One of those movies

Rating: 10/10 (4 November 2016)

Growing up we quickly forget what it was like being young and naive. We filter our memories of youth through the rational sieve of being an adult. That is why we get angry with some of the things children do, because it does not make any sense to us. At least not for an adult. We forget how it actually did make sense to us back then.
Growing up with a deep trauma, some are able to gradually peel through the rational layers set up by the adult mind and see the act of children for what they were at the time. Acts of children who are not yet rational and able to see the situation they are in from a greater perspective. Children make other decisions than adults. I believe that is what Akiyuki Nosaka tried to do with his novel. He is not trying to justify his acts. He tries to understand his younger self.
In many ways, Grave of the Fireflies is the only way Akiyuki was able to go back in time and apologize to his sister. After all, he survived while she did not. He had the responsibility as the older sibling to care for her, but in the end he failed. How does anyone live past such an experience? This movie is so much more than just an animated movie about two children trying to survive in society ravaged by war. It is about love and the will to live a normal life in spite of a catastrophe. About pretending everything is normal. About coping with the failure to save your little sister. About apologizing.
In the end he lived. She died. As the ultimate apology, in the movie he allows himself to also die.
Akiyuki Nosaka died on December 9th 2015 at the age of 85. He finally reunited with his little sister. I hope they both rest in peace.