The Grave of Fireflies
      “Hotaru no Haka” or “Grave of the Fireflies” is feature length animated film made in 1988 more commonly known and referred to as an “anime” or Japanese Cartoon. This film received a perfect five from all of the critics that I have read and have also won the 1994 Chicago International Children’s Film Festival. In this paper, I will be examining the animation of the film, the way that the plot was executed and the political view of the film (actually, the lack of said political views), the voice acting, and the universal message of the film itself.

      The film starts a little bit before Japan surrenders to America in World War II. In a train station in Kobe, a boy stands watch at a sorrowful looking boy who looks exactly like him siting silently while holding on to a tin container. He makes a mention of a date. September 21, 1945-the day that he had died. The boy finally dies and his hands lets go of the tin container he desperately held on to till the very moment of his death. The janitor looks at the kid and begins to talk to the other janitor working with him. He makes a comment about all the pesky people who have come there to die. He says that he can see it in their eyes, the hopelessness and surrender to their fate. The janitor looks down and picks up the tin can. He shakes the tin container and hears the jingle of the contents. He opens it up and looks inside only to find out that the container had contained nothing more than mere ashes. Not knowing the meaning behind the ashy contents of the tin container, the janitor winds up for a pitch and throws it out of the station and into the night field where fireflies are disturbed, float around and glow gently as it hits the dirt. Suddenly, two ghostly images begin to appear out of the darkness of the night. It is that of the boy who had just died and a little girl. The two spirits starts playing in the night field as fireflies surround them and give off an unearthly glow. The scene shifts to the trains and the ghosts of the boy and his sister are sitting inside the train. The little girl tries to open the tin container and gives it to her brother to open. The moment he opens the container, a noise is heard outside the train and both of them look outside.

      The scene begins to fade away and is replaced by a flashback. The boy, his little sister and their mother are running around their house frantically gathering their possessions in an effort to escape a massive carpet fire bombing of Kobe, their city, by American bombers. In the confusion of all the people running around outside on the streets, Seita, the boy, and his little sister Setsuko are separated from their mother. A little while later, they get reunited with their mother only to learn that she had been a victim of the fire bombing. Badly burned, Seita gets there just in time to be at her side as she dies. With their mother dead and their father in the Japanese Royal Navy, they head off to look for their aunt on their father’s side of the family. They find and stay with their aunt, but live an uneasy life there. Seita withdraws some money belonging to his mother to help out. He even sells of his mother’s prized silk kimonos (A kimono is a Japanese formal dress. It is very important to the Japanese culture. An equivalent to a kimono would be a tuxedo or a business suit.) to go buy some rice for themselves and their aunt’s family. He also buys more tools to be a little bit more independent of their aunt, but their aunt only sees this as them trying to spite her. In the end, Seita and Setsuko leave their aunt’s house and use an abandoned hillside bomb shelter a short distance away from the city as their home. They buy rice, vegetables, and candied fruit drops for Setsuko with the money their mother had left them and capture fishes and frogs, dry them up in the sun and eat them. They spend most of the day playing in the fields and river, washing up in the ocean, and catching fireflies at night. The fireflies that Setsuko loves so much, Seita places them in a glass jar so that they can use the light that they emit at night. Whenever they die, Setsuko buries them (Hence the title of the film). For the most part, they live a carefree life.

      Although the life they led was carefree and far away from the influence of other people, the toll of war began to affect them as well. When their food supply began to run out, Seita was forced to start stealing fruits and vegetables from the nearby farmer’s crops. He would run out in the middle of a bombing raid and at night to try and steal food for himself and his little sister. Using the confusion created by the alarms and the hiding in the darkness of the night, he was able to hoard of a lot of vegetables from the farms. His luck does not last though. One night, while stealing sugar canes and potatoes, he was caught by the farmer, beaten very badly, and yanked by the farmer to the nearest police station. Luckily for him and his little sister, the police officer saw how badly beaten up he was and took pity on him. Even though the farmer began to complain about the police officer’s decision to let him go, he was still set free. Soon after this event, his little sister fell ill. When he took her to the doctor for some help, he learns that Setsuko is suffering from malnutrition. The food that they have gathered to sustain them was apparently not enough. There is nothing that Seita or the doctor could do to help Setsuko. The only thing that could save her was for her to get the proper nutrition which they could not get during the time of war. Setsuko dies from malnutrition soon after. Seita cremates her, gathers her ashes, and places them in the tin candy container. In the final scene, an image of modern day Kobe appears as seen from the hills through the view point of two ghosts still playing in the fields.

