Grave of the Fireflies

This article is about the film. For the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, see Grave of the Fireflies (novel).

Grave of the Fireflies
North American DVD cover
Kanji	火垂るの墓
Rōmaji	Hotaru no Haka
Directed by	Isao Takahata
Produced by	Toru Hara
Screenplay by	Isao Takahata
Based on	Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka
Starring	Tsutomu Tatumi Ayano Shiraishi Yoshiko Shinohara Akemi Yamaguchi
Music by	Michio Mamiya
Cinematography	Nobuo Koyama
Editing by	Takeshi Seyama
Studio	Studio Ghibli
Distributed by	Toho (Japan) Bandai Visual (USA) AESir Holdings (North America) Optimum Releasing (UK) Madman Entretainment (New Zealand & Australia)
Release date(s)	April 16, 1988 (1988-04-16)
Running time	88 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓, Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film written and directed by Isao Takahata. This is the first film produced by Shinchosha, who hired Studio Ghibli to do the animation production work. It is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, intended as a personal apology to the author's own sister.

Roger Ebert considers it to be one of the most powerful war movies ever made and, in 2000, included it on his Great Movies list.

Plot

Bombing of Kobe in World War II

Taking place toward the end of World War II in Japan, Grave of the Fireflies is the tale of the relationship between two orphaned children, 14-year-old Seita (清太) and his young 4-year-old sister Setsuko (節子). The movie begins in Sannomiya Station and portrays Seita, in rags and dying of starvation. A janitor comes and digs through his possessions, and finds a candy tin containing ashes and bones. He throws it out, and from it spring the spirits of Setsuko and Seita, as well as a cloud of fireflies. The spirit of Seita continues to narrate their story, which is, in effect, an extended flashback to Japan near the end of World War II, during the Kobe firebombings.

The flashback begins with dozens of American B-29 Superfortress bombers flying overhead. Setsuko and Seita, the two siblings, are left to secure the house and their belongings, allowing their mother, who suffers from a heart condition, to reach a bomb shelter. They are caught off-guard as the bombers begin to drop hundreds of incendiary bomblets, which start huge fires that quickly destroy their neighbourhood and most of the city. Although they survive unscathed, their mother is caught in the air raid and is horribly burned. She is taken to a hospital, but dies a short time later. Having nowhere else to go, Setsuko and Seita move in with a distant aunt, who allows them to stay but convinces Seita to sell his mother's kimonos for rice. While living with their relatives, Seita goes out to retrieve leftover supplies he had buried in the ground before the bombing. He gives all of it to his aunt, but hides a small tin of fruit drops, which becomes a recurrent icon throughout the film. Their aunt continues to shelter them but as their food rations get smaller and smaller, she becomes increasingly resentful. She openly remarks on how they do nothing to earn the food she cooks.

Seita and Setsuko finally decide to leave and move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They release fireflies into the shelter for light, but Setsuko is horrified to find that the next day they are all dead. She digs them a grave and buries them all, asking why they have to die, and why her mother had to die. What begins as a new lease on life grows grim as they run out of rice, and Seita is forced to steal from local farmers and loot homes during air raids. When he is caught, he realizes his desperation and takes an increasingly ill Setsuko to a doctor, who informs him that Setsuko is suffering from malnutrition but offers no help. In a panic, Seita withdraws all the money remaining in their mother's bank account. As he leaves the bank, he is distraught when he learns from a nearby crowd that Japan has surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Powers and that his father, a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy who had promised him that Japan could never be defeated, is probably dead, since nearly all of Japan's navy is now at the bottom of the ocean. He returns to the shelter with large quantities of food, only to find a dying Setsuko hallucinating. Seita hurries to cook, but Setsuko dies shortly thereafter. Seita uses supplies donated to him by a farmer to cremate Setsuko, and puts her ashes in the fruit tin which he carries with his father's photograph, until his own death from malnutrition in Sannomiya Station a few weeks later.

In the movie's final scene, the spirits of Seita and Setsuko are seen, healthy and well-dressed, sitting side-by-side as they look down on the modern city of Kobe.

Story origin and interpretations

The story is based on the semi-autobiographic novel of the same name, whose author, Nosaka, lost his sister due to malnutrition in 1945 wartime Japan. He blamed himself for her death and wrote the story so as to make amends to her and help him accept the tragedy.

