Die letzten Glühwürmchen

I decided to watch Grave of the Fireflies yesterday. My friends told me it was extremely moving and sad. I hesitated at first, but then I said "Oh well, I'll give it a try." At the end of the film, I was crying my eyes out. This was the best animated film, I've ever seen.This is a moving depiction of the fates of cast-off children who become casualties of war.

This movie isn't your regular Animated Film. Pixar and Disney put films out there with happy endings. I'm not saying there bad films at all. They are also great pieces of work. But Grave of the Fireflies tells you the truth. This movie isn't trying to entertain you. It wants to inform you about how war is really like. There were many moments in the movie, that just brought me to tears.

I am kind of upset, that this movie didn't get many awards as it should. In that regards, it is VERY underrated and it is kind of thrown apart. When it should really be respected and praise it. If this movie was made in our time period right now. I would be 100% sure this would of Won an Oscar for Best Animated Film. This is Studio Ghilbi's best movie they have ever released.

I truly advice you to bring a handkerchief, cause chances are that you will cry.

An Emotional Epic Animated Film, that I recommend everyone to watch.

Quite Simply 10/10

I had the fortune of being able to see Hotaru no Haka on the big-screen in Seattle a couple of years ago. It was truly the high-point of my film festival excursions. At the end of the movie, there was silence, absolute and total silence in the theater - and then, only an occasional sniffle until the end credits had finished rolling and the house lights came up. It would've seemed almost disrespectful to profane the silence with words.

Seeing a movie like this really changes attitudes about war - about who really suffers, and that the honor and glory is shallow comfort when you contemplate what has been lost in the struggle.

I've made the comment to my friends that if you ever see someone who isn't moved (usually to tears) by this movie, you've found someone without a soul. As difficult as it is to watch, turn off the phone, dim the lights, and immerse yourself in the film with ones you love - you will be a better person for it in the end.

There are many other reviews of this movie, and most of them are probably far more comprehensive than my own - I'll conclude by saying that this movie should required viewing at some point (as should the peace museums at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) for everyone.

When you see war and conflict in the news or read about it in the paper, think back to this movie - your perspective will probably be broadened, and your eyes opened a bit more.

I've only watched this movie about 4 times - it usually takes a year or so to "decompress" after watching it. To see it too often would lessen the impact, and that would be the worst possible thing to do to this movie.

Being my first Anime review I thought I'd start off with my one of my favourite pieces of work from who else but Studio Ghibli. Ghibli have rarely produced anime that doesn't fall short of great but Graveyard is something different indeed.

Set in the aftermath of World War II, Graveyard is focused on the lives of a caring brother and his young sister (Setsuko and Seita) and how they struggle against both the elements of wartime and a depreciating Japanese empire. The most striking thing about Graveyard is probably how real everything seems. The animation is very unconventional to the likes of say Spirited Away or Laputa but in a good way. The horror of war is beautifully realised through the animation, whether it be the American destruction being shown or the bleak outlook on peoples lives, namely the two main characters. Thankfully it earns every shred of emotion it conveys through these two sympathetic characters that only the coldest of hearts wouldn't warm up to.

Avoiding any Hollywood sentimentality, it is often a bleak and depressing perspective depicted but all the more brutally powerful in the process. With my eyes welling up through the duration of the film, it occured to me just how well the Director understands what raw heartfelt emotion is and how to play the audiences heart strings. Nevertheless nothing is shown in a heavy handed approach, no empthasis is put on the Americans nor is there any special attention taken to the war details. If anything the citizens of Japan are shown in the coldest light often giving little help to the plight of others, but demonstrating furthermore what desperate situation everyone is in.

Takahata instead decides to focus on the plight of it's title characters against the background of war. With the empire of Japan in crisis and food shortages everywhere it is heart breaking to see a brother struggle to meet ends meet for his sister. Due to the approach taken it borders on being horrifying but fortunately the tone is changed with the spirit put into Setsuko's character. Much like 'The Pianist' the issue is not the war but the struggle and will to survive in it. This is clearly displayed in a plot that revolves around the downward spiral Setsuko trying to feed himself and more importantly the younger and more vulnerable sister Seita. The animation though detailed and indeed beautiful in some sequences (namely relating to the title), is not by any means flashy but captures emotions and interactions between the characters perfectly. It's the perfect mixture of such animation, realistic and highly likeable characters that makes the whole film one tearful experience. Dealing with such difficult issues it's very hard to imagine this being a film and if it was I don't think it would of been done as well.

