It’s Just so Sad!: Grave of the Fireflies
Well, you better break out the
tissues, ladies and gentlemen. I don’t
think it’s any secret that part two of Miyazaki May is a review on one of the
saddest animes of all time, in both film and series. And while I can agree with the usual sentiment
of those who had the displeasure of watching this movie, I think there are some
things about this film that get over looked.
But before we get into that, let’s talk about this film, Grave of the Fireflies.
The film first opens with an
introduction from one of the main characters, Seita, as he’s dying…yeah, great
way to open up the film. After tossing
what is later to be revealed as a candy canister, the spirits of Seita and his
younger sister Setsuko appear. This opening
pretty much sets the stage for the entire film regarding tone. Moving on from this scene, we open on Seita
and Setsuko’s town being attacked by an air raid during the end of World War
II. Both Seita and Setsuko manage to
escape their home and survive, but their mother was not so fortunate having
suffered severe burns to her body. In an
attempt to get her to a hospital, the siblings decide to live with a distant
aunt. It’s is sadly revealed later,
however, that their mother died before even leaving for the hospital and was
later cremated, with Seita carrying her ashes at one point in the film. Things seem to go well for the siblings’ arrangement
at first until the aunt becomes very vocal about her distaste with her being
responsible for the two of them, stating how the two are both lazy and do
nothing to contribute to the ongoing war.
Fed up with the berating, Seita decides to move out himself and Setsuko to
a shed outside of town. Once again, the
arrangement seems to work at first, but things become difficult when food
starts to become scarce. Things only get
worse when Setsuko starts to become sick from malnutrition. What’s worse, Seita starts to resort to
stealing just to get by, and even gets caught at one point. Unfortunately, and even after Seita is able
to buy enough food for her to have a decent meal, Setsuko dies from starvation
and malnutrition. After cremating her in
what I though was the saddest moment of the entire film, Seita reveals that he
put some of Setsuko’s ashes in the candy canister and that he never returned to
the shed after her death. The film ends
with the spirits of Seita and Setsuko looking over a modern-day Kobe.
I have to admit, after watching this
film, I didn’t know what to think. I can’t
say that this film was good, but it wasn’t bad by any means either. And I’ll admit a lot of that comes from the
fact that I watched a few reviews of this movie on YouTube. But looking at the film as a whole, it’s fine. Though I know I’d probably get a whole lot of
hate from that comment and for saying this, I give Grave of the Fireflies a 7.5 out of ten. So, like I said earlier, I watched videos and
reviews of the movie on YouTube before watching the movie myself, so I knew
what was going to happen from the get go.
I’m not a fan of sad movies or TV shows, so given that this film is
reputed as one of the saddest anime films of all time, I didn’t want to watch
the movie blind. That being said, given
what I’ve heard about the film and what I actually saw watching the film, I
think this film had a strong message to it.
And no, it’s not an anti-war message.
Many people often associate Grave
of the Fireflies as being an anti-war film.
Given that the film is set in World War II and much of the situations
that Seita and Setsuko find themselves in is a direct result of the War, it
really isn’t the focus. Much of the film
focuses on Seita and Setsuko struggling to survive. And sure, you can take away an anti-war
message from the film, but the film itself is not a war film. Still, that’s not to say you can create a
discussion around this topic. In fact, I
think the actions of Seita are very reflective of the attitudes of the
time. Historically speaking, the idea of
surrendering was an egregious notion for the Japanese; for the longest time
they believed in fighting to the bitter end, almost to the point that they were
training children to fight American soldiers.
You can almost see this attitude with Seita. He even gets upset when he learns that Japan
surrendered! But while Seita has the
same attitude that everyone else does-fight or die-, Seita goes to the extremes
by refusing to swallow his pride. Even
when his own sister is dying of starvation, and as much as the audience wants
him to, he refuses to return to his heartless harpy of an aunt even though they
would be guaranteed food, water, and shelter.
This refusal to just swallow your pride and give up was something that I
really picked up on. And again, I think
it was very reflective of the attitudes of the World War II era. As I said earlier, the aunt often berates the
two siblings for not doing anything for the war effort. At the end of the day, I can’t quite call
this an anti-war film-even though it plays a huge role in the film-because it
focuses on other things throughout the film.
Speaking of which…
It should probably come as a
surprise to know one that this film is sad.
But when I say sad, I mean intentionally sad. And that is probably the biggest problem I
have with this film. It is advertised
and remembered as a sad film. What’s
worse, it’s almost manipulatively sad.
Now granted, this actually comes from the opinion of one of the reviews
I watched on the film. When watching
Bennet the Sage’s review, Bennet noted that the film was almost a manipulative
tool for teens and young adults of the time the film was released. During the seventies and eighties, juvenile delinquency
was on the rise, with it particularly peaking in 1982. Given that Grave of the Fireflies was released in 1988, it makes sense that
the film was meant as a lesson for the rebellious youth at the time to be grateful
for what they had, and also to be respectful of what their parents and
grandparents went through. Yeah, you
heard right, Bennet noted that many of these young people at the time most
likely had parents who grew up and experienced the aftermath of the War
firsthand. When I heard that viewpoint
in Bennet’s review, it was actually not too difficult to see that as I watched
the film. Even if this idea can be taken
from the film, I the film itself is still pretty manipulative. They even throw in scenes that are
intentionally sad just to tug at the heart strings. The best example of this comes after Setsuko’s
death when we get treated to a montage of her playing around the shed. It would have been just as sad watching Seita
by the charcoal used for the fire for her cremation and then immediately followed
by him cremating her, but the montage get’s thrown in there to intentionally
get a tear out of the audience rather than make a point or move the story along. Still, whether it tries to get rebellious
teens to straighten up or get a tear-soaked anti-war message across, I still
think it should be a film to watch.
So yeah, like the title above says,
this is a sad movie. It’s no secret to
those who know of this film’s existence.
But still, I think there’s a worthwhile message in there-be it anti-war
or otherwise- which I think makes it a must-watch on any otaku’s bucket list…just
have a box of tissues ready. If you’re brave
enough to watch this film for yourself, it’s available wherever anime is sold. And so, that wraps up this week’s review, and
thank God I got through it in one piece!
But fortunately, I’ll be moving on to part three with the legendary and
hopefully more chipper film Kiki’s
Delivery Service next Sunday! Also,
before that happens, I might be doing a Talkative Thursday post that may or may
not have some ties to Studio Ghibli.
Either way, stay tuned for more!
-Hanime
on Anime
P.S.: Happy Mother’s
Day to all you moms out there, especially to my own mom! You give us all love and the ability to watch
anime guilt free…most of the time! 😉
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