Childhood Lost

Rating: 10/10 (26 October 2012)

There are very few movies and very rare times where movies actually made me cry or broke my heart, this is one of those movies and times. This to me is one of the best and most important anime films for me, it's not the easiest movie to watch but afterward it made me appreciate life more than ever.
Loosely based off an autobiography of a World War 2 survivor, this film is not just a film it's an emotional experience that has a hold of you from beginning to end. I really love how the animation of the background of Japan in a time long gone, there's sort of a documentary like feel to it from certain cinematography shot of an inanimate object or building it gives you that sense of geography and place. As well as the conditions the town was in, in a time of war from the bombing and the aftermath of them which I found unnerving. The music score is great it has a somber and even tone to it.
But of course it's the two characters Seita and Setsuko that drive this film. The way the film handles them is something I rarely see much these days because they don't feel like animated characters they feel like real human beings. What makes this even more heartbreaking is that sense of familiarity to it, their hometown has that feeling like any other hometown that I've lived in. The character Seita I can't help but see a little of myself in because I actually was like him when I was his age. Setsuko is a character that is just about my niece's age. These were one of the reason why I felt heavy pathos for the two but also love them.
This is a story about the struggle to survive in times of darkness but also a story about how life truly is precious and none of us ever have as much time as we think. Seita is the older brother who is forced to adulthood so soon as he is doing his best to keep both himself and his younger sister alive but also trying to maintain their childhoods that are beginning to seem far long gone. Setsuko is of course just being what she is a kid and doing what kids would do. As the movie goes one we see both of them afflicted by the cruelty and delusion/stupidity of the selfishness of people, bad conditions that have limited them to things like a disabled economy, government, communications, jobs, and resources. This unfortunately renders most of Seita's efforts to becoming fruitless.
There are moments where it's not dark but in a way joyful from the time at the beach both of them were in or even of course trying to catch fireflies, these moments I found precious and important it made me think about certain things I did when I was a child like playing out in a playground or backyard with other kids and the games we play. As Eric Draven from the film "The Crow" stated "Nothing is trivial".
But of course there we're moments that were really sad, once scene in particular, from the time when we see the aunt is about to trade their late mom's kimonos for more rice, we see Setsuko try to stop her but it's no use and she just cries. When I saw that or even heard her cry, it just put me in tears just knowing those kimonos were one of the last things she had of her mother, there's even a brief flashback afterward of Seita, Setsuko, and their mom and dad together in a park getting their photo taken making the emotional weight heavier because I knew that was the last time they were all together.
It then comes to the final minutes that were haunting and heartbreaking, it made me just break down and cry for the longest time. What makes it all the more heartbreaking was there was nothing I could do about it.
Seita and Setsuko will live on in my heart forever, they look to our present, we look to their past and wonder about the future.
Rating: 4 stars