Grave of the Fireflies

A striking blend of poetic delight and distressing realist gloom that could probably only have been achieved in this way with animation.

The original novel Hotaru no haka by Akiyuki Nosaka was firmly based on his own wartime experiences. His little sister died largely from hunger like Setsuko, and the author admits to a lifetime of survivor's guilt compounded by the fact that when out scrounging for food, he would tend to feed himself first. Akiyuki has commented in interview that his tragedy follows the shinjuu romantic double-suicide genre of the joruri puppet plays by Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

Isao Takahata's 1988 anime version shows us how the Kobe firestorms first displace then ultimately engulf two young lives. Death comes by neglect - the system (state, family) neglects the pair, and Seita is unable to properly care for Setsuko once they have left society behind. Her death prompts him to neglect himself to death as well.

The story could have been a out and out downer, but the beauty (and in places cutesiness) of the animation tempers the mood.

The rich and evocative detail of the backgrounds and of many of the small narrative incidents oddly contrasts with the manga stylisation of the foreground characters.

I have on several occasions debated with my father the ethics of fire-bombing Japan. For him, and for many of his generation, it was total war and the consequences of defeat were unthinkable. Any means were therefore justified to secure victory. Yet knowing how gentle and restrained he otherwise is, it still bothers me that he finds it hard to find feelings of pity for the enemy civilians whose deaths made this victory possible.