Nekobus

Overview

Nekobus, also known as the Cat Bus, is a spirit creature featured in the animated film My Neighbor Totoro. Resembling a strange fusion between a giant cat and a transit vehicle, it is a shapeshifting spirit that adapted its form over time to match human transportation. It plays a pivotal role in the story as an extraordinarily fast and magical means of transit.

Appearance

Nekobus features yellow fur covered with broad brown tiger stripes and a body structure combining a cat's face with the front of a bonnet bus. It possesses six pairs of legs, totaling twelve. Its large yellow eyes serve as headlights, while red-eyed mice on both sides of its forehead act as marker lamps illuminating the destination sign, and mice near its tail function as red tail lights. Its hollow back forms a passenger compartment lined with fur seating and flooring. When passengers enter or leave, one of its left windows expands to form a doorway. Viewed from behind, it shows male physical characteristics.

Personality

Nekobus displays a cheerful, expressive, and playful demeanor, frequently showing a broad, wide-mouthed grin. It exhibits a helpful and accommodating attitude toward passengers, readily taking in those in need and carrying them safely to their destinations with a friendly spirit.

Abilities

Nekobus possesses immense running speed, travelling through dense forests as trees dodge out of its way. It can run along high-voltage power lines atop steel towers without electrocution. Invisible to ordinary humans, who perceive its passage only as a sudden gust of wind, it can be seen by animals like dogs and birds. It can dynamically resize its left boarding window to accommodate passengers of any size. Its forehead rollsign can change destinations to locations such as Tsukamori, Ushinuma, Mei, and Shichikokuyama Hospital. Additionally, it can leap into the air and fly away into the night sky.

Background

Originally a bakeneko (monster cat) that mimicked human conveyances, it used to transform into a palanquin in earlier eras before taking on the shape of a bus in modern times. In My Neighbor Totoro, Totoro summons Nekobus to help Kusakabe Satsuki find her lost younger sister, Kusakabe Mei. Changing its sign to "Mei", it takes Satsuki to her sister and then transports both girls to Shichikokuyama Hospital where their mother is staying, before vanishing into the night.

Relationships

Nekobus shares a strong accord with Totoro, coming promptly whenever summoned. It serves as a vital helper to Kusakabe Satsuki and Kusakabe Mei by transporting them across long distances. Related spirits appearing in expanded works include its child form, Konekubas, and an elder figure named Neko-baachan.

Trivia

Director Hayao Miyazaki explained that because Japanese spirits love new things, the creature updated its disguise from a palanquin to a modern bus. Its iconic broad grin and vanishing act pay homage to the Cheshire Cat from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The destination "Ushinuma" corresponds to a real place in Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture, while the sign for "Shichikokuyama Hospital" features inverted kanji characters. At Ghibli Park, real passenger-carrying electric vehicles modeled after Nekobus are in operation.