In the aftermath of a World War II bombing, two orphaned children struggle to survive in the Japanese
countryside. To Seita and his four-year-old sister, the helplessness and indifference of their
countrymen is even more painful than the enemy raids. Through desperation, hunger and grief, these
children's lives are as heartbreakingly fragile as their spirit and love is inspiring.
(Source: Sentai Filmworks)
Many anime fans hold studio Ghibli in revere. It would be no lie to say that Ghibli has played a large role in defining anime. But because of the massive success of studio Ghibli in becoming a household name, many fans view their films through rose tinted glasses of nostalgia and ignore fatal flaws. While Grave of the Fireflies may at first seem like a tragic story of a brother and sister struggling to survive during WWII, the tragedy could have been totally avoided by one simple decision. __Story:__(2/10) The story follows Seita and his sister Setsuko after they survive a air strike that destroys their town and leaves them orphaned. The rest of the story follows the pair as they struggle to survive in the harsh world of WWII Japan...is what I'd like to say but unfortunately there is a fatal flaw in this story that was too big for me to get over. ~!After being orphaned, Seito and Setsuko are taken in by their aunt. Despite how she is portrayed she is actually a very kind woman. She takes in the pair when they have nowhere else to go, puts a roof over their head and food in their belly. But as time goes on and food becomes harder to come by she starts being a little harder on Seito as he shows no desire of finding a job and instead spends all his days playing with his sister. Eventually Seito gets tired of his aunts insults and decides to take his sister and move into a literal hole in the ground. And even as he and his sister slowly start starving to death he refuses to go back because of his hurt pride. If neither of them had a place to go to from the start this story might have been better, but the constant knowledge that this tragedy could have been avoided is what killed this film.!~ __Characters:__ (3/10) The story mainly focuses around Seito as he tries to care for his little sister, but for all they tried to portray a caring and loving brother it was a horrendous failure. ~!Because of Seito's inability to overcome his hurt pride and return to his aunt, he killed his sister. No matter how you want to look at it, even though he seemed to love his sister, his selfishness lead to her demise!~. Setsuko on the other hand was a perfectly great character. Ghibli really knocked it out of the park in portraying a small child and saved this film from getting a lower score in characters. __Visuals:__(8/10) As expected of a Ghibli film the visuals were top notch. The attention to detail is stunning and there are some truly gorgeous scenes even by modern animation standards. __Audio:__(8/10) Also no surprise from Ghilbli the soundtrack was fantastic.There is no real standout song to be found in this movie but the back-round music/sound was well suited to enhancing the atmosphere. __Enjoyment:__ (3/10) In the end I couldn't get over the story. Sure Grave of the Fireflies looks and sounds amazing, but because of the reasons listed when I reviewed the story and characters I honestly feel like this is a story that shouldn't exist.
It’s World War 2, the country of Japan is in peril, and siblings Setsuko and Seita have just been orphaned by an American air strike that mortally wounded their mother. With their father away in the Navy, they’ve been forced to rely on each other, and the valiant Seita will stoop to the lowest possible level to take care of his younger sister, who’s still a very small child, and who understandably doesn’t have the strength to deal with the cruel burden that’s been placed on their young shoulders. The only spark of hope they’ve been able to find lies within the home of their aunt, who takes them in under the assumption that she’s only holding them temporarily until their mother gets out of the hospital, but is dismayed to learn she’s just taken on two new mouths for the long-haul. When the two siblings decide they’re tired of her nagging and strike out on their own, will the bond between them be enough to sustain them, or will they find out that they’ve made a fatal mistake? For the conclusion of Studio Ghibli month, we’re back to Isao Takahata, whom I previously discussed in my review of Only Yesterday. I said in that review that his visual style is vastly different from Miyazaki’s, and Grave of the Fireflies takes that difference even further. The characters skew more towards realism than I’ve ever seen in an anime before, with almost all of the medium’s most pronounced visual tropes thrown right out the door. It’s long been speculated that the Japanese draw their characters to not look Japanese, and you’d honestly be surprised by the amount of Western influence that went into the medium ever since it began, but Fireflies is designed purely with the Japanese people in mind, which is good, because this movie is telling a story from Japanese history. The character’s eyes are slightly bigger than normal, but they’re a serious downgrade from what you’d normally see in an anime, and that even applies to the toddler character, who’d normally be the exception in any other title. Normally, even if the adult and teenage characters were drawn to some semblance of a realistic scale, the children would at least be made to look cuter and more moe-like than the adults, but no, Setsuko looks and moves like an actual little kid, with no attempts being made to make her more appealing to the audience, and considering the ways that she gets presented to us towards the end of the film, that’s all for the better. With older characters, at worst, I can say that their features look a bit exaggerated, in regards to their bone structures and skin tone, but they look more like subtle caricatures than actual anime characters. I saw shades of this in the Ogino family from Spirited Away and the present day portions of Only Yesterday, but this movie went entirely in that direction, and while Takahata isn’t really an animator himself, I can definitely see this being the direction he wanted to take it. This design choice was really the only way to present the more grizzly images in the film, which surely helped it to avoid looking as weird and off-putting as Barefoot Gen did while exploring similar subject matter. The animation is fluid and character movements are graceful, but perhaps a bit restrained, which was probably done so in the pursuit of further realism. That, or they didn’t want any moments of stunning visuals to distract viewers from the story, or to lighten it’s intentionally heavy and tragic tone. I can oddly respect this, as even though it feels like they were holding back a bit, it was done in a ‘less is more; kind of way. That’s not to say that there aren’t big moments where the animation shines… Seita fleeing from his village with Setsuko on his back during an air raid comes to mind… But the animation really isn’t what you remember from scenes like that, it just does it’s part to tell the story. Actually, you’re more likely to remember the slower animation used in moments of mundane life, like the characters eating, or all of Setsuko’s extra little childlike quirks. The actual artwork is gorgeous, even if the sky feels stiff and frozen at times, and the use of lighting and shading is just masterful, with the use of the color red in particular being noteworthy. The same goes for the music, which mostly hides in the background and stays safely out of the way, ll while supporting the story on an emotional and thematic level, but still deserves a ton of praise once you actually start listening to it. Well, most of it’s hard to notice, but the first one isn’t. Right off the bat, they dipped into what I assume was the public domain at the time(it definitely is now), pulling a 1920’s recording of Amelita Galli-Church, an Italian opera singer, singing There’s no Place Like Home, which is played over the main character keeling over and dying from starvation before getting disposed of by municipal workers as though dead children were as commonplace as dead bugs… Which they sadly were at the time. It’s a sad enough choice on the surface, as even though most viewers probably couldn’t identify the song due to it being sung in Italian(I know I couldn’t), but once you know the song, and once you know the lyrics, it just becomes the most soul crushing thing ever, and possibly even the most soul crushing opening song in movie history. Oh, and it also plays at the end, mirroring the bookend that was Setsuko and Seita’s fate.. But like I said, the rest of the music is a little easy to miss. There are several tunes that sound a bit generic, like they came out of a child’s music box, but they’re used in the film to accentuate moments where the two siblings are bonding and trying to find joy in each others company, cheering each other up and supporting each other in times of hopelessness. For more obviously sad moments, we have tunes like