Grave of the Fireflies
Dir: Isao Takahata
1988
*****
Picking a favourite Studio Ghibli film is near impossible for most fans. My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo and Porco Rosso come very close as personal favourites for me but I think Grave of the Fireflies is undoubtedly their greatest and most powerful achievement. It's not just Ghibli's best either, it's one of the greatest animations of all time. Much like when people discuss what is the greatest graphic novel of all time, the general answer is Alan Moore's Watchmen, which it true until you read Art Spiegelamn's Maus. It's rare that any film can have such an emotional impact as Grave of the Fireflies does, whether it's real or animation but rarely does an animated film provoke such feelings. Along with Watership Down, Grave of the Fireflies really did push the boundaries when it came to the power of cartoons and showed just how important animation is in cinema. Considered an anti-war film by most, Akiyuki Nosaka, author of the short story the film is adapted from, has stated that it is actually a look at living outside of society, isolation, something suffered largely by teens and those in their early twenties, Nosaka's target audience. The main characters, brother and sister Setsuko and Seita, are victims of war and it is the suffering that war brings to normal people that makes it an anti-war film but Nosaka, an staunch anti-war supporter who has criticized Japan for its conformity on many occasions, is focusing the attention on youth and how they are forced to fall in line during times of hardship that are of no fault of theirs. It's about kids of the world who are never given the chance to make anything of themselves and how conformity often kills a child's spirit and the cycle continues when they reach adulthood and have kids of their own. It is a heartbreaking film, historically important, wonderfully executed and rightfully regarded as the masterpiece it is. Not a typical Studio Ghibli production but as brilliant as you'd expect from them.