Susuwatari

Susuwatari (Japanese ススワタリ,煤渡り; "wandering soot"), also called Makkuro kurosuke (まっくろくろすけ; "makkuro" meaning "pitch black", and "～suke" being a common ending for boys names), is the name of a fictitious yōkai which was devised by Hayao Miyazaki, drawn by Studio Ghibli, known from the famous anime-productions My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away where, in the former, they are identified as "black soots" in early subtitles, as "dust bunnies" in the Streamline Pictures English dub, and as "soot sprites" or "gremlins" in the Walt Disney Studios English dubbed version.

Description

Susuwatari are described and shown as tennis ball-sized, pitch-black and fuzzy-haired beings with two large eyes and long, thin legs.

My Neighbor Totoro

In My Neighbor Totoro, the house the main characters move into is full of Susuwatari, which are rationalized as Makkuro Kurosuke, an optical illusion caused by moving quickly from light into darkness. Seeing that the family is composed of good people, the Susuwatari leave the house to move to another abandoned area.