While the subject of Grave of the of the Fireflies (1988) was certainly unusual for anime during that time, it was hardly unique; Mori Masaki's Barefoot Gen (1983), which deals with Hiroshima, was released even earlier. What gives Grave of the Fireflies its particular emotional resonance is the fullness and subtlety with which it depicts the relationship between Seita and his sister Setsuko. The author Akiyuki Nosaka, whose autobiographical 1967 novel formed the basis for the film, has insisted that the circumstances of his sister's death were virtually identical to those in the novel.
In a 1987 interview for the magazine Animage, Nosaka suggested an interesting connection between Grave of the Fireflies and the kind of double-suicide love story associated with 18th century playwright Monzaemon Chikamatsu; notable Chikamatsu film adaptations include Kenji Mizoguchi's The Crucified Lovers (1954) and Masahiro Shinoda's Double Suicide (1969). In Nosaka's novel, the story is further complicated because the protagonists are an adolescent boy and his sister. Nosaka stated: "The only person he can exchange words with is his sister, but while there's a strong blood-tie, he's shut out from being able to love her as a girl. His tension grows high -- hence a sublimation takes place. The sister too, becomes affected by the change in the environment and the change in her brother, and has to grow up quickly. Eventually, she assumes the role of his mother at times, and at other times, the role of his lover. She is overwhelmingly dependent on him, but she also becomes his spiritual support. So when the sister starts to perish physically, the brother has no choice but to see her as becoming even more beautiful. It's like the sweet delusions of boyhood. In the end, it turns out that the days leading up to their death are like the development of a love story."
Nosaka was born in 1930 and was adopted into a new family in Kobe when his mother died shortly after birth. During the Second World War one sister died of disease, his adoptive father was killed during a fire bombing raid, his adoptive mother later passed away of injuries sustained during the same air strike, and his youngest sister died of malnutrition. Although he was reunited with his birth family after the war, he ran into frequent problems with the law and spent time in a correctional facility. His breakthrough work was the novel The Pornographers (1966), which first appeared in serialized form in 1963 and was adapted by Shohei Imamura into his acclaimed 1966 film. He was awarded the prestigious Naoki Prize for Grave of the Fireflies in 1968 and has also earned a reputation as a witty essayist.
Grave of the Fireflies was produced by Studio Ghibli concurrently with My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and the two films were distributed together--a most unusual double-bill of children's films. Its director, Isao Takahata, is one of Japan's leading animators alongside Hayao Miyazaki, and he has in fact produced some of Miyazaki's films as well. Recent films by Takahata include Pom Poko (1994) and My Neighbors the Yamadas (1999), but Grave of the Fireflies remains arguably his finest film to date. A live action version of the same novel was made in 2005 for Japanese television, though the focus has been shifted to the aunt and the difficulties she faces taking on a pair of orphaned children.
Producer: Tohru Hara, Ryoichi Sato
Director: Isao Takahata
Screenplay: Akiyuki Nosaka (novel), Isao Takahata
Cinematography: Nobuo Koyama
Film Editing: Takeshi Seyama
Art Direction: Nizou Yamamoto
Music: Yoshio Mamiya
Cast: Voices of Rhoda Chrosite (Setsuko), J. Robert Spencer (Seita), Veronica Taylor (Mother), Amy Jones (Aunt).
C-93m. Letterboxed.
by James Steffen
