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| Taken from laurenbuckley.com |
Grave of the Fireflies is the most heartbreaking and sad anime that I have ever seen. The contrast between the playfulness of the children and the seriousness of the war that was going on around them was shown throughout the movie. When Seita and Setsuko go to their aunt’s house, they try to keep their minds off the bad that was the war, and all the death that went with it, and have some fun, so they would not be swallowed up by depression. When they are playing the piano, they are trying to regain some semblance of normality, but their aunt scolds them for being cheerful in a time of war. She kept saying how hard her family worked for the war effort, however, I think they were just using school or work as a way to distract themselves from the horror. Seita and Setsuko had no other means to do that because their school was bombed. When the aunt told them to make their own dinner, Seita tried to keep up a good attitude for Setsuko, and tried to make it fun for her. When they finally left, Seita worked really hard to keep Setsuko’s life happy and carefree. When the playful atmosphere was forcibly stripped away, they had to face the ugliness and cruelty of the adult world; a world where the people who were supposed to look out for you, did not even spare you a glance. The adults would just brush off Seita and Setsuko like they were not even there. The adults are responsible for Setsuko and Seita’s death. It was through their carelessness that brought about the starvation of both these children. Their deaths were not fair, but most deaths are not. It is a reminder that in war, not all casualties are found on the battlefield.
I forgot to read the article.
Grave of the Fireflies was the saddest anime I have ever seen as well. Seita and Setsuko did try to have some fun and take their minds off the war, it was just the way they went about it that got their Aunt upset. Seita did try to make the best out of a bad situation for Setsuko’s sake, but sometimes facing reality was unavoidable. I also agree that Seita and Setsuko’s death were because of the adults. The adults didn’t really care about the children who would be affected by the war. They just cared about themselves and their own family. The scene where the farmer takes Seita to the police station shows how much the adults don’t care about children, especially orphaned children. All the farmer cared about was his stolen crops. Seita told the farmer that his sister was sick and needed him, but the farmer just kept pushing and beating him. So, yes casualties don’t just happen on the battlefield.
ReplyDeleteI agree, this movie was ridiculously sad. It was beautiful in a way though. The way Seita and Setsuko tried to make the most of their situation was really touching. In the end, the scene where they show flashbacks of Setsuko playing around the shelter, I thought that was really lovely. That scene kind of shows that even though they were going through a war, they still had those moments embracing their childhood. It was really sad that Seita had to grow up so fast to take care of his little sister all on his own. You brought up a great point about them trying to have fun despite their mean aunt's scolding. Also, it's interesting that you talked about the Aunt's family just distracting themselves through work. I didn't really think of it that way but it makes a lot of sense. I guess the main thing is even though the movie painted a bad picture of the Aunt and her family, they were all going through a rough time. The Aunt was definitely unnecessarily awful to the kids though. Anyways, great job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job summing up the movie. I also agree that this anime was one of the most sad that I have ever seen, as well. I know you cried a lot during the movie, but I understand why you did – though I did not cry. I felt as though I should have cried, but it did break my heart. I felt as though my heart sank while I watched this movie. So I did not cry, but I was most definitely touched by the movie on a high level. This movie is very, very sad and touching. The most sad Studio Ghibli movie I have ever seen. I like how you pointed out that their deaths were not fair, but then again that death usually is not anyways. I think that is one of the saddest aspects of life, that death is unfair to the most random people.
ReplyDeleteI did not like the contrast between the calm parts and the pressing parts, the change in atmospher, while most others say was good, took away from the movie for me. It is sad that Seita dies but in the end after his mother, father and sister all suffer the same fate could anyone really continue living after that? I found an article on the man who work the story and h had to live with a simmular guilt after the war that he would feed himself first while his sister died of starvation, it was almost too much to bare.all is fair in love and war even death not on the battle feild.
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