the slow violin piece Two People, which is drawn out in just the right way, with every stroke of the bow, to underscore the scene. Rather than any of the usual Studio Ghibli music composers, Grave of the Fireflies used Michio Mamiya, a man who’s career strangely doesn’t seem to have any other titles in it that most Westerners would recognize, and this was also the last piece of media he ever composed for. I can’t say he’s the best composer I’ve ever heard in an anime, but he did a fantastic job here, and it would be nice to track down some of his other projects, two of which Isao Takahata also directed. So, I didn’t know this until I started writing this review, but there are two English dubs of this movie. That may not sound surprising, as several of the films in Ghibli’s library have been dubbed twice, but what makes this one stand out is probably the fact that neither dub was done by Disney. The original was a Central Park Media effort, and it was all right, but a little hit and miss. There are a few notable names like Crispin Freeman and Veronica Taylor thrown in, and they do great, and Amy Jones does a phenomenal job as the kids’ burdensome aunt. Seita was played by J Robert Spencer, a stage actor who only ever had this as his one voice role, and he did okay for the most part, but there are a few lines throughout where he sounds a bit too disingenuous with what he’s saying. There are even some exchanges he has with Satsuko that sound kind of condescending, which I know is the point when you’re talking to a little kid sometimes, but it just doesn’t always feel close or loving. Speaking of Setsuko, they had an older woman named Corinne Orr, who was around sixty at the time, and she sounds like her performance was ripped out of the Higurashi dub. It’s pretty bad. Remember when I told you in my Spirited Away review that Chihiro had a better actor in Japanese, but sounded more believably childlike in English? Yeah, this version of Setsuko had neither of those advantages. I won’t say too much about the new Sentai dub, as I’ve only seen a few clips of it so far, but Emily Neves is one of the most talented voice actors in the field today, and she does a much better job playing the role, and the rest of the cast… Rounded out by Sentai house veterans Shelley Callene-black and Marcy Bannor, both of whom at least sound like they’d be the perfect choices… So if you’re going to watch this movie in English, the Sentai dub is probably the way to go, but I’d still have to recommend the Japanese, and not just because of historical authenticity. Believe it or not, Setsuko and Seita were played by actual children back then, and they did a beautiful job, despite the horrifying events they had to portray. And speaking of those horrifying events, this film comes with a bit of a reputation, doesn’t it? It’s not uncommon to hear Grave of the Fireflies brought up in discussions regarding not only the most depressing anime of all time, but the most depressing films in general. It’s reputation precedes it so badly that people often hesitate to watch it, weary of the emotional damage it might do to them, and even afterwards, calling it the best movie that they’ll never want to watch again. Now, you know how I feel about tear-jerkers. I’m about as cynical as a critic can get, and I’ve slammed popular ‘sad’ anime titles in the past, calling them manipulative tragedy porn, and arguing against the claims of power placed upon them by fans whom I strongly disagreed with. Having said that, I actually brought up Grave of the Fireflies as an example of what those titles did wrong, and I’m more than happy to defend it after having thrown those other titles under the bus, so what’s so different about this tear-jerker? Why does it get a pass? Well, to understand why I hold this film in such high regard, you have to first go through it’s many layers. The first layer is on the surface, where it is certainly a sad film, but it’s the way it’s executed that sets it apart. The tragic events aren’t just random occurrences where popular or beloved characters get thrown to the wolves for the sake of eliciting tears. There are reasons for the tragic things that happen, and they’re not sudden twists of fate. They’re rooted in the flaws of the characters in question, and reasons why they’d make the choices they make, and they’re the kinds of choices where you just have to scream “No! Don’t do it!” at the screen, even though you can’t guarantee that in the same situation, you wouldn’t make the same mistakes they do. They also straight up tell you right in the beginning of the movie that Setsuko and Seita will die by the end, which could have ruined everything by making their deaths predictable, but their fate was never meant to be a surprise… Rather, the whole movie is structured in such a way that knowing they die just makes the rest of the film an experience in finding out why, as every little detail building towards it just confirms what you already hoped wasn’t true. So the story, on it’s own merits, is written really well. The foreshadowing is heavy, but still subtle, and it’s use of fireflies as symbolism for the temporary nature of life is powerful, and at the very least, the characters are compelling in their struggle to survive… They even get their own arcs, some rather short(IE their mother and aunt), but Setsuko’s arc of her declining health and Seita’s arc of his refusal to surrender to the inevitable, both of which are very well written… Honestly, you might be surprised by the second layer, a fact that’s not too unknown, that this story is mostly autobiographical. Almost all of this story, obviously excluding Seita’s death, is based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s personal experiences, and how he blamed himself for the death of his sister during the final years of World War 2. He wrote the novel as an apology to his sister, and most likely as a way to deal with the survivor’s guilt that he suffered from, which is why Seita makes so many bad decisions throughout the story, and his attempts to care for his sister on his own result in her untimely passing, followed by his own, which could almost be seen as a metaphor for the caustic nature of Japan’s unwillingness to surrender to the US, but that’s not what Takahata saw in it. For the final layer, we’re going to have to dispel another popular hot take, that the film is intended to carry an anti-war message. Now, war is never mentioned as the cause of Seita or Setsuko’s deaths. Sure, there are some parallels between Seita and Japan at the time, and war definitely killed their mother, but the two main characters probably would have pulled through if they’d compromised, sucked it up, and stayed with their aunt, whose only real crime was not stopping them from leaving. On top of this, Isao Takahata had gone out of his way on multiple occasions to reiterate his stance that this film was never meant to be a condemnation of war, and yeah, I know, I’ve argued that the intent of a creator doesn’t negate the interpretation of the viewer… I once discussed this in a very clumsy post about WKUK’s The Grapist, long before I actually knew that The Death of the Author was an actual, existing concept… So you can read the film however you want, and your interpretation is valid, but Takahata actually had his own clear intention for the film. The final layer is Isao Takahata’s actual intention with the film, which is the reason he felt the life story of a World War 2 survivor needed to be told when it did. If you’re looking through IMDB trivia on this movie, you might find a little summary about his actual intention, which was to convey that Seita and Setsuko were living a failed life due to their isolation from society, and if you were to look a little deeper into his words, you’ll find that this message was specifically tailored to the youth of Japan during the late eighties, who were experiencing a rise in crime and juvenile delinquency like no other in the country’s history. The economy was booming, and the younger generation had no respect or willingness to understand what the older generation had to go through to create that bubble for them, and a lot of them were making the same kinds of choices that Seita had… Fuck those uptight geezers, we can make it on our own! And just like with Seita, this attitude didn’t really work out for anyone, as it led to crime, violence, gangs… This is the crime wave that inspired the movie Akira, if you can believe it. Takahata’s message to the youth of his generation was that periods like this don’t last forever. You don’t understand where the good times you’re living in came from, you don’t know what people had to live through to establish them, and if you take them for granted instead of working to preserve them, they’ll go away. This is why Seita and Setsuko, as spirits, look out over the horizon of the modern cityscape. This is why the symbolism of fireflies, and all of the decisions that Seita made, were so important. Because Takahata was right, and just a few short years later, the Japanese economy crashed, resulting in a depression that famously saw the nation’s