My Neighbour Totoro
In 1950s Japan, two girls, Satsuki and Mei, whose mother has been hospitalised with tuberculosis, relocate to a village in the countryside. Their new house, in which they live with their professor father, Tatsuo, is haunted with soot spirits, susuwatari, and they encounter Totoro, a "forest spirit who looks like the result of an experimental breeding programme involving a chinchilla, a barn owl and a bean-bag sofa". Mei is the first to discover him, and he comforts the girls with his presence.