Studio Ghibli Thoughts: Grave of the Fireflies

When writing all my previous "Studio Ghibli Thoughts" posts before, I only wrote them after re-watching each respective movie. I am now admitting to writing this post without watching Grave of the Fireflies again; I simply can't bring myself to watch it another time having already watched three times. Every time I watched it, it had a profound psychological effect on me for days, and I know that given the deteriorating scenes in Gaza today, it would make that war even more real to me than it is right now.

Grave of the Fireflies is the first movie directed by Isao Takahata under the Studio Ghibli name, and it was produced to be shown in tandem with My Neighbor Totoro which will forever be a curious strategy (that may have been the only way for Totoro to ever be produced). It is a movie about the death, due to hunger, of two children in World War II Japan as society hardened by war around them, and the systems of protection allowed the most vulnerable to wither and die. If the majority of Studio Ghibli movies showcases the good humans can do in a flawed world, then this one presents the evil our species can expertly dish out to the world.

This is not a pro-Japan World War II film as some idiots might say. The two children in the movie could be in any country, any society, and thousands of them are living in Gaza right now, some who will die of hunger just as Seita and Setsuko do in this film. War, and the idea of bringing peace through death is an archaic concept that should have been abandoned with the invention of the first bomb.

So far, I only focused on the message of the movie, but I think the resonance of that message and the powerful emotions it conveys is due to the expert direction of Takahata and the movie's intentionally understated scope. As a prime example, I should note that I didn't spoil anything in this post by saying that the children die at the end, since that fact is shown to the viewer at the beginning of the movie. In that way, the movie doesn't trick your emotions by building-up hope and then dashing it with tragedy, but by showing you the end result and allowing you to view the course of how it happens.

With its soft colors, use of anime as a medium (child actors would never behave as realistically as Seita and Setsuko do in this movie), the movie allows the viewer to watch this tragedy unfold as if its in a dream, and its not only tragedy that we are watching. We get glimpses of the lives of these children behaving like children, betraying the happiness they would have consistently been in if they lived in a just world.

Based on its emotional impact alone, Grave of the Fireflies would be a Top Tier Studio Ghibli film, but it only manages to illicit that impact due to its masterful direction and ability to sell the two central characters. It is not something I feel comfortable recommending, but in a way, I think watching it adds to your humanity, as empathizing with some cartoon characters should help you empathize with the children that embody their struggle in today's world.