You should only watch it when you are ready.
Viewers associate feature-length Japanese animation with the colorful fairy tales of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, but director Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies resembles the studio's films only in style – the rest of the war drama takes place in a different universe.
After the successful release of Laputa: Castle in the Sky in 1986, Hayao Miyazaki offered his new project, My Neighbor Totoro, to the producers of Studio Ghibli. However, they felt that Miyazaki's fans, accustomed to his fantasy adventure sagas, would not go for a sentimental animation about 1950s Japan and two girls who befriend forest spirits.
So it was decided that Totoro would be released with another, more "reliable" animated film, based on a famous book about World War II, which would be of interest to teachers and parents who wanted to teach their children a lesson in history and morality.
Thus was born Grave of the Fireflies, directed by Isao Takahata, an old friend of Miyazaki's and his frequent director in the days when the future classic was still a leading animator.
What is Grave of the Fireflies About?
Japan, 1945, the final months of World War II. When the mother of teenage Seita and little Setsuko is killed in a bombing raid on Kobe, the children are forced to move in with their aunt in another city.
Although she takes them in, she often reproaches Seita for being a parasite who neither studies nor works, since the school where he studied and the factory where he was mobilized were destroyed.
Soon the boy's patience runs out, and he and his sister move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Seita hopes that he will be able to take care of Setsuko, but soon they both fall ill and starve.
Grave of the Fireflies Has Many Parallels to My Neighbor Totoro
Both My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies tell the story of children of different ages trying to cope with tragedy. But while in the Miyazaki's film they literally escape into a fantasy world with a friendly forest spirit, in the Takahata's work there is no time for dreams: the reality around the kids is too cruel to be distracted by anything.
Nowadays, almost everyone watches My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies separately, but these two films are worth seeing back to back at least once in a lifetime – as Japanese viewers did in 1988.
Otherwise, it is difficult to grasp all the numerous parallels between the films, which tell of Japan's past and place two children, one older and one younger, at the center of the story.
Grave of the Fireflies is Coming to Netflix
Grave of the Fireflies will soon be available on Netflix – the anime will be released on the platform on September 16th.
Remember, however, that this is an extremely heavy film for which you must be mentally prepared.