Nekobasu Pattern

Well my sister is settling in at her new home in Japan very well and got to enjoy a beach festival this past weekend with some of her associates. In honor of her new adventure, I thought we could keep in theme with anime patterns. This pattern is for the cat bus in My Neighbor Totoro (doubly appropriate as my sister lives in Miyazaki-ken, and Hayao Miyazaki is the director of My Neighbor Totoro and other Studio Ghibli films...Miyazai-ken and Miyazaki-san are unrelated however lol).

Now, if you are not familiar wit My Neighbor Totoro or Studio Ghibli, allow me to educate you. Studio Ghibli is an animation film studio in Japan and they create some of the best anime I've seen and some of the more popular titles in the United States*. The artwork is beautiful and very recognizable. They also frequently team up with composer Joe Hisaishi for equally beautiful soundtracks. Many of the animated films are based on legends, and a few of the more recent ones are based on books (e.g. Howl's Moving Castle and Arriety/The Borrowers). The stories are uplifting and perfect for children and adults to enjoy.

Now, as for the movie My Neighbor Totoro...This is such a sweet fantasy movie. Two young girls and their father move to the country side to be close to their mother who is in the hospital for a long-term illness. They end up living in an old house and soon encounter the friendly forest spirits, Totoro being one of them. One day the younger sister goes missing and Totoro helps the older sister find her. Then he brings them to see how their mother is doing via the nekobasu.

Now that I have strayed slightly from the original purpose of this post, I suppose it is only fair I provide you with that pattern link n_~ Sojala over at Amigurumi Freely has designed a wonderful nekobasu. The pattern is a bit complicated as you will be making many parts and some plastic canvas is needed to retain the shape. However, I totally think he is worth the work and I plan to make one in the future, complete with Totoro and Mei to sit inside n_n

(c) sojala www.amigurumitogo.com

Click the image above for the link to the pattern.

*Studio Ghibli also had a hand in the PS3 video game Ni No Kuni. Level-5 teamed up with Studio Ghibli who provided the animation and Joe Hisaishi who provided the music. It is a beautiful game and a wonderful JRPG with great mechanics.