A semi-autobiographical retelling of history by director Keiji Nakazawa. From the subject matter alone, Barefoot Gen has the undeniable potential to deliver a greater impact than Grave . Well, not quite. And Barefoot Gen in all of its grandiose horror does a considerably inferior job of storytelling than Grave of the Fireflies does in its quiet simplicity. Where Grave is meticulously crafted, Barefoot seems thrown together.
Many elements seem mismatched, resulting in a final product that seems more piecemeal than unified.
One feels inclined not to take the film too seriously when it literally looks like a Saturday morning Warner Brothers cartoon, and choosing this style for this sort of film is a decision that still baffles me. The overall story suffers similar maladies. For the first third of the film, the viewer is treated to an extensive background on Gen and his family's poverty along with numerous scenes of him and his bratty brother not getting along. It's too much, and it's not relevant enough to hold the viewer's interest. Barefoot blithely takes its sweet time getting to the real story, and when the bomb is dropped, it actually comes as a relief.