Grave of the Fireflies
Rent/Purchase
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
What critics thought
One of the most unanimously acclaimed animated films ever made, Grave of the Fireflies is treated by critics not merely as a great film but as an overwhelming emotional experience — a devastatingly precise portrait of civilian suffering in wartime Japan that refuses to soften its tragedy. The rare point of friction is not the film itself but its English-dubbed performances, where some reviewers found the voice casting undermined the very emotional core the film depends on.
“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.”
Theron Martin·Anime News Network
“There is both much and little to say about the film. It is simply an experience—a trip through the lonely boroughs of humanity that the world collectively looked, and still looks, away from.”
The Daily Star
Genres
Animation, Drama, War
Cast & Crew
DirectorIsao Takahata
StarringTsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Masayo Sakai
ComposerMichio Mamiya
Grave of the Fireflies
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
What critics thought
One of the most unanimously acclaimed animated films ever made, Grave of the Fireflies is treated by critics not merely as a great film but as an overwhelming emotional experience — a devastatingly precise portrait of civilian suffering in wartime Japan that refuses to soften its tragedy. The rare point of friction is not the film itself but its English-dubbed performances, where some reviewers found the voice casting undermined the very emotional core the film depends on.
“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.”
Theron Martin·Anime News Network
“There is both much and little to say about the film. It is simply an experience—a trip through the lonely boroughs of humanity that the world collectively looked, and still looks, away from.”
The Daily Star
Genres
Animation, Drama, War
Cast & Crew
DirectorIsao Takahata
StarringTsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi, Masayo Sakai
ComposerMichio Mamiya
Rent/Purchase