Heart breaking animation

Rating: 8/10 (9 May 2014)

This animated movie starts with young boy Seita dying on the floor of a train station after Japan surrenders in WWII. His spirit leads the audience to his story with his little sister Setsuko. During an air raid on their home town, they lose their mother. Their father is away with the Navy. The siblings go to live with their unsympathetic aunt. Seita clash with her, and the siblings go live by themselves in the bomb shelter next to the waters. It doesn't go well as their lives deteriorate to the point where Seita dies alone on the floor.
It is the saddest of tragedy. The animation is the perfect foil to the subject matter. The animation style is children's story but the movie is all too realistic. The characters are not cartoons. It is ripped from the pages of history. The children animation style draws the audience in, and it hits the viewer in the heart.