The frame for frame best anti-war-movie I've seen so far

Rating: 9/10 (15 September 2006)

The Ghibli-studios truly deserve the reputation they have. "Spirited Away" won the Oscar, "Princess Mononoke" was the most successful Japanese picture (and possibly still is, I'm not sure) and the movie I comment here really is the best anti-war-movie I've seen. And I've seen not too few of them. The helplessly overrated "Saving Private Ryan", the excellent "The big red One" and of course "Apocalypse Now Redux", "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket". But why is "Hotaru no haka" or "The last fireflies", who it's called here, the best in my view? I find it portraits a totally different attribute of war than for example "the Deerhunter" or "Full Metal Jacket", where the loss is humanity and the souls of the soldiers. This movie here shows with it's cartoon way of telling the horror war always brings to the civilians. It sure shows only the very top of the iceberg but in this context, I find this is an appropriate action. I personally got truly cured from every thought about joining any army and going to any war by this movie. The biggest quality of this excellent anime lays in it's rough and authentic tragedy. It's not even the death of the little girl, but the lack of sense in it, that manufactures most of the horror. I admit, I shed a few tears. And so did anyone I gave the DVD to watch. And this is something no other movie about war ever managed to do: Making me cry.