Grave of the Fireflies - Reviews

As always, Ghilbi never fails to surprise me and fail me. This anime made me so upset! It was so beautiful. Ghilbi never fails to produce such a delicate and aesthetically pleasing anime no matter the plot. The plot was extremely tragic and made me cry so many times. The journey of these two siblings was really captivating and their bond was really something.

I love this anime so much!

Ah. This movie stings in all the right ways. It is an effective period piece, and the attention to detail in the environments is incredible. The world building sets the stage beautifully with its appealing art and sometimes disturbing imagery, and that stage is set for two very well executed main characters. This film is a beautiful tragedy. I highly urge folks to watch this one.

Absolutely heartbreaking. Have tissues ready for this one. This story shines a light on the aftermath of war that is rarely talked about that the horrors continued far after the war ended and were just unimaginable.

Very strong story from end of ww2. It shows how people lived during these times. The story is extremely tragic. I cried for a long time. But it's even sadder as soon as you realize that this story is real. Many people experienced this and no one will ever hear about their story. This really moved me and so far it might be my top anime movie. 

Story

Grave of the Fireflies goes beyond the genre of anime.  Widely regarded as one of the best animes of all time, especially with the top-notch Ghibli animation, it stands in the canon of Second World War films in its own right.

The story is obviously very much rooted in its time period.  As a period piece, Grave of the Fireflies is riveting.  I have not seen much period anime and found it especially curious how easy it was to relate to these black-and-white Japanese.  The story could have been played out in France or Britain, even Germany; it could even have been set in one of these corrupt, starving states in Africa during the modern era.  It has a universality, and in the end, is about nothing more or less complicated than looking out for numbers one and two when the going gets tough.

Seita's father is a Navy man, away fighting but always a role model for the young teenager, who is behind the "Great Japanese Empire" all the way.  In the beginning, their wooden home town is comprehensively fire-bombed, and Seita's mother dies with full-body burns.  Seita is now the sole protector and bread-winner for his baby sister Setsuko.  Homeless, destitute, scarred and starving, the two desplazados don't tell a story for the faint-hearted.  Clinging to their meagre rations and what they can steal, they eke out a living in an abandoned bomb shelter, finding as much joy as they can in such luxuries as a dry-running tin of fruit drops.

 

Animation

This is from 1988, so it's not what you younglings will be used to.  No CGI here.  However, frame rate doesn't age, and nor does detail; both are included with gusto.  The art style is rather dated: colours are not sharp and there is heavy usage of black for shading.  However, this is evocative of times gone by, which does fit with the theme.  The best thing about the animation is certainly the money shots.  The town in flames, and the maggots crawling on dead bodies; always the most horrific things that can be shown are shown in gruesome high-frame-rate.  Finally, with her bowl cut, ridiculous ballooning bottoms and rosy cheeks, Setsuko's design shows her to be a character of the period where she can't express it through dialogue like Seita does.

 Sound

The sound's not thrilling, and the only song I can remember is a montage of Setsuko near the end.  It was quite fitting, slow and orchestral, and I think it was in English.  The voice acting is good, but nothing to shout about until we come to Setsuko.  The voice actor really conveys her childish innocence in her delivery, as well as in the dialogue.  Seita's dialogue is usually calm and practical, but one senses that he's got lots of emotions going on inside by his crying.

 

Characters

The story's all about Seita.  You might think it's about his sister too, but the scene where the farmer takes Seita to the police station, and then Seita breaks down and hugs her, shows that Setsuko drives his self-preservation instinct and is the only constant in a world of hostility for him.  Everyone is looking out for themselves: all the fleeting characters they meet are not developed.  They are demons or bosses to be overcome, or at best, information points.  Particular in this is Seita's aunt, who's the only ancillary character who's in it for any length of time.

Seita's at once selfish and lazy, and the opposite.  His relation with his aunt shows the first viewpoint.  He's looking out only for himself, and can't work a job "for the good of the nation".  But only because he's been forced to by the dire situation.  In reality, every time he goes out to hunt down or steal food, he's doing it for Setsuko's good.  We sense that this is all that drives him to go on, and yet, in the end, he can't provide enough for Setsuko.  Seita is intended as an everyman: a teenager forced to grow up like many in the war.  You can see this by the casual way his nationalism and worship of the army is portrayed: fully a product of his time.

Setsuko is brilliant as a character.  I detest cutesy-wutesy babies, but her plight really did upset me.  She's incredibly true to life as an innocent kid, and you cringe to imagine how the loss of her mother only doesn't affect her because she doesn't know any other way things can be.  Her age, importantly, marks her out as only having lived in wartime.  It is heart-breaking how small the things that please her are - water flavoured with remnants of sweets, the coins and buttons that she is so proud of having saved.

 

Overall

As I said, Grave of the Fireflies is a war film before it is an anime.  It's not light entertainment, that's for sure, and if you regularly cry at films I would be advising you to keep the Kleenex on hand, and for once, it's not for the panty shots.  I've been quite melodramatic and waffly in this review (essay?), but it is up to films like these to carry the story of this horrific war into the third generation.  

It's a story that can extend to the innocent victims of war in all parts of the globe, and in all periods of history.  I did keep the tears back, just.