Some critics have viewed Grave of the Fireflies as an anti-war film due to the graphic and truly emotional depiction of the negative consequences of war on society, and the individuals therein. The film focuses its attention almost entirely on the personal tragedies that war gives rise to, rather than seeking to glamorize it as a heroic struggle between competing ideologies. It emphasizes that war is society's failure to perform its most important duty: protect its own people.

However, director Isao Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war anime. In his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message." Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties.

About the title

Japanese nouns do not change to form plurals, so hotaru can refer to one firefly or many. Seita and Setsuko catch fireflies and use them to illuminate the bomb shelter in which they live. The next day, Setsuko digs a grave for all of the dead insects, and asks "Why do fireflies die so soon?", so the title might serve to heighten the thematic significance of the incident.

In the Japanese title of the movie the word hotaru (firefly) is written not with its usual kana ほたる, its modern kanji 蛍, or its traditional form 螢 with two 火 (hi, "fire"). Instead, both the book and movie use 火垂る — a single fire character, 垂 (tareru, to dangle down, as a droplet of water about to fall from a leaf), and the ru kana. Some consider that this evokes senkō hanabi, a fire droplet firework (a sparkler which is held upside down). This is particularly poignant in this respect because the sparkler must be held very still or the fire will drop and die, representing the fragility of life.^{[citation needed]} Senkō hanabi also evoke images of family, because it is a summer tradition in Japan for families to enjoy fireworks together. Fireworks, in general, are considered to be another symbol of the ephemerality of life. Watching fireflies is another summer family tradition. Together, the references evoke the bond between Seita and Setsuko, but at the same time emphasize their isolation due to the absence of their parents.

Alternatively, pairing the two kanji for "fire" and "dangle down" may also be a metaphor for the experience of aerial bombing using incendiary weapons.^{[citation needed]} Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Japanese during the war sometimes referred to falling and exploding incendiary bomblets as "fireflies."^{[citation needed]} The two kanji certainly evoke how the incendiaries are depicted in the film, as falling droplets of fire.

Firefly symbolism

Particular firefly symbolism in the movie:

• Actual fireflies (which die and are buried by Setsuko)
• The children themselves, especially Setsuko, who dies young
• Kamikaze planes and pilots: Setsuko observes that a passing kamikaze plane looks like a firefly
• Incendiary bomblets (as in the title kanji)

Mature fireflies which emit light have extremely short life spans of two to three weeks and are traditionally regarded as a symbol of impermanence, which resonates with much of classical Japanese tradition (as with cherry blossoms). Fireflies are also symbolic of the human soul ("Hitodama"), which is depicted as a floating, flickering fireball. Heikebotaru (平家蛍, Luciola lateralis), a species of firefly that exist in the Western region of Japan, is so-called because people considered their lights, hovering near rivers and lakes, to be the souls of the Heike family, all of whose members perished in a famous historic naval engagement — the Battle of Dan-no-ura.

Music

The original soundtrack was written by Japanese composer Michio Mamiya who also worked on other Ghibli films such as Horusu no daiboken. Mamiya is also a music specialist in baroque and classical music. The song "Home Sweet Home" was performed by coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci.

Live-action version

Live-action version of Grave of the Fireflies.

The drama is liberal in deviating from from the original work. The author will be grateful if my novel, being adapted now, 60 years after the war, could convey the brutality of wars, even just a little bit, to the people living in the present days.

—Akiyuki Nosaka

NTV in Japan produced a live-action TV drama of Grave of the Fireflies, in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The drama aired on November 1, 2005. Like the anime, the live-action version of Grave of the Fireflies focuses on two siblings struggling to survive the final days of the war in Kobe, Japan. Unlike the animated version, it tells the story from the point of view of their cousin (the aunt's daughter) and deals with the issue of how the war-time environment could change a kind lady into a hard-hearted woman. It stars Nanako Matsushima as the aunt, as well as Inoue Mao as their cousin. The drama is approximately 2 hours and 28 minutes long.

Commenting on the dramatization, Akiyuki Nosaka noted that the drama was liberal in deviating from his original work but also said that he would nevertheless remain thankful if it could convey the brutality of wars to the people of the present days.