GDP drop by nearly one trillion dollars. This movie is thus firmly a product of it’s times, but on the other hand, the story is told in such a way that it’s somehow still timeless, as the ideas it presents can be applied to any situation where one person, or a group of people, let their pride get the better of them and refuse to accept help. The saddest thing about this movie, to me, isn’t the death scenes, or the portrayal of war. The saddest thing about it is the fact that most people who watch it say they only ever want to watch it once. I mean, yeah, I get that the material might have been too intense, or that the characters might not have been all that relatable to some of you, but if there’s any movie that deserves to be viewed multiple times, it’s this one. It was important when it was released, and it’s just as important now, as it tells the kind of story that very few other titles would ever be willing to tell… The story where, no matter how hard you fight, no matter how much of your pride is on the line, sometimes it’s better to give in, to settle, and to eat shit and like the taste, for the sake of preserving what’s precious to you. I don’t normally see realism as a mark of quality, but this is realism done right, with no attempts to manipulate the audience beyond the simple message it tries to convey, and it used its themes and symbols so well that they’ve survived in the medium through homages ever since. Grave of the Fireflies was originally available from Central Park Media, but is now widely available on bluray and DVD by Sentai filmworks. I’m pretty sure it’s the only title from Ghibli to not be currently owned by Gkids, but don’t quote me on that. There’s also a 17-movie DVD collection floating around online that’s gained an absurd amount of popularity on Facebook, but trust me, it’s a Malaysian bootleg, your mileage of which may vary. The original short story by Akiyuki Nosaka is not available in English, nor is the live action remake from 2005. If you’re looking for an anime that specifically explores the famous atomic bombings, then check out Barefoot Gen. You may remember me stating in a previous review that I’m not a huge fan of Studio Ghibli, as the majority of their work doesn’t really speak to me. I mentioned that I only really loved four of them, and after Only Yesterday and My Neighbor Totoro, this is absolutely a member of that list. It’s not my personal favorite, but it’s one of the only two Ghibli films that I’d feel confidant in calling a masterpiece. Aside from it’s cultural relevance, timeless story, important social commentary and powerful emotional resonance, it’s just not like any other movie there is. It’s not the first movie to not have a true villain, nor is it the first movie to showcase the dangers of pride and hubris, but it’s easily the only movie I’ve ever seen that’s able to deconstruct the same values that would be noble or inspirational in any other movie and put a more realistic spin on them, with such a frank depiction of how they would turn out. I’ve heard people criticize it for being emotionally manipulative tragedy porn, but i’d have to respectfully disagree. I give Grave of the Fireflies a 10/10.
>"Only the dead see the end of the war" -Plato Throughout the movie we experience the every day lives of war victims, Seita and Setsuko, and their challenge to survive after losing their mom and home to an American bombardment. On a surface level the movie is a heartbreaking tale of civilians suffering because of the cruelty of man kind. However, through further inspection the movie reveals itself to be a detailed inspection of humanity's tendency to wage war on itself. img(http://www.sitemason.com/files/rsWXOo/GraveOfTheFirefliesweb.jpg/main.jpg) __~~~Spoilers Ahead~~~__ # Story and Characters This movie is strictly emotional. it focuses just slightly on the events that shape the world the movie takes place in. Instead it expects the viewer to have some kind of reaction to the events and characters. This is the result of clever screenwriting. The reason the tear-jerking ending and cheerful scenes work so well is because the viewer is dragged into this situation and experiences the effects of war first hand. img(https://i.gyazo.com/675850827ef6d14d204555071da60586.jpg) The merging of daily life and misfortune, as portrayed in the beach scene were Setsuko finds a dead body after going swimming, is what makes this movie one of the most realistic war dramas. It is not an action-packed movie that focuses on building tension like _Dunkirk_. Not that there is any problem with taking your movie in that direction, but sometimes it can give a false account of how war really is. At no point is war idolized nor glorified. This adds to the emotional impact of the movie as the viewer can easily imagine himself in a similar situation. The first act does a good job of creating a bond between the two children and the viewer. We never know who they were before the war, but it doesn't really matter. Their home and mother are taken away from them mercilessly during the very beginning of the movie. Because the viewer sees the main protagonists in their most vulnerable state, and the fact that they are children, the empathy the viewer feels for them is increased. Without this foundation the rest of the movie would fall apart, this sort of exposition is needed so the viewer can have some form of emotional response to the succeeding events. This lack of character development is often criticized. Although many characters in the movie are superficial and one dimensional, this doesn't decrease the quality of the writing. The fact that the movie doesn't focus on characterization as much as other war dramas helps it differentiate itself from the rest. Other movies like _Full Metal Jacket_ and _Saving Private Ryan_ have an approach similar to that of a character study. In _The Grave of the Fireflies_ the writers focus on tackling broader concepts and emotions such as pride, grief, conflict, selfishness, and even the ethics of war. And it does this expertly through well thought character actions, even if these characters have little to no personality of their own. Even with very simple characters a metacontextual level of storytelling can be experienced in _The Grave of the Fireflies_. This can be best explained through the false sense of security that is created from the very beginning. The viewers expectations of a gritty war movie are quickly shattered during the first thirty minutes of the movie. This motive adds a dynamic element to the pace of the movie. A sort of parallelism between the characters experiencing war and the viewer experiencing the movie is created as our expectations are subverted as well as theirs. We expected explosives to crash into earth, but only a few torches fell down (this is in reference to one of the opening scenes). However, fire bombing is just as dangerous as a carpet bombing can be. Even though our characters/viewers survived the initial bombardment, they still suffered the psychological trauma of the city burning down. The viewer experiences this by watching a lighthearted (for a war drama) first and second act and then watching the death of Seita and Setsuko. We see the children play around, eat well, enjoy life with their aunt, and the death of their mother is avoided constantly. However, by the third act life turns into a daily struggle for these children. Ironically, war has already ended by now. img(https://theculturetrip.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/grave-of-the-fireflies-1200.gif) Apart from the metacontextual and emotional value that the movie has to offer, it still is a detailed analysis work by Studio Ghibli regarding the essence of conflict and war. Seita and Setsuko are not only the vessels for which the viewer can project themselves, they also serve as the personification the belligerent nature of man. They are two sides of the same coin. Seita is representative of pride, and Setsuko of naivety. They are also representative of Imperial Japan during the 1940s. Humanity often declares war on itself to achieve or prove something. However, the director proposes the question: is it worth it? Seita is an independent and strong willed young teenager. He is definitely someone worthy of recognition, as proven by his ability to take care of himself and his sister for so long. However, his pride and imperialistic view on life corrupted him and converted him into the cause of Setsuko's death. He could have asked his aunt for help, or gotten the money from the bank earlier, but he didn't. He instead decided to profit from the bombardments and steal from the local people. Some may propose these actions are justified since he was inexperienced and/or forced to do it due to the situation. These are the same reasons why humans go to war and kill each other. We are foolish and blinded by an idealism of "self-defense." It is here were naivety plays its role. Setsuko lived and died without ever understanding the war her country was involved in. In the same way we do not realize someone is on the receiving end of that artillery barrage. Everyone is a