Miyazaki’s Soot Balls in Real Life
Have you watched My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki? If you have, you know what I’m talking about when I say that these hatpin urchins look just like his soot balls!
Urchins can come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colours and patterns. These long-spined hatpin urchins are more formally referred to as Diadema Savignyi and are found in the Indo-Pacific — Africa to the South Pacific. During the day, these urchins hide in the shade. They come out at night to hunt for small invertibrates along reefs. Though they’re not poisonous, they are prickly. I’ve been told that if you try to attack one you’ll not only be pricked, but the urchin’s spike will break off and potentially cause more pain by getting stuck in your muscle or vein. I’m not sure if this is true but I’m not about to try something stupid to find out.
Interesting factoid: You can tell one species of long-spined urchin from the next by the coloured rings around the anus and the stripes (or lack of stripes) along its prickly parts.
What I learned at the Vancouver Aquarium: Not to use flash when taking a picture of the species tag (it reflects off the plastic) so I don’t spend so much time trying to figure out which urchin I took a picture of. 
Oh, I’ve been wanting to watch My Neighbour (Aussie speak includes a ‘u’!) Totoro, but I can’t find it in my local Blockbuster Video. I’ve seen Spirited Away though, which has soot balls in it! They’re awesome little fellows. But I think the soot balls look more friendly than the guys in your picture!
As a side note, you finally got my vote on the official TQ site! About time they sorted the glitch out. Good luck!
Hooray!! Thanks Belinda
Have you watched Howl’s Moving Castle? I’ve watched most of Miyazaki’s movies and the only one I didn’t like was ‘Only Yesterday’.
I really want to watch his latest movie (Ponyo on a Cliff) but it’s not playing here.
I was fortunate enough to see Howl’s Moving Castle at the cinema. Anime at the cinema is practically unheard of here, so I figured that it had earned some pretty big credits overseas. When I heard that it was made by the same fellow who did Spirited Away, I had to go see it. I love both of those films now.
I also saw Princess Mononoke recently (Blockbuster finally got a copy) and that was pretty good too. 
I haven’t seen his other flicks yet because they’re so hard to find, but I have seen the other big animes like Akira, Spriggan and Ghost in the Shell (though not as child friendly!). 
Yays to another fan of Miyazaki!