      The animation of the film is done using a rare “soft-brown borders”, a technique that is hardly ever used in animes. The result is a soft colored animation with only a few bright colors that catches the eye. Because of this, the backgrounds bears more similarity to a canvas painting than a cartoon. Jeff Yang of Flux magazine calls the animation “incredible.” Rowena Lim of Anime Addiction states that “The art and animation are excellent. Extremely detailed and fluid, everything exudes a realistic feel.” Film critic Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film that “there is great beauty in them--not cartoon beauty, but evocative landscape drawing, put through the filter of animated style.” Helen McCarthy writes in her anime movie review book that “the backgrounds and animation are so skillfully handled that it is easy to forget you are watching an animation at all.”

      The execution of the plot is very well done. The story is told according to Seita’s point of view. The film contains little political brainwashing. It is not a film that tries to say Japan is right or that America is wrong in World War II. For the most part, Seita keeps on saying to his little sister that everything will be all right because their dad is in the navy not because Japan’s navy is unbeatable. Even though this is so, it is still hard to watch for most American fans. Get Stuf’d-The Official Publication of the Anime Consortium comments that “This unique film may be disquieting for some American animation fans.” Ebert praises the film for its individual moments of beauty, moments of silence that enables the viewers to think and the pacing of the film itself. Film critic Ernest Rister compares it to “Schindler’s List” and says that “it is the most profoundly human animated film I’ve ever seen.”

      “Grave of the Fireflies” has been available for years in the original Japanese dialogue with English subtitles. It was only in 1999 that the English dubbed version came out. Ebert mentions that the English dubbing is now available and that he hopes that this will finally give it the attention it deserves. Lim says that the English dubbing is done well, but she prefers the Japanese voices. I do agree with her on this. Maybe it is the Japanese cartoon buff in me that is speaking out, but I do agree with her on this. The English voice actors and actresses are very good, but it seems to lose some of its emotional impact when it was converted from Japanese.

      The message of the film, as Lim puts it in a nutshell, is that nobody really wins in war. McCarthy wrote in her review that the message is sadly universal and that children like Seita and Setsuko and hundreds of thousands just like them should never be forced to suffer because of the folly of man. War truly is horrible and people seem to not care when the see the statistics of its victims. Another message that I got from the film is that we really should be kinder and more helpful to others, especially those who need our help. As Get Stuf’d points out, “Here is a striking film that reminds us all that there faces attached to all the statistics of war.”

      On the whole, “Grave of the Fireflies” is a film well worth the trouble of looking for to see at least once, or twice, or thrice. Akio Nagatomi mention in his review that this is one of those “movie so powerful, so moving that it permanently etches into your memory.” Ebert mentions in his review that this film “belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.” It is definite must have for any anime and war film buff. One hundred percent as beautiful and elegant as it is sorrowful, it reminds us of the innocence of youth and how the cruelty of the world can easily take it away from even the youngest of children.



Works Cited       Ebert, Roger. “Great Movies.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. Chicago Sun-Times (19 Mar. 00)

      Leimbach, Dulcie. “HEADLINE:For Children.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. The New York Times (27 Aug. 1993)

      Lim, Rowena. “Anime Index.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. Anime Addiction (1999)

      McCarthy, Helen. “Anime 1988.” Rev of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. The Anime Movie Guide (1996)

      Akio and Jane Nagatomi. “Cafe Reviews.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. The Anime Cafe (1997)

      “Recomended Videos.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. Get Stuf’d-The Official Publication of the Anime Cosortium (1996)

Yang, Jeff. “Anime Review.” Rev. of Grave of the Fireflies, dir. Isao Takahata. Flux Magazine 1 (1995)