causality of war, there is no honor or good in it. And still we behave like children and raise our arms against each other. War did not bring glory nor fame to anyone, only suffering. Much like it happened to Setsuko and Seita, even if they never saw any real conflict. No one is able to escape the destructive power of war. It is through this dynamic between Setsuko and Seita that Studio Ghibli criticizes the decisions made by the Japanese army during World War II. Seita and his father, a navy general, are characterized as fanatics of the Great Japanese Army. Seita wishes to be like his father and often mentions how much he admires the navy. The director wants the viewer to see this type of behavior and challenge it. We should challenge the fanaticism that led Japan to join a nonsensical war, sacrifice its soldiers for the sake of honor, and for refusing to surrender after suffering several carpet bombings and even an atomic bomb. "War culture" as a whole is criticized in a similar way. Side characters are personifications of terrible behaviors we practice during times of adversity. The movie encourages us to challenge those who are too selfish to share their sugar canes. To challenges those who force others to support the army. To challenge those who hide in their mansions and turn a blind eye to the destruction just around the corner. To challenge those who disrespect the poor and make fun of their homes. (All of these can be seen represented by a side character in the movie). However, human behavior is not that black and white. The existence of good and evil is still uncertain. And the creators of the movie recognize this. In the same way we do not blame Seita for the death of Setsuko and instead blame the "enemy", whoever that my be, we shouldn't condemn the rest of the antagonists. We need to recognize that such a thing as grey morality exists. In reality none of the characters in the move are neither heroes nor villains. Seita is not a complete victim and he isn't perfect either; shouldn't he have helped in his aunt's house instead of relaxing and playing with his sister all the time? As well as the selfish aunt and townspeople aren't completely evil. The viewer should not blame either of them for Setsuko's death, since it would only be counterproductive. _The Grave of the Fireflies_ doesn't propose a solution to this dilemma nor human conflict, but it presents a new point of view to the table. img(http://moviemezzanine.com/wp-content/uploads/grave-27-1140x616.png) # Animation and Sound The movie looks and sounds incredible. There is no denying that Studio Ghibli has excellent quality. Character animation and movement is fluid and dynamic. Shot compositions are beautiful and never fail to impress the viewer. Character design is stellar, although they might not look so unique, Setsuko and Seita are iconic characters from Studiio Ghibi thanks to their creative costume design. The sound design is astonishing and the music is always a pleasure to listen to. The songs (and shot composition) increment the emotional response in most of the scenes.“Home! Sweet Home!” from John Howard Payne’s 1823 opera was an excellent choice by the sound designer for the flashback scenes. It takes the scene from being good to captivating. However the most impressive work done in the animation department would be the use of imagery to further develop the underlying themes in the movie. Seita and Setsuko were made children to represent the childish behavior that humans participate in during times of conflict. img(https://i.gyazo.com/19e56d360564f0db9d000ec152e27232.png) The almost burned down school symbolizes the moment our protagonists are stripped away from their innocence. This concept is further explored when Setsuko had to bury the fireflies. She was just a child and still had to bear with the death of her mother and had no time to mourn her. img(https://i.gyazo.com/574c79ec1c8cd77081af6c9e926f77c8.png) The unjust effects war has on those affected by it. img(https://i.gyazo.com/5db064e00b197162fde1710a87e7d975.png) The fake sense of honor that arrives from fighting in war. Also, there is various mentions and visual representation of kamikaze pilots, adding to the critique of Japanese fanaticism towards fighting in a war. Even with often childish and playful scenes it still represents the crude reality and danger of war. # Conclusion _The Grave of the Fireflies_ is a strong emotional roller coaster that is sure to impress audiences. It is at its core a war drama that deals with grief and the cruel reality of war and the challenges civilians face during times of conflict. It accomplishes this through expert writing, well-thought screenwriting, beautiful sound design, and astonishing animation. However, it is also an in depth analysis of Imperial Japan and the nature of war.
Spoilers. There is no way to properly review this movie without spoilers. That being said, I would urge anyone considering watching Grave of the Fireflies to avoid doing so. Here's why: This film is a perfect example of why reviews and recommendations are not the word of god and can often be wrong. With an 8.5/10 (as of writing this review) on both IMDB and MAL, you'd think this is something special, right? I first heard of this movie when a US veteran I know mentioned it as a "must see". Though he's a cool guy and I like him, it should be known that his service consisted of a few years stationed at some camp in a Louisiana swamp, and he did not see any combat. First, let me say what this film does alright/good. The story is a solid concept that could be molded into something much better than this turned out to be. The art is great, especially considering its age. Sadly, the artists put much more effort into this film than the writers. Here's where Grave of the Fireflies turns sour. Most of the film represents a young teenager in war-torn Japan during WWII "struggling" to keep him and his younger sister alive. The sister is a generic, energetic yet powerless and unstable child. Fairly realistic, but nothing interesting for a film. The brother, on the other hand, unrealistically matches his sister's infancy. He doesn't just play hide and seek every now and then to keep her entertained, he ONLY plays with his sister. As cities burn around him and the rest of his family is dying to support themselves, each other, or their country. This absolute bullshit and backwards-ass thinking kills himself and his sister, as they run out of food, money, and their health deteriorates. At no point did this perfectly capable and at one point healthy young man consider getting a job to afford food for himself and his sister. Early in the movie, their aunt and some other family provide the main characters a roof over their head, as their home town is reduced to ashes and both of their parents are dead as a doornail. Understandably they're currently struggling and family is there to help, right? They even get fed for some time, though the amount they get is slowly reduced as the aunt realizes this kid has absolutely ZERO aspirations to exert any effort. Obviously this teen with nothing in his name gives nothing in return. They don't even do so much as sweep the floors. Instead of realizing how big of a leech they're being on their family, they take their aunt's scolding as a personal insult to their dignity, and run away to live in a cave. They have some money (which they only got because they leeched it out of their dead mother's bank account), and buy small amounts of food from a farmer. This farmer, the only person with half a brain cell in the entire film, tells the brother to swallow his pride and apologize to his aunt, so he can have a roof over his head while he looks for a job. What does the brother do? Ignores this wisdom as if he didn't even know what words the farmer was uttering. The rest of the film is pretty repetitive. "Oh no brother I'm starving!", "Sorry sis, let's play!", "Oh shit she's starving pretty bad, I should steal food.", "Brother I'm still starving I'm gonna die oh no" It feels pointlessly depressing. Have you ever had a writing project in middle school or high school where you want to write something that sounds really cool but you also don't want to put in any effort and it's much more than what the assignment asks for anyways? Grave of the Fireflies feels like one of those projects. It's obvious the writers wanted to portray some kind of message, but there's no message to be found in the movie, besides don't be a lazy piece of shit and resort to thievery from honest, hardworking and struggling citizens because the thought of honest work never crossed your mind. Clearly that wasn't the intended message though. As for why I don't recommend watching this in the first place, like I said; it's pointlessly depressing. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, it's not going to make you cry, it's just going to make you frustrated and angry that people who mindlessly watched this film never paying attention to a single word of dialogue or story rated this a perfect 10/10 and told you to watch it because it's "so deep and sad dude!" and a "unique take on war!"
