One of the great animation classics.

Rating: Null/10 (21 May 2008)

Let me put it this way. When I was five, I would wake up early every morning to watch my favorite cartoons. One night, I woke up way early than usual. It must have been around three o' clock. Anyway, I did what I usually did. I watched television. Nothing was on, so I switched it to channel 8 and laid down. There would always be weird interesting stuff on that channel that I used to love watching. A few minutes had passed with me watching whatever was on this channel ans eventually, GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES came on. At that time, I had never seen a serious animated film. The film started and there were two ghosts. I remember seeing how peaceful the whole thing seemed and feeling that it was strange that it wasn't a scary type of film. However, I probably shouldn't have assumed that it wasn't a scary film at that point. Soon after, there were terrifying scenes of destruction and chaos with people getting shot and butchered. A boy and his baby sister were caught up in it all and were desperately trying to get away. I saw these two siblings and the love and care that he had for his younger sister and immediately broke into tears. At that time, I had never seen a film where people cared about each other in such an honest and unflinching way. It was shocking to me in a way that I had seen a film that displayed so much love and desperation. The film continued and their trials became more and more horrific. By the end of the film, I could barely breathe. The film had hit me so hard in my heart that I felt wounded. I have never feared and loved a film both at the same time as much as I had for GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. When the film was over, I fell asleep crying. When I awoke, I wondered if what I had watched was a dream. Could such a film ever even exist? I had been afraid to find out, but inside I yearned to learn more about it. Fast forward thirteen years later and I know more about it than I had when I was younger. I haven't seen it since, but I remember it as clearly as possible. I remember the music, the images, the emotion, the love, etc... I can never forget this film. Will I ever decide to pick it up and view it a second time? Absolutely. I just need to make sure that I know what I will get into if I watch it again. It's a touching piece of work and one that will go down in history as one of the most emotional and beautiful films ever made.