Grave of the Fireflies “Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal” , my rating 10/10

Honestly, this is my favourite movie out of all the other animated movies I have seen till date. I would start by first of all telling you that this movie is the God of all animated movies built to date and it is the best work of Director Isao Takahata. It is based on a true story based on author Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-autobiographical short story – Grave of the Fireflies in the year 1967. When Akiyuki was a small boy his sister’s death due to hunger during the bombings tormented him so much that he decided to share the experience with the world by writing down the incident as a heart wrenching story.

No other animated movie has ever been built and none would that can beat this animation. Reminder to all the viewers, I have earlier pointed out in my post of Hachi : A dog’s Tale aka Hachiko that the only great movie better than Hachi will be intimated to you later, and now the time has come. Grave of the Fireflies is the animated movie which stands alone as the winner among many movies made until now.

The movie is an animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata. Infact it is very powerful war films as noted by some directors and critics but in general it is considered as an anti-war film.

Warning to all : This is very serious movie, if you don’t want to cry, weep, sob, grieve, mourn, cry your heart out, lament uncontrollably literally deeply and often vocally then please don’t watch this movie. This movie is for strong men and women who understand suffering, pain, despair, sorrow of others as well as their own.

This movie will haunt you for days and I challenge you that you can’t muster enough courage to see it once more just after finishing it for the first time. It is that good.

Here how it goes, the movie is about two siblings, Seita and Setsuko both brother and sister living in Japan with their mother during World War II in a city called Kobe. Their father who is in Imperial Japanese Navy is out there defending the country. Seita and Setsuko are seen in their house getting ready to go the bomb shelter. Their mother has already left to the shelter and they are just couple of minutes behind her. All the terrified people of Kobe city are also rushing out of their houses towards the bomb shelter.

As soon as the siren sounds, they know they have to hurry and reach in time as their sick mother is already there shaken, terrified and alone or else they will be blown to pieces. But they were late and the planes start dropping bombs. The bombs fell on the open grounds, houses, pathways destroying everything in their way, total chaos engulfs the city and people running for their lives are blown, burned and turned to ashes when came in contact with the explosion or flames caused by such incendiary bombs.

Seita and Setsuko move swiftly overcoming every obstacles in their path. But the path which leads to the shelter is like a treacherous mountain climb with bombs exploding nearby putting everything on fire and every step is like a decision, a single wrong move and BOOM!. Fortunately, they were able to reach a sea shore unscathed and decided to take rest for a while till things calm down. When the bombings stop and things seem calm they went to see their mother but the shelter was no longer there, fire destroyed everything. Also everything was gone, the house, the belongings, everything was either in flames or turned to ashes and nothing can be done to reverse it. Messengers on cycle making announcements with a loud speaker announces that a first aid station has been set up in an elementary school, hearing this Seita and Setsuko go there. Soon they ran into an old acquaintance who gives Seita his mother’s whereabouts. His mother was severely burned and soon after Seita meets her she succumbs to her injuries.

Left frightened and puzzled, and nowhere to go the only glimmer of hope was to leave for Nishinomiya where their aunt lives. When they arrive there by train the aunt welcomes them and seems polite and humble. She cooks and feeds them but her mind is malignant and soon she starts criticizing and yells at them for being lazy and good for nothing but praises herself for taking care of them and cooking and feeding them with no food to buy and limited ration in the house as if she has done a big favour for them.

She convinces Seita in trading his deceased mother’s Kimono to buy 15kg rice so that she could keep feeding them. Seita agrees and next day her aunt brings a sack of rice with her and gives half of it to them and keeps the other half for herself(which was not hers to take in the first place) and this greedy aunt doesn’t like loafers sitting at home doing nothing just eating home cooked hot served food without earning a single penny or working for the country in this time of raids.

Soon she resents them and tells them to eat separately or else they can go and live with any relative they know in Tokyo or go live in a cave they like to visit. This frustrates Seita and Setsuko also realizes that her aunt is not what she seems so they decide to leave her aunt’s home and go live in the cave by the hillside.

Now with no food to eat, no place to take shelter and no relative to trust in this Godforsaken time, Seita and Setsuko spend their time on a hillside cave where Setsuko’s health starts deteriorating day by day…

The real journey to survive, to adapt and the necessity to fight the greatest urge of all, hunger starts.

I want you all to feel this movie from this moment onwards, because sharing more info about the movie will spoil the whole reason behind what the movie is all about. Many reviews already on the internet tell you the whole story in a nutshell from start to beginning but I have kept the beginning a mystery and the end a heart melting epic.

Two more important things I want to share with you :

The name ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, why this name is given to the movie and why insect name ‘Fireflies’ was picked. The concept behind it is not mystery but beauty. You will learn about the awesomeness that is Grave of the Fireflies soon enough. For this watch the film below.

According to my view, the participation of real actors, child stars, their delivery and dialogues and inclusion of real live shots of emotions and destruction would have seriously destroyed the movie. The truth behind the success of Animation or in this context of success of the ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ is essence. The absence of visual realism made the story feel strong and deep which time to time pushed us to imagine the story’s foretelling ourselves and enabled us to associate even more of our imaginations with the animated characters of Isao Takahata.

“An absolutely stunning masterpiece by Isao Takahata, which haunts whoever sees this film”

“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”
― Gayle Forman, If I Stay