"September 21, 1945 ... that was the night I died." This is how this movie begins, with a few words your skin bristles and sadness increases. There is probably no sadder story than The Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka). Even if you are looking for something that compares you will not find it. The film is based on the author's story Akiyuki Nosaka published in 1967, which, in turn, is based on Nosaka's own experiences during the war. He confessed that The Grave of the Fireflies is a "lie" (fiction) and that he was not as kind to his sister as Seita was to her. The Japanese author, in fact, blames himself for his death; In one of his autobiographies, he confessed that he ate the food he should have shared, that he hit Seita's head to stop her from crying, and that he wrote The Grave of the Fireflies to honor his little sister and face the tremendous feeling of guilt that he had as a survivor. This movie is generally seen as an anti-war story, however Isao Takahata has denied it. According to his words, it is about the isolation of the two brothers and empathy towards youth. If it were against the war, many would think that war can only be avoided by showing the misfortunes caused, but the director does not think so. Don't expect a happy ending movie because it's not. from the first minute to the end you suffer. the animation? it's excellent. the plot? devastating. This story, unlike American movies, doesn't show Japan's war side, a feature I like to highlight. It is undoubtedly one of the saddest movies out there, but knowing that it has a real side is even more devastating. Wars have killed many innocents, including children. The real events behind the film are the Kobe bombings. I consider this film as a true masterpiece. The feelings of the protagonists are transmitted perfectly, causing devastation, helplessness, pain, hatred and nostalgia. The war leads Seita and Setsuko to create an autonomous world far from reality. One without electricity and full of black rains (the rains after nuclear bombs). And so the title; Like fireflies, the world that Seita and her sister Setsuko created is destined to shine and die. It is certainly a work that collapses the belief that animated cinema is only for children.
This admittedly is not a review of the film. If you want a solid review, you should look at Grassman's review (the top-voted review of this film on this website). This is instead a defense against one of the main criticisms of the film, the idea that there is a major flaw in the plot due to a decision made by the main character Seita. Honestly, your perception of the film will most likely depend on how you view this one "flaw", so I thought it would be useful to write a full article addressing it (along with a few other criticisms). Obviously, __this review contains spoliers__. # __The "flaw" in question__ The biggest criticism that I see regarding this film is the decision by Seita to leave his Aunt's house and live in a cave with his sister. This ultimately results not only in his death but also the death of his 4-year-old sister Setsuko. DrowZgam3r's review (the second-highest voted review) says it best, >If neither of them had a place to go to from the start this story might have been better, but the constant knowledge that this tragedy could have been avoided is what killed this film. Another reviewer from MAL also writes, >Thus, Seita is a completely callous, idiotic monster, responsible not only for his own death but the death of his sister as well. That's my first problem with "Grave of the Fireflies". That the main character is responsible for the entire tragedy that ensues. To these criticisms, I will say __"yes, that is the point of the film".__ The entire point of the film is that it was an avoidable tragedy. If Seita went back to her Aunt and begged for forgiveness they might have been able to live. Hell, if Seita decided to swallow his pride and not leave his Aunt's house, then they would have lived. But he decided not to, and that is the point of the film. #__Okay what is this "point"?__ To answer this question, we need to look over the film's historical context. December 7, 1941 the Japanese Imperial Navy gained a major victory against the United States, crippling her Pacific Navy, via a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. And yet by then, the war was already lost. The simple fact of WW2 in the Pacific is that the Empire of Japan had absolutely no chance of victory against the United States. No amount of brilliant strategy or willpower would change this conclusion. The industrial capability of the US was higher than all the major powers combined at the time. As such America was capable and eventually did defeat the Japanese using only half of its strength. By 1942 after the conclusion of the Battle of Midway, it was more than clear that Japan stood no chance. Yet they kept on fighting. Even as all their cities were obliterated by firebombings, they kept on fighting. It took two atomic bombs, an invasion by the Soviet Union, and the intervention of Emperor Showa (Emperor Hirohito) to end the war (and even then the military attempted a coup against their Emperor). So to those that say that the film is unrealistic due to Seita's decision to leave his Aunt (who treats him unfairly) and pursue his own rugged independence, it is realistic because that is what Japan did during WW2 (and basically the first half of the 20th century). Even as Seita saw the death of her sister in front of his eyes, he never once considered the idea of letting go of his pride and surrendering even though to him it was unfair. # __Why this is my favorite film__ This is my favorite film of all time. I watched this film when I was a kid. Even though I probably watched tons of films when I was a child, Grave of the Fireflies is the only one that I have a fond memory of watching. Of course, back then I didn't have any understanding of the history or the culture of Imperial Japan. Now that I am older and have a far greater understanding of the film's historical context, I have come to appreciate the film much more. This film is not just a typical Anti-War flick. This is a movie that tells a moral that is seldom taught. Sometimes the right move is to give up. Sometimes you have to make peace with an unfair system. Sometimes you have to surrender instead of just saying "I have to fight harder". #__Sidenote: "Why doesn't Seita just get a job?"__ Another criticism that I hear is regarding Seita's "laziness" which is why the Aunt justifies her decision to give better food to her immediate family over Seita and Setsuko (yeah, people seem to forget that the Aunt also treats Setsuko, a 4-year-old, badly by giving her porage while her family eats well). I defiantly understand that Seita is somewhat "lazy" in the sense that he doesn't work or volunteer or whatever. I would like to ask though, "what job should Seita get exactly?" I'm sure people are experiencing how difficult it is to get employment during this pandemic. Imagine how more difficult it would be if every city in America was flattened to the ground. Add to that the fact that Seita is 14 years old (hasn't finished his education) and lost both of his parents. Even though the Aunt's frustration is understandable, it doesn't excuse her behavior in treating Seita and Setsuko as basically second class people compared to her family. And technically, Seita did contribute to her family by giving her all the food that he buried at the beginning of the movie. #__Sidenote: The movie and the "victim narrative"__ This is a side note that is much more important. This film only tells one side of Japan during the Second World War. It paints a picture of two largely innocent children dying due to American bombs. While this is a story that did happen (the deliberate targeting of Japanese civilians by the US did happen) and it is important to understand this perspective, it is not the entire story of Japan during World War 2. Imperial Japan was an evil regime that committed countless horrendous atrocities against her neighbors in order to pursue her imperial ambitions. Lookup the Nanjing Massacre if you have the stomach for it (not safe for life). It is incredibly important that people get a complete picture of historical events. Many people are ticked off at the movie for propagating this false idea that Japan was an innocent victim of the Second World War. I personally believe that this is not the fault of the film but the fault of those who see the film and assume that there is nothing more to understand or learn about Japan's involvement in WW2. This film is not a piece of propaganda as the experience of Seita and Setsuko certainly did happen and it is a crucial part of WW2. It's just important for people to understand that it is not the entire story. #__Why Historical Context Matters__ This ultimately leads to the importance of historical context. Historical context is important when analyzing or understanding any work of art. But for this movie, I think that the historical context is particularly important. The Wikipedia article on Grave of the Fireflies gives an interesting point of trivia: >After the international release, it has been noted that different audiences have interpreted the film differently due to differences in culture. For instance, when the film was watched by a Japanese audience, Seita's decision to not come back to his aunt was seen as an understandable decision, as they were able to understand how Seita had been raised to value pride in himself and his country. But, American and Australian audiences were more likely to perceive the decision as unwise, due to the cultural differences in order to try to save his sister and himself. I think that fact alone speaks wonders about how so many people fail to understand the film. In the film's theatrical trailer, it says "[I] came to deliver something you have forgotten". That thing that was forgotten (or more accurately, beginning to be forgotten) was the memory of the Second World War. The film was released in 1988 and even then people were afraid of the next generation forgetting. I fear that as this past becomes more and more distant, more and more people would see this "flaw" in the story, and more and more this film will be misunderstood. So in all, this film was an absolute masterpiece of a film (especially since I am Japanese and have family members who experienced the War). I believe that anyone can watch this film and enjoy it (or get something out of it), but to truly understand the movie, I believe you need to understand what life was really like for Setsuko, Seita, and the Japanese people during that time. This film was made for people who still had a memory of this. But for us who never experienced this particular time in history, taking the time to learn Japan's history will make your viewing even more enjoyable.
