Grave of the Fireflies(火垂るの墓)

Name: Grave of the Fireflies
Genre: Animation, Drama, War

Japan · 1988
1h 29m
Director Isao Takahata
Starring Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi
Genre Animation, Drama, War

This touching film chronicles 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko, who are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan at the end of WWII. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, can Seita and Setsuko fight the odds and learn to survive?

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What are people saying?

K W

The saddest movie I have ever seen. It took almost a month for me to stop spontaneously breaking out into sobs.

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What are critics saying?

The Observer (UK) by

It's an accomplished, affecting, relentless work.

Slant Magazine by Chris Cabin

Isao Takahata makes survival the thematic core of the story, but he never degrades his characters or fetishizes their suffering.

Empire by Dan Jolin

A devastating heart-stab of a movie, this certainly isn't a family film. It is, however, a beautifully constructed, animated drama.

100

The New York Times by Glenn Kenny

The movie remains one of the most startling and moving animated films ever. It is also, with the likes of “The 400 Blows,” “Kes,” and “Vagabond,” one of the finest films about being young in an indifferent world.

Chicago Reader by J.R. Jones

Rivals the films of Hayao Miyazaki in elevating anime to the level of fine art.

100

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

While a child might be affected by the film, it takes the weight of a certain number of years to fully absorb what director Isao Takahata has put up on the screen.

100

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

An emotional experience so powerful that it forces a rethinking of animation.

100

The Guardian by Steve Rose

This animated Japanese masterpiece is a war story as wrenching as any live-action movie.

The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson

Fireflies makes its doomed subjects seem utterly human, with the wealth of personal details and believable characterizations common to Studio Ghibli's peerless animated films.