Could be my favorite of all time

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2009)

It's been a while since I've seen this movie, but I just had to write this. I was just playing a little game by going through each genre on IMDb and picking my favorite movie from each genre. For animated movies there was no doubt for me: grave of the fireflies was number one. When I came to drama's I just thought about the movie that had touched me the most. Again I ended up picking GOTFF. Finally arriving at war movies, I also picked this movie.
The greatness of this movie is all in making the spectator realise what war does to people and for a moment you don't think of war casualties as just casualties, but you start to imagine what people have gone through before dying and how the acquaintances have to deal with the loss of a loved one. Takahata creates this pity very well. He gradually makes you fall in love with the main characters (especially Setsuko). It also shows that a war affects both parties. Even though Japan was one of the 'bad guys' in WWII, this movie helps you emphasize also with the people living over there.
To make a short story even shorter; this is definitely one of my personal all time favorites. It shows you (even though it's animated) more than any other movie does what the effect of war is on normal civilians like you and me. I know it might sound cruel but I'm a bit tired of all the soldier war movies. It even has gone to a point that I can't be bothered by war anymore if it's shown in the form of a military movie. This movie, however, has put me right back on the ground and made it all real again. Definitely a must see!
P.S. Too make it even sadder for you than it already is: the story is based on WWII experiences of the writer himself. He was Seita...