The village from My Neighbor Totoro finds new life as an incredibly detailed Minecraft map, transporting builders the quiet post-war Japan that Hayao Miyazaki so brilliantly imagines in his 1988 animated classic. Minecraft creator Alan Becker weaves clips from the film in with his renderings of the Kusakabe house, Totoro’s den, and the Catbus, showing off how spot-on his Minecraft builds truly are.
Fans can actually explore the Miyazaki-inspired world that Becker built, since he’s provided the server address in the video’s description. Becker is also working on incredibly detailed builds of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, all of which are connected in a larger complex Becker calls Ghibli World. Fans who remember the Studio Ghibli World theme park concept an artist designed last year will be excited at the prospect of a unified Ghibliverse that’s actually going to happen.
Becker’s pure ingenuity sets his Minecraft builds apart from others’ creations. He uses the game’s modular mechanics to make Miyazaki’s magical elements real: just listen to the way he uses rising water to make the bathhouse from Spirited Away undergo its day-to-night transformation in this video. Becker’s demonstration of the film isn’t as polished as My Neighbor Totoro quite yet, but based on his progress, Ghibli fans have a lot to be excited about.