So lets talk about "Hotaru no Haka" aka "Grave of the fireflies." This is based on a true story apparently which makes it more emotionally investing :( This film is essentially about two siblings called Setsuko and Seita who gradually become orphans and lose everything they have throughout the movie, as well as both their lives. The film starts off showing the two living a "normal" life in their war ravaged nation of WW2 era Japan. The daily lives of their family and the rest of the civilians of the country is too scavenge, live in poverty and survive the hellfire of fire raids and onslaught of bullets incoming from enemy aircraft. Suddenly everything starts going down hill from there, their mother unfortunately being victimized by a recent fire raid which then forces them to take shelter with their aunt who cares more about soldiers who'll probably die soon rather than them. Ok so going off topic for a second, the aunt is nice and seems fine at first but she later then turns into such a "poopyhead" like she's not a complete monster or anything but damn! like bro if I had some power I obviously wouldn't kill her but one RASENGAN!!! should be enough to put her in a place. Back to topic, the soundtrack is surprisingly kinda lit, haha! you get it because the movies called the grave of the "fireflies".......*cricket noises*.... Some of the integral scenes in the film queued with the soundtrack is also very clever and *spoiler alert* might produce a liquid from your eyes that goes down your cheeks called tears. Anyway when the siblings have had enough they decide to live by a nice little abode by the river which athough being peaceful, is also a really unsafe place to stay due to rashes, food and lack of protection. This is now where our main character Seita decides he's "goated" and starts his very own robin hood arc but instead he just steals food from other less fortunate people who are a little bit fortunate than them, for himself and his little sister Setsuko. Prior to the final moments of the film, little sis Setsuko gets sick due to malnutrition and has like a ton of rashes. Our "hero" Seita then puts on his cowl and tries to yoink more food off other people but gets caught and beaten by this angry farmer individual who takes our boy to the police station which then the crime turns back on him for severely injuring a minor. The police officer then lets Seita off the hook, respect to him aka absolute legend. Now during the final moments of the film, Seita finally decides to do something about her little sister's condition and takes her to the doctor, doctor says she just needs food and when Seita finally buys food with leftover savings when he receives news that their father is also dead rip. He then goes back with food to their home and Setsuko is basically on her death bed, hallucinating that marbles are candy and trying to swallow them and mistaking rocks for rice. p.s this scene actually made me really sad ;( Seita tries to feed her food and leaves her behind with some. When he comes back it's utter devastation, my guy is literally hugging a corpse of her dead little sister and this actually made me tear up a bit ngl. He then burns her etc. and as the very first scene of the actually shows he dies of malnutrition and his guilt. One critique I do have of the show that the only time I remember this dude crying was when his sister found about their mother's death and when her sister saw her getting taken away for stealing but when his mother, father and sister dies he doesn't, like I guess its too depressing too even cry but still. Anyway I give this anime film a 9/10 or 90/100, it was pretty good and I do recommend to those who haven't to watch it once at least. This is my first review on Anilist or review on anything ever lmao. I tried to summarise as much as possible (I know I missed some stuff but it'll be too long with it) and add a bit of "personality" but if anyone reads this and has constructive criticism or constructive feedback let me know.
____( Il voto non è 0, semplicemente non apprezzo assegnare voti)____ Una tomba per le lucciole, scritto e diretto da Isao Takahata è un film toccante e dannatamente realistico. Questa pellicola è stata rilasciata nel 1988 dallo Studio Ghibli. In italia è stato distributo due volte. UNA STORIA TOCCANTE Il film dura soltanto 1 ora e mezza ma riesce comunque a narrarti quello che voleva e a farti provare le giuste sensazioni. Il soggetto, ovvero la sinossi, è tratta da un racconto semi-autobiografico. Il film parla di due ragazzi che affronteranno la morte, la distruzione e la tristezza della Guerra. Il film è totalmente triste, non ci sono mai momenti in cui gioisci, una notizia spiacevole sull'altra. Ci sono miliardi di opere che hanno trattato il tema della guerra, molte lo fanno in maniera davvero toccante e altre in maniera esaustiva e nauseante, questo fa parte del primo caso, la storia è bella e se per molti questa tipologia di film può risultare spesso noiasa, vi assicuro che questo film non lo è. Un film che riesce in tutto quello che racconta insomma, vuole farti pesare la guerra e ci riesce, vuole farti sentire triste e ci riesce, non ne ha sbagliata una. LIVELLO TECNICO E ARTISTICO SEMPRE ALTO Lo Studio Ghibli raramente ti delude su questi aspetti, in questo caso, nonostante il film sia dell'88, è fornito comunque di belle animazioni e fluide. L'atmosfera inoltre riesce ad essere cupa e tragica senza andare nell'eccesività. A livello di Regia non parliamone, Takahata è un mostro, e senza farvi spoiler, alcune scelte registiche fantastiche riusciranno a farvi piangere maggiormente. I PERSONAGGI E LE TEMATICHE I personaggi sono pochi in realtà, quelli che hanno un grande spazio sono solo due e senza di essi nulla funzionerebbe. Potete anche sottovalutare l'essenzialità della Bambina, ma vi assicuro che senza di lei la storia non sarebbe stata la stessa. Il motore principale è sicuramente il fratello maggiore, ma funzionerebbe meno senza sua sorella minore. Per quanto riguarda le tematiche le ho praticamente accennate prima, il film è ambientato durante la seconda guerra mondiale e in Giappone, di conseguenza il film parlerà di ciò, è sempre interessante ma allo stesso tempo triste vedere questo. La guerra è odio, distruzione, dolore, fame, e qualsiasi altro aggettivo vi venga in mente. . Adoro questo film davvero, stupendo, lo studi ghibli non si smentisce, rare volte ha fallito e spesso pee colpa di Goro. Solitamente sempre qualità. Il film è uscito due volte in italia. Presto l'intervista la trasformerò in un post. Sì, sto scrivendo frasi inerenti al film ma ammucchiate solo per rientrare nei caratteri. Almeno ha senso e non verrà rimosso.