Part of the brilliance also comes from symbology and the association to many different worlds in such a understanding depiction. The child, Seita, is nothing short of perfection in child like behaviour happily oblivious to the desperate situation, amusing herself with simplicity and the quirks of nature and the outdoors. The older brother Setsuko who must carry the burdon of everything is also perfectly portrayed and to watch there decent is painful to say the least. To struggle is one thing but to have shock, shattered dreams and be depended on is something anyone can empthasise with.

There may be some people who will shy away from Anime, disregarding it as a mere cartoon. To those people and everyone else I recommend Graveyard as the tonic, which can be appreciated by anyone with a heart and soul. Among the finest pieces of Anime created and one of the most touching war films ever made.

One of the great animated films of all time Grave of Fireflies tells the story of a couple of kids as the try to survive in war time Japan. What happens to them should be seen by anyone thinking of starting a war since it tells very graphically what happens to those often forgotten, the children.

Like its companion piece, Barefoot Gen, which tells the story of survivors of atomic bombing and the horrors that were experienced by those unlucky enough not to have been killed out right, this film proves that war is hell for everyone, especially the children.

Its very hard to send anyone out to see this unhappy little film (The previously mentioned Barefoot Gen spawned sequels, this has not) but at the same time you owe it to yourself to experience, however distantly what sort of monster we unleash upon the world every time we go to war. It helps that however depressing this is, its also a damn good and incredibly compelling story.

9 out of 10

"Grave of the Fireflies" is one of the most ambitious, depressing, and quite frankly, best films that I've ever seen. I was nearly moved to tears by this film's brave treatment of such critical subject matter. Yes, it's an Anime' piece, but surprisingly, it came out in 1988, during a time where most Japanese animation films were either relentless bloodbaths, borderline pornography, or both.

As a fan of the Anime' genre of film-making, many great pieces have achieved some sort of cult status here in America, yet none have really reached mainstream success. Some have broken through the barrier and have gained acceptance with American critics, like Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira," or "Princess Mononoke," or "Spirited Away" (both films directed by Hayao Miyazaki). One that I've seen and has been barely mentioned by most critics is "Grave of the Fireflies."

What we have with "Grave of the Fireflies," is a story of innocence lost and two children who ultimately face a losing battle with trying to survive in a small Japanese village in the closing days of World War II. WWII was the costliest conflict in world history, with millions dead and thousands left to pick up the pieces.

In the center of it, are the aforementioned two children, who are pretty much left to fend for themselves after their mother is killed in a bombing raid. Because their father is off fighting in the war and they have no way of contacting any other family, they're sent to live with their aunt, who is at first warm and welcoming to them, but eventually becomes very cruel and the children are forced to live in a nearby bomb shelter. From that point on, the two children embark on a journey that is every bit as unpleasant and difficult as the grim realities of the world around them.

Very easily one of the best Anime' films that I've ever seen (or any animated film for that matter), I find it difficult to believe just how truly overlooked "Grave of the Fireflies" is. The animation is beautiful, though certainly not dated by any means (even though Japanese animation has progressed well since this film was made).

We get a sense of the dread of the two lead characters, who watch as the world around them crumbles into heaps of ashes, and aircraft loom ominously overhead, dropping their deadly, incendiary cargo on unsuspecting Japanese villagers.

The director, Isao Takahata, obviously has a special resentment of the war, but manages to avoid condemning it outright. The director instead lets us focus in on the conflict as seen through the eyes of the two children, who watch unflinchingly as the realities of their world begin to falter before them.

"Grave of the Fireflies" is a bold statement on the condition of the human soul during conflict. I probably shouldn't say this but I am anyways, but this film has to be the "Schindler's List" of animated pieces. It's brave, it's not overly sentimental, but it is relentless in its dramatization of a dangerous reality. It should be required viewing in any high school world history class.

A beautiful film; not to be missed by anyone.