is, transitioning from a child to an adult. This movie uncaps the unimaginable ways that bend the rules of reality to make you understand the ways a person can change their look on life and its understandings. Totoro is a character that will make you want to be a child again, to escape the adult world and relive your childhood days forever.

Adults in society are trained in ways to be the best and do your greatest everyday at work. Being accepted is the most awarding thing for an adult in the workforce and in society, the pressure of being accepted makes people work harder, wanting great things for them in the near future. The term Giri comes from Japanese language, a term used for adults. Giri means socially intimate, you are connected socially and adult wise. Giri is the ways you should act when your an adult, if you do not then being socially accepted should not be on your list, so grow up fast or things will not come as easy for you.

Children have imaginations that expand so widely, its hard not to join in on the fun. As a child we are all gullible, we hear things and we immediately listen and do as we are told or believe what we are told. Ninjo is also a Japanese term from the language. The term is meant as natural feelings, more like children, they have natural feelings about things. Some children do not understand what is being said or being done, they do not know how to react to certain things in life, they don't know how it is to be grown up. Some things may seem otherworldly to them when adulthood is being explained, they do not understand just yet, so they are afraid yet not connected to the whole emotional side of adulthood.

Giri and Ninjo are both the opposite of the other, what one does it completely reinforces the other. Giri is being all about being an adult, and Ninjo is all about expressing yourself and getting into an adventure. Satsuki and Mei are both the opposite at some point, but their lives start to change when their mother is in the hospital. The event makes Mei question what Giri is like, and it makes Satsuki question what Giri is like when they meet Totoro. Mei is seen as adventurous, not a care in the world, as if shes completely oblivious to what is happening to her mom. She doesn't want to understand towards the part when Satsuki tells her about the news of her mom being ill once again in the hospital, she doesn't want to hear it because the thought of losing her mother scares her. Thats where Totoro comes in and makes things seem alright, he makes things seem better for her. Totoro is like her playground friend that will make her forget, something that she can talk to.

Satsuki in the movie is making her transition into the young woman she can be. Shes out making friends, including Totoro, has somewhat of a crush on Kanta, and is acting like a mother to Mei. She makes food for the family and acts as if everything will be alright. Her whole view on life changes when she actually sees Totoro for the first time at the bus stop. She offers Totoro her fathers umbrella because it is raining, she doesn't believe she sees Totoro, she lets her Giri guard down and believes for those moments that she is with Totoro and her sister that she still has a part of Ninjo inside of her.