Grave of the Fireflies

**Grave of the Fireflies** is a 1988 historical, drama, tragedy anime movie.  It was directed and written by Isao

   Takahata, cinematography by Nobuo Koyama, musically composed by Michiyo Mamia, edited by Takeshi Seyama, produced by Toru Hara and Studio Ghibli, distributed by Toho, and based on the Grave of the Fireflies autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka.

## Plot

In 1945, shortly after the end of World War II, a teenage boy, Seita, dies of starvation in a Kobe train station. A janitor sorts through his possessions and finds a candy tin, which he throws into a field. The spirit of Seita's younger sister, Setsuko, springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit and a cloud of fireflies. They board a train.

Some months earlier, Seita and Setsuko's house is destroyed in a firebombing along with most of Kobe. They are unharmed, but their mother dies from burns. Seita and Setsuko move in with a distant aunt, who convinces Seita to sell his mother's kimonos for rice. Seita retrieves supplies he buried before the bombing and gives everything to his aunt but a tin of Sakuma drops. As rations shrink and the number of refugees in the house grows, the aunt becomes resentful of the children, saying they do nothing to earn the food she prepares.

Seita and Setsuko leave and move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They release fireflies into the shelter for light. The next day, Setsuko is horrified to find that the insects have died. She buries them in a grave, asking why they and her mother had to die. When they run out of rice, Seita steals from farmers and loots homes during air raids, for which he is arrested but released. When Setsuko falls ill, Seita takes her to a doctor, who explains that she is suffering from malnutrition.

In a panic, Seita withdraws all the money in their mother's bank account. As he leaves the bank, he becomes distraught when he learns that Japan has surrendered. He also learns that his father, a captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy, is probably dead, as most of Japan's navy has been sunk.

Seita returns to the shelter with a large quantity of food, but finds Setsuko hallucinating. He hurries to cook, but she dies as he finishes preparing the food. Seita cremates Setsuko's body and her stuffed doll in a straw casket. He carries her ashes in the candy tin along with his father's photograph.

Seita and Setsuko's deceased spirits arrive at their destination, healthy and happy, and sit on a bench surrounded by fireflies overlooking present-day Kobe.

## Why It Rocks

1. Excellent animation.
2. Great voice acting.
3. Undoubtedly the saddest film that Studio Ghibli has ever created.
4. It's an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation.
5. Amazing soundtrack.
6. Very appealing art style and character designs.

## Bad Qualities

1. Sub par English dub.
2. While the emotions presented in the film are mostly effective, some have seen it as rather hand fisted and shoving down the viewer's throat, not subtle whatsoever.

## Reception

*Grave of the Fireflies* received near universal acclaim from film critics. The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating based on 35 reviews with an average rating of 9.1/10. It offers the consensus: "An achingly sad anti-war film, *Grave of the Fireflies* is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works".[24]

The film made *Time Out* magazine's, with help from director Terry Gilliam, top 50 animated film list, where it was ranked at #12 on the list.[25][26] Roger Ebert of the *Chicago Sun-Times* put the film on his "Great Movies List" calling it, "an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation."[3]

The film ranked #12 on *Total Film'*s 50 greatest animated films.[27] It was also ranked at #10 in *Time Out* magazine's "The 50 greatest World War II movies" list.[28][29] *Empire*magazine ranked the film at #6 in its list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies".[30] The film ranked #19 on *Wizard's Anime* Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".[31] Theron Martin of *Anime News Network* said that, in terms of the original U.S. Manga Corps dub, while the other voices were "perfectly acceptable," "Setsuko just doesn't sound quite convincing as a four-year-old in English. That, unfortunately, is a big negative, since a good chunk of the pathos the movie delivers is at least partly dependent on that performance."[20]

On December 25, 2016, Toei Company made a Twitter post that read "Why did Kiriya have to Die So Soon?" (なんできりやすぐ死んでしまうん *Nande Kiriya Sugu Shinde shimaun?*) in order to promote an episode of *Kamen Rider Ex-Aid*. The hashtag became viral but Toei deleted the tweet after receiving complaints that referencing the *Grave of the Fireflies* line "Why do fireflies die so soon?" (なんで蛍すぐ死んでしまうん *Nande hotaru sugu shinde shimaun*) was in poor taste.[32]