Disclaimer: This movie is rather dark and contains disturbing imagery. I do not recommend it to the faint of heart or children under ten years old. #In a Shellnut Japan is on it's last legs. The war is creeping further and further up north and American bombers are dropping firebombs onto civilian targets. Seita and Setsuko are both victims, having lost not only their homes, but their entire settlement. The movie follows the two as they fend for themselves, unable to find accommodating family, consistent food, and adequate healthcare. #Strong Points The focus is very different from most other movies, even within the war genre. #Weak Points Voice acting in the dub is terrible. I found it difficult to sympathise with the characters. #Elaboration This movie was... underwhelming. I'd heard a lot about how it was really one of the saddest movies of all time and how much people cried while watching, but it just didn't hit me. Truth is, this movie wasn't meant for me. I watched it with my friend, and he didn't find it particularly heart-wrenching either. Sure, it is conceptually sad, but in practice it really just doesn't deliver. Personally, I think that it's the following demographics that might have a better experience than I did:-Parents-Young children around 10-People who have had similar experiences On top of that, I feel like the movie relied far too much on the audience putting in the effort to try and connect with the characters. Neither Seita nor Setsuko have any defining personality traits besides 'wants to take care of his sister' and 'likes candy' respectively, so it was practically impossible for me to empathise in the slightest. The only way I see for someone to relate is if they have someone who they see the same way, but as a young man with no children in my family, I am left in the dust. In the end, this movie was depressing. Very little happens and most of the runtime is just the two kids doing stuff together. There's no overarching story line or goal, there's no major character development, and no-one changes anything. In that way, I think it perfectly reflects what it's like to be a civilian in wartime, and that's where this movie really shines. My favourite part so far from the last two Ghibli movies was the post-war influence that popped through, and this one was practically dedicated to it. I didn't cry, I didn't change my outlook on life, but I did get to see a little bit of how Japan felt three decades ago, and what their media talked about. It's not meant to be an action packed adventure or an exciting thriller; It was about people living during the war, and there was nothing exciting about that, and the movie succeeds fully in communicating that.
~~~ # img220(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57ebc57bd1758ef9c90fd6b3/1523886673175-RN6UHCX4X3KCK3OBVMPX/tumblr_o33zycAkQP1t06ubmo3_500.gif?format=500w)~~~ ____ ~~~【ＣＯＵＬＤ ＣＯＮＴＡＩＮ ＳＰＯＩＬＥＲＳ！】 ~~~ ~~~youtube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0ct5nvceeM&ab_channel=GeorgFermata) (if you want you can read the review while listening to this one above!)~~~ ____ # ~~~img220(https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/film-poster/4/4/5/5/8/44558-grave-of-the-fireflies-0-230-0-345-crop.jpg?v=0c61fd55f0)~~~ ~~~_"It's not fair, why do fireflies die so early?"_~~~ ~~~Setsuko, Grave of the Fireflies~~~ __History is important... that's why we study it, however, sometimes some things are left out, things that maybe are important to remember... __ ____ ~~~【ＲＥＶＩＥＷ ＰＲＥＭＩＳＥ】 This review is not really meant to be a full review, but rather a reflection, what I think about the film and the message I believe it was meant to convey.~~~ ______ ~~~REVIEW IN ENGLISH~~~ ~~~img220(https://i.gifer.com/BC7F.gif)~~~ During my first viewing of the film I was generally unconvinced. I could not say precisely why, but it had probably failed to capture me as this second view did. Being able to enjoy the film again, I was able not only to enter much more into the two little main characters, being able to understand with much more sincerity some of the choices that are made throughout the film, but also to understand a macro meaning, which goes directly to the very title of the film: "Grave of the Fireflies." A meaning built into the film that is simply as fascinating as it is disturbing and true. "History is told by the winners," never was a truer statement and more pertinent to the topic at hand. In fact, the film is about the war or, to be more correct, about what America did towards the Japanese PEOPLE, and I want to emphasize and mark the word "people" in blood. This is because, without a shadow of a doubt, Japan together with its imperial fleet did not exactly do good things, however, this film is not about the imperial fleet, it is about the people, the citizens like so many, those whose only fault was to live on the land of a country having the imperial fleet as its army. Even after Japan had lost any kind of defense and attack with the total destruction of the imperial fleet by the Americans, they still wanted to continue, raging on a Japan that was now unarmed and certainly not having a good time. This is what Takahata wants to communicate, or rather wants us to remember. A world history, American and Japanese, that even at the time, but today more than ever, we tend to forget or pretend that the whole thing did not happen. And this is where Takahata's genius breaks through more than ever, bringing in the theme of "fireflies." He wants to bring to mind how in those moments the Japanese were like helpless "fireflies," who have such feeble and short lives, and are so small before the world. This is evident several times in the film and at different layers of interpretation. First of all, and perhaps the simplest and most straightforward one in the film, is the grave that the little girl around 3/4 of the way through the film creates for the fireflies, something that reminds the protagonist of that horrible mass grave, which I hesitate to call a grave, of the corpses caused by the air strikes, among which was his mother. The lives of the defenseless Japanese who were attacked by the Americans are only comparable to those of the "fireflies," as is shown in the film where the two graves are put on the same plane, on the same level. "It's not fair, why do fireflies die so early?" the little girl says throughout the scene in question and while also remembering her dead mother. But that is not all there. Takahata by "fireflies" goes on to refer, of course, to the main characters themselves as well, succeeding in this way in elevating to the maximum power the very intrinsic meaning mentioned earlier. In fact, in all the scenes where the ghosts of the children appear, they are put on the same level as the fireflies; they are almost the same thing. Both those poor brothers and those fireflies had a feeble and short life. This is what the film is about. This is what Takahata wanted to do, and he has succeeded great. He wants to do nothing more than remind us of the horrors caused by the Americans and how they deeply affected and changed a nation, and also how in reality even such an intelligent and strong human being can be placed on the same level as the fireflies. ____ ~~~REVIEW IN ITALIAN~~~ ~~~img220(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rVrsDha03A4/UxtqSIjpmTI/AAAAAAAACg0/BOnWdIr-U4w/s1600/grave+firefly.gif)~~~ Durante la mia prima visione del film ero rimasto generalmente dubbioso. Non saprei dire con precisione il motivo, ma probabilmente non era riuscito a catturarmi come invece questa seconda visione ha fatto. Potendo gustarmi di nuovo il film, sono riuscito non solo a entrare molto di più nei due piccoli protagonisti, riuscendo a capire con molta più sincerità alcune delle scelte che vengono prese nel corso del film, bensì anche a comprendere un macro significato, che va direttamente a collegarsi al titolo stesso del film: "una tomba per le lucciole". Un significato intrinseco nel film, che è semplicemente tanto affascinante quanto inquietante e vero. "La storia è raccontata dai vincenti", mai affermazione fu più vera e attinente al tema in questione. Difatti il film racconta della guerra o, per essere più corretti, di ciò che l'America ha fatto nei confronti del POPOLO giapponese, e voglio sottolineare e marcare a sangue la parola "popolo". Questo perché, senza ombra di dubbio il Giappone insieme alla sua flotta imperiale non ha esattamente fatto del bene, però questo film non parla della flotta imperiale, bensì del popolo, dei cittadini come tanti, di quelli la cui unica colpa era quella di vivere sul suolo di un paese avente come esercito la flotta imperiale. Anche dopo che il Giappone aveva perso qualsiasi tipo di difesa e attacco con la totale distruzione della flotta imperiale da parte degli Americani, gli stessi hanno voluto continuare, infierendo su un Giappone ormai senza armi e che sicuramente non se la stava passando bene. Questo è quello che Takahata vuole trasmettere, o meglio che vuole farci ricordare. Una storia mondiale, americana e