Animated film at its best

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2003)

To give Hotaru no haka a fair judgement is hard. It is without question one of the best animated films I have ever seen. The way most of the kind of action you would expect in a war movie has been scaled of and replaced by plausible characters and beautiful and powerful scenery, always created so that it seems as if a painter were creating a new masterpiece in every cell, it makes the protagonists lives seem more real than just about any other war depiction I have seen this far. It is quite special in another aspect as well, as it depicts japanese civilians during the second world war I can honestly say that this is the first such film I have seen, a situation I think many can identify with. The fact that the film does not demonise any human beings, not even the enemy, which can only be seen as anonymous bombplanes high up in the sky, but just tells a tragic and timeless story about a boy and his sister and their struggle to survive in wartimes is actually what makes this film a true masterpiece. This will be hard for any western filmmaker to surpass.
The summation can only come to this: if you haven't seen Hotaru no haka yet, do it, you will not regret it.