Beautifully Tragic

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2015)

Animated films are usually made for kids. And besides the occasional Toy Story or Lego Movie, you don't get animated films that actually appeal more to adults or young adults than to young children. But Grave of the Fireflies is definitely a film aimed at older people. It tells the story of a brother and a sister in the wake of several bombings in Japan during the second world war and the struggle for both of them to survive on their own without their parents. It's as dark as any animated film that I have seen and without giving anything away, the film doesn't really get any better for our main characters. It's just an incredibly devastating look at the other side to the war and how terrible many peoples lives got.
The film begins by telling us the main character is going to die at a very young age. Then only a few minutes later do we see piles of bodies burned to ashes from the bombs. Setsuko, the young girl, and Seita, her older brother, try and work their way through what has become a Japanese wasteland and make the most out of their conditions. I really got the 'Life is Beautiful' vibe from the film. Seita is constantly trying to keep Setsuko as happy as possible as their mother was killed during the bombings and the father is nowhere to be found. The bond between them is well represented and easily believable which makes it even more devastating as their conditions deteriorate as the film progresses.
I will say the film's English voice-overs could have been better. There were certain times early on that I feel like the timing and the tone of the way the characters presented their feelings to each other were off. The aunt seemed to make certain character decisions that had no merit because of the lack of back-story. I just felt like that character felt contrived in the film's plot and was doing things specifically to move the plot along. But other than that, I didn't have really any complaints with the film.
+Beautiful even at it's most devastating moments
+Sibling bond
+Different take on the animation genre
-English voice-overs and the aunt character
8.2/10