Last time we celebrated “Laputa: Castle in the Sky”. The first Anime movie by Studio Ghibli. A hearted story full of adventure confronting the good and the bad. But Ghibli showed that the Studio can be as good even in times of war.
When Anime does what Live-Action can not
Nosaka Akiyuki said that many offers had been made in order to produce a live action film adaption of his acclaimed short story. The author of “Grave of the Fireflies” short story argued “no child actor today could possibly bring to life any of the protagonists”. Also after seeing the storyboards concluded that “it was impossible to create the scorched Earth that is the background of the story”.
Takahat Isao, one of the Ghibli’s co-founders together with Miyazaki Hideo and Suzuki Toshio, saw something unique in the story. Something that makes it one of a kind war story. The protagonist Seita: a unique ninth grader, in words of the legendary producer/director. They weren’t what the people were ready to face in a wartime story. “People used to see characters as noble and more able being in the middle of a war so much bigger than them”. The director was convinced that the characters were even having good days in the movie. Middle of the war.
Nosaka himself said that “Seita is rather a spoiled kid for a wartime”. Takahata argued that Seita’s feelings are much more easy to understand for young people of the 80’s, who often base decisions on whether or not they feel pleasant.
A war story never far from reality
Grave of the Fireflies is a biographical story by Nosaka Akiyuki. He was living with his aunt in Kobe at the time of the firebombings. His adoptive father died during the bombings and his younger adoptive sister Keiko, passed away from malnutrition later in Fukui. “I wrote the story as an apology to Keiko”.
“Seita is myself transformed into a better human being, someone who did what I could not”. Nosaka himself admitted that sometimes during war he ate the food better than thinking more about her sister. “I was never as kind as Seita. There is no one as helpless as me. I could not put anything of this in the story”
A different face of Ghibli the same year together with Totoro
Director Takahata Isao expressed that his decision to show the protagonists have died right at the start of the movie is to protect the audience. “Knowing from the beginning that the protagonists will die, helps to prepare the audience to watch the movie. I tried to lessen their pain”.
The film was released on 16 April of 1988 as a double feature together with My Neighbor Totoro. And many were turned away from the raw nature of the film (it was far before Monoke Hime cruel war in the Muromachi period.). But the time turned it a classic even for Studio Ghibli who is more associated with light hearted stories. Today the movie is acclaimed in the whole world as one of the best war movies of all time.