GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

Japan | 1994 | DCP | 89 min. | Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Isao Takahata

In the final months of World War II, a teenage boy and his young sister struggle to survive alone in the devastated landscape of firebombed Japan, their bond deepening as the world around them collapses. Based on a semi-autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, this anime was the first Studio Ghibli feature directed by Takahata, who was 9 years old at the end of WWII. Perhaps the most emotionally devastating of all animated features, Grave of the Fireflies has been widely acclaimed by critics like Roger Ebert, who wrote “Yes, it’s a cartoon…but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.”