Amazing movie you can only watch once!

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2015)

I've watched a 'howls moving castle' and 'laputa castle in the sky' and few others and so thought this would be similar but without the improved animations.. I never thought a 'cartoon' would bring me to tears! Even after several days I wake up and remember the final scenes and I feel like I've got a lump in my throat.
I watched this over a couple of days as didn't have the time to watch in one go, it took a little while for me to get into it but I was gripped by the end, I remember feeling so involved with the characters at one point I suddenly thought to myself, oh no I hope she doesn't die.. and literally the next scene is where he narrates that 'she doesn't wake up again' that whole part of the film has just haunted me since.. It's strange cos at first his little sisters voice is a little annoying and she seems a burden on him but as time goes on you get so attached to her, the hardest scene to watch is when she is laying down almost motionless and rolls over to face him and says that she's made some rice balls which in fact are just a couple of rocks.. I don't think I can watch that scene again without having to sit down.. I don't think I've ever written a review but this film moved me so much I felt I had to have an attempt at writing something.. The cost of war in my mind is only felt by the very innocent, the decision makers rarely suffer to the same levels.. The things some children go through you cannot even imagine.. when he doesn't tell her that their mother is dead but she already knows because their aunt told her, she mentions it while she is burying the fireflies, the thought of how much burden she must be holding inside.. I know this is a true story and there are probably hundreds like this which do not make it to the screen but it is a truly frightening view of war through the eyes of the innocent.