Who is the kid on the DVD cover of Totoro?

So I went to the Ghibli Blog, whose site owner Daniel Maclnnes takes great care in explaining the histories of many Studio Ghibli works.

I remembered that the film was originally going to be about one girl instead of two and that perhaps this particular DVD poster and/or original Japanese teaser poster came out before those changes were made, making it promotional spin off of concept art, but the Ghibli Blog confirms the idea that story was originally about just one girl...

We already know the story, but let's sing along one more time: Miyazaki conceived of My Neighbor Totoro during the production of Isao Takahata's masterful 1976 TV series, 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother. He continued to develop the story idea, but was never able to secure funding for an anime project. Years later, Totoro was finally given the green light, by which time Miyazaki had matured considerably as an artist and filmmaker, and the 1988 Studio Ghibli Totoro would be different in many ways. Yet the core of these lovable characters can still be found in these original image boards.

How fascinating that the iconic image of Totoro at the bus stop was such an early idea. Here was a revelation that was already present in embryonic form. Here, the three Totoros remain the same, unchanged. The boy, Kanta, is present as well; what role he was intended to play is not clear, but I suspect he would have had a larger role. The big difference is the little girl - only one, not two. This character appears the most fluid. Miyazaki is still changing her around, with different hairstyles and facial expressions. Who she is and where she fits in remains a mystery at this point, but it's conceivable that she would follow in the mold of Pipi Longstockings and Mimi, the girl from Panda Kopanda.

Note: That there is more concept art at the link provided. I also read that one of the Totoro DVD Commentaries talks about this some more along with the Totoro art book the Ghibli Blog is referencing. In addition the main character's name was going to be Satsuki (just like the character that remains), which is the Japanese "traditional" name for May. Mei comes from Chinese and means "beautiful", but the homophonic sound of "Mei" is May!