A different live action version of the film was released in Japan on July 5, 2008.

Releases

Its initial theatrical release in Japan was accompanied by Hayao Miyazaki's much more lighthearted My Neighbor Totoro as a double feature. In commercial terms, the theatrical release was a failure.^{[citation needed]} While the two movies were marketed toward children and their parents, the extremely depressing nature of Grave of the Fireflies turned away most audiences. However, Totoro merchandise, particularly the stuffed animal of Totoro and Cat bus, sold extremely well after the film and made overall profits for the company to the extent that it stabilized subsequent productions of Studio Ghibli.

Grave of the Fireflies is the only Studio Ghibli film that the Walt Disney Company never had distribution rights to in the United States, since the film was not produced by parent company Tokuma Shoten, but by Shinchosha, the publisher of the original novel. Princess Mononoke is now no longer a Disney (Buena Vista) title after the shutdown of Miramax Films. Grave of the Fireflies was released in the U.S. by Central Park Media in a two-disc DVD set. The first disc contains the uncut film in both an English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles as well as the film's storyboards. The second disc contains several extras, including a retrospective on the author of the original book, an interview with Director Isao Takahata, and an interview with well-known critic Roger Ebert, who has expressed his admiration for the film on several occasions. Following the 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media, A.D.V. Films acquired the license to Grave of the Fireflies and re-relesed it to DVD on July 7, 2009. Following the shutdown and rebranding of ADV in 2009, their successor, Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012, and plans on releasing the film on digital outlets.

English dub cast

• Rhoda Chrosite - Setsuko (likely a pseudonym, see Rhodochrosite)
• Amy Jones - Aunt
• J. Robert Spencer - Seita
• Veronica Taylor - Mother

Reception

Source	Reviewer	Grade / Score	Notes
Movie Freaks 365	Stan Stepanic	10 out of 10	Movie Review
Anime News Network	Mike Crandol	Overall (dub): A- Overall (sub): A+ Story: A Animation: B+ Art: A Music: B+	DVD/Movie Review of Collector's Series DVD
AnimeOnDVD	Chris Beveridge	Content: A Audio: B+ Video: A Packaging: A- Menus: B+ Extras: A+	DVD/Movie Review of Collectors Series DVD
THEM Anime Reviews	Raphael See	5 out of 5	Movie Review

As of December 20, 2011, this movie is ranked #112 on IMDb's top 250 movies. The full aggregation of reviews by Rotten Tomatoes polls at 96% "Fresh" with 23 reviews counted. Rotten Tomatoes consensus states "An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works".

Grave of the Fireflies made Time Out's, with help from Terry Gilliam, top 50 animated film list, where it was ranked at #12 on the list. Movie Critic, Roger Ebert has recently put the film on his "Great Movies List" calling it, "an emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation." It is often considered to be one of the best movies of all time.

Grave of the Fireflies ranked number 12 on Total Film's 50 greatest animated films of all time. It was also ranked at #10 in Time Out magazine's "The 50 greatest World War II movies" list. Empire magazine ranked the film at #6 in its list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies" of all time.

See also

• Strategic bombing of Japan during World War II
• Evacuations of civilians in Japan during World War II
• Japanese Cruiser Maya - According to the movie, the children's father was the captain of the heavy cruiser Maya (摩耶). During the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944, Maya was sunk with the loss of 479 men, including the ship's captain. The ship is named after Mount Maya (摩耶山 Maya-san), which is located near the city of Kobe, where the movie takes place.
• Sakuma drops (サクマ式ドロップス Sakuma-shiki Doroppusu) are the fruit-flavoured hard candy eaten by the children in the movie. They are made by the Sakuma Candy Co. and are sold in 4-by-3.5 inch tin cans with a tin pull cap. Although not as popular as in the past, Sakuma drops are still sold in Japan today and their tins have become a popular collector's item. Several commemorative tins resembling the one depicted in the film and featuring an image of Setsuko have been released over the years.

External links

• Grave of the Fireflies (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Grave of the Fireflies at AllRovi
• Grave of the Fireflies at the Internet Movie Database
• Information page at Nausicaa.net
• Grave of the Fireflies in Roger Ebert's Great Movies Collection
• Live-action version of Grave of the Fireflies
• Official website (Japanese)
• ANN remastered review