giapponese, che già all'epoca, ma oggi più che mai, si tende a dimenticare o a fare finta che il tutto non sia successo. Ed è qui che il genio di Takahata irrompe più che mai, portando il tema delle "lucciole". Egli vuole far ricordare come in quei momenti i giapponesi erano come delle indifese "lucciole", che hanno una vita così flebile e breve, e sono così piccoli dinnanzi al mondo. Il tutto è presente più volte nel film e a diversi strati di interpretazione. Primo di tutti, e forse quello più semplice e diretto del film, la tomba che la bambina verso i 3/4 del film crea per le lucciole, cosa che ricorda al protagonista quell'orribile fossa comune, che fatico a chiamare tomba, dei cadaveri causati dagli attacchi aerei, tra cui vi era anche la madre. La vita dei giapponesi indifesi e attaccati dagli americani non è che paragonabile a quella delle "lucciole", come viene mostrato nel film dove le due tombe sono messe sullo stesso piano, allo stesso livello. "Non è giusto, perché le lucciole muoiono così presto?", dice la bambina durante tutta la scena in questione e mentre ricorda anche la madre morta. Ma non è tutto qui. Takahata con "lucciole" va a riferirsi, ovviamente, anche ai protagonisti stessi, riuscendo così ad elevare alla massima potenza proprio il significato intrinseco detto poc'anzi. Difatti in tutte le scene dove compaiono i fantasmi dei bambini, essi vengono messi allo stesso piano delle lucciole, quasi sono la stessa cosa. Sia quei poveri fratelli che quelle lucciole hanno avuto una vita flebile e breve. Questo è il film. Questo è quello che Takahata ha voluto fare e ci è riuscito alla grande. Egli non vuole far altro che ricordare gli orrori causati dagli Americani e di come hanno colpito e modificato nel profondo un popolo, e anche quanto in realtà persino un essere umano tanto intelligente e forte, può essere posto allo stesso livello delle lucciole. ____ ~~~If you disagree or didn't like the review, please contact me to talk about it, I am always open to changes.~~~ ____ ~~~__Rated:__~~~
####This review contains spoilers. --- More than 500,000 Japanese civilians died during the war. Some estimates place it as high as 800,000. That is a staggering number, essentially impossible to comprehend. More than half a million people reduced to a statistic without a face. _Grave of the Fireflies_ is the story of two of those many thousands. A story and thus a face to the civilians that died during America’s deadly firebombing raids, that lost their homes, their parents, their siblings. A face to people who were left behind by their country and people in the name of war. ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/h7mw9Em.jpg)~~~ Isao Takahata's 1988 film _Grave of the Fireflies_ is about Seita and Setsuko, two children, and how they survived the firebombing of Kobe. And how they failed to survive the last months of the war that followed. The story is semi-autobiographical, an adaptation of a short story written by Akiyuki Nosaka. Much like the film, Nosaka’s adoptive father didn’t survive the bombing, and thus he and his younger sister were left to fend for themselves. However, Nosaka’s life story is, in a way, bleaker than the one he wrote, as he openly admits that Seita was much kinder than he ever was. Where Seita gave food to Setsuko despite his own hunger, Nosaka ate only to be riddled with remorse after. Nosaka’s younger sister, Keiko, died of malnutrition in the months after the bombing. While Nosaka would, of course, survive the war, he wrote the short story to deal with his guilt as a survivor and the blame he placed on himself for her death. In my eyes, this is why _Grave of the Fireflies_ begins and ends with Seita’s death, playing out like a double suicide, with the two being bound by love in both life and death. With this in mind, I think it is easier to understand why the children run away from their aunt. It is essentially an avoidable action that results in their death and this is precisely the point of the film in many ways. Their deaths shouldn’t have happened and Seita is (at least in part – it's hard to deny the negligence of the aunt) to blame. Because Nosaka thinks he was to blame. --- For some, issue may be taken with how the _Grave of the Fireflies_ places the Japanese as victims of the war or at least suggests that the common people were deceived by the Imperial leaders. As a Western audience consuming a film that was explicitly made for young Japanese people, this assumption can feel jarring. But I don’t follow this train of thought myself. Because despite what Japan did during the war, the Japanese people were victims. America’s firebombing campaign was devastating, more destructive than either of the atomic bombings. Major Curtis LeMay, the mastermind behind the operations, has openly admitted that America would have been tried for war crimes for the campaign had they lost the war. Estimates place the Japanese civilian deaths that resulted from these firebombings at 300,000, many more were injured and millions of Japanese were left without homes. Roughly half of Tokyo was destroyed. A bit more than half of Kobe was too. And there were many other cities attacked. Grave of the Fireflies does not shy away from depicting the reality of these attacks. The shots of the children’s mother before she dies are rough. ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/N8RIc2G.jpg)~~~ And whether ill-equipped or apathetic, the fact of the matter was that even more people died because Imperial Japan diverted resources to fuel the war. And this is the message the film portrays through the children’s aunt, who comes to embody Imperial Japan. She demands endurance and sacrifice be made in the name of the war effort. She takes their saved supplies and the rice gained from selling their mother’s kimono and gives it to her husband and daughter who – we are infantilisingly told – are contributing to the war. Meanwhile, the military itself, which is supposedly fighting for Japan, is out of sight. The children’s father is absent and unable to care for them. And in spite of whatever the military is fighting for, people are dying at home. In this regard, Seita’s admiration of the navy shouldn’t be misunderstood as the film’s admiration for it. In reality, his idolisation of militarism plays as a dramatic irony because we know that Japan loses the war and that their father never returns to save them. It’s these two characters that play any role of a villain in the film, not the Americans. War and neglect are the evils of the story, and arguing that Imperial Japan did horrible things during the war – to Americans or otherwise – misses the point of the film. It’s made to remind young Japanese people just over 40 years after the war of its horror, and it should continue to remind us of that. And this is not to suggest we should look past the atrocities of Imperial Japan, I just reject the idea that the film has any responsibility to show this or deal with it. --- _Grave of the Fireflies_ is a uniquely bleak Ghibli film, a grim and tragic anomaly compared to the rest of the catalogue. Unlike Miyazaki’s works which tend to be guided by his desire to make films that “tell children ‘it's good to be alive,’” and are liberally filled with his optimistic view of people, Takahata paints his film with hopelessness. Every bright moment of joy in the film is scarred by the grim reality that the protagonists are trying to ignore. We are not left to enjoy the fun day at the beach, as it is interrupted by the discovery of a dead body and is hauntingly ended with Setsuko’s line “But I’ll get hungry if I swim,” which shatters any hope that her childlike innocence could be preserved. Studio Ghibli wouldn’t really make a film like _Grave of the Fireflies_ until [_The Wind Rises_](https://anilist.co/anime/16662/The-Wind-Rises/) in 2013, which similarly focuses on the war and is marred by guilt and tragedy. But even then it is not nearly as soul-crushing or misery-inducing as _Grave of the Fireflies_. _Grave of the Fireflies_ is a film that left me staggering around my house openly sobbing, something no Studio Ghibli film has strived to do since. But it still looks and feels like Ghibli. It’s absolutely stunning, the backgrounds are spectacular, even when they are of the post-apocalyptic landscape of the ruined Kobe. The cave and the lake are a fittingly delightful refuge from the world and act as a terrifyingly perfect stage for the slow encroachment of Setsuko’s death. ~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/W21kxGN.jpg)~~~ The final shots of the lake, as the music of a record plays over the water, are nothing short of beautiful, and are an incredible way to conclude the film as you sit there shell-shocked. The movie cuts this beauty short, however, for us to return to the train station and Seita’s death. And it’s this – the film’s ability to move between beauty and bleakness – that is central to what makes it such an unforgettable anime, constantly reminding us that beauty can be short-lived and that fireflies can die much too soon.