Must-see anime movies

It took me a little while to get around to this, but I had no main TV in the lounge for a bit due to shipping delays, as that's fixed now I decided to watch Grave of the Fireflies on it yesterday.

This may be an unpopular opinion, and I will put into spoilers for anyone else who comes across this post who hasn't seen it yet.

Rather than being sad about events I actually found myself being frustrated by the end.

Seita wound up in the care of his aunt, who whilst not seeming especially nice, did at least take them in. She bemoaned that he was not earning the food they were eating, not going to school or doing work, and you know what, she was absolutely right. What did they do other than become a burden? They provided some by the sale of the kimono cloth and the food they hid at the start, but people eat a lot and that soon gets eaten up.

After she pointed it out one too many times, Seita decided to leave, and even when the situation got desperate, his pride meant he refused to back down and apologise, eventually leading to the death of his sister, and then he himself died. Worst of all, he had money, right at the end, and could have bought some food or supplies before it became too late.

For this reason, I found the events a little too forced, and it seemed the tragedies shown could have been avoided had Seita just been less stubborn. Especially bad considering the first victim of the idiocy was his sister, and not just himself.

For me personally I actually found the film a little overrated, I will however say that the animation and art was on the whole very good, some beautiful scenery, but it's not enough to sell the film to me by itself unfortunately.
 
Lordhippos said:
It took me a little while to get around to this, but I had no main TV in the lounge for a bit due to shipping delays, as that's fixed now I decided to watch Grave of the Fireflies on it yesterday.

This may be an unpopular opinion, and I will put into spoilers for anyone else who comes across this post who hasn't seen it yet.

Rather than being sad about events I actually found myself being frustrated by the end.

Seita wound up in the care of his aunt, who whilst not seeming especially nice, did at least take them in. She bemoaned that he was not earning the food they were eating, not going to school or doing work, and you know what, she was absolutely right. What did they do other than become a burden? They provided some by the sale of the kimono cloth and the food they hid at the start, but people eat a lot and that soon gets eaten up.

After she pointed it out one too many times, Seita decided to leave, and even when the situation got desperate, his pride meant he refused to back down and apologise, eventually leading to the death of his sister, and then he himself died. Worst of all, he had money, right at the end, and could have bought some food or supplies before it became too late.

For this reason, I found the events a little too forced, and it seemed the tragedies shown could have been avoided had Seita just been less stubborn. Especially bad considering the first victim of the idiocy was his sister, and not just himself.

For me personally I actually found the film a little overrated, I will however say that the animation and art was on the whole very good, some beautiful scenery, but it's not enough to sell the film to me by itself unfortunately.
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Two things you're overlooking there:

Seita only found out that his father was dead right near the end. Until that point he thought they only needed to hold out until their father got back from the war.

While selfishness is definitely a theme of the film, it doesn't just apply to the children, but to almost everyone in the film. Ultimately, no one the children meet (except maybe the policeman who shows one brief moment of kindness) gives a damn whether they live or die. Some make big noises about working for the good of the nation, but no one cares about each other. They're all burnt out by the war and looking out for themselves. I don't necessarily paint anyone as a villain for that, since it was a hard time for everyone, but there are certainly no heroes in this film.

Even if they had gone back to the aunt, I doubt it would have made a difference. She started off feeding them dregs, and soon found the slightest excuse to stop feeding them at all. Probably the only reason she didn't throw them out was to avoid looking bad in front of her neighbours, but she was starving them out slowly with neglect.
 
Lordhippos said:


After she pointed it out one too many times, Seita decided to leave, and even when the situation got desperate, his pride meant he refused to back down and apologise, eventually leading to the death of his sister, and then he himself died. Worst of all, he had money, right at the end, and could have bought some food or supplies before it became too late.

For this reason, I found the events a little too forced, and it seemed the tragedies shown could have been avoided had Seita just been less stubborn. Especially bad considering the first victim of the idiocy was his sister, and not just himself.
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Exactly.

Seita's pride is his tragic flaw, that ultimately leads to the death of his sister and himself. But it was the pride and stubborness of Japanese society - or certainly the top brass - at the time that led to war and continued war despite the inevitability of defeat, leading to the death of millions. Seita's flaws mirror Japan's.
 
Dai said:
Two things you're overlooking there:
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For me it wasn't just about the food situation but also the living arrangements, they were basically living like homeless people. Even if the aunt provided them no food at all, they just needed a roof and a warmish house to stay in I think. I do agree basically everyone was looking out for themselves, even the farmer who originally sold them some food stopped doing so (although he did give the advice they should go apologise to the aunt).

I don't think the aunt route would definitely have saved them, but I believe it had a better chance of doing so compared to what they did. The waiting for the father think to me didn't really seem to get much focus, it was highlighted once or twice, but he sent a letter off and never got a reply, Seita didn't seem totally oblivious, he probably knew his father wasn't coming back.
 
Lordhippos said:
it seemed the tragedies shown could have been avoided had Seita just been less stubborn.
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I know exactly where you're coming from with all that; it took me several viewings over the course of several years to finally crack Grave of the Fireflies.

It was that facet described in your quote above that was the biggest stumbling block for me and became the reason that I clicked with Giovanni's Island straight off the bat. That film, by contrast, truly is a story of people doing their best in the aftermath of a war.
 
Very apt points on the stubbornness & pride leading to downfall being a reflection of society and leadership, and so too the instinctive selfishness borne out of the need for survival in an individual basis from those in society. I can't remember the characters' background well enough to comment, except that my impression was more in line with @Dai's take and I also remember thinking it was all purposely a bit vague and not fully clarified exactly what desperation lead them to run away.

I do think that for me the main takeaway from this movie is the harsh & actually inescapable reality of complete, helpless destitution for the most unfortunate in society, who have no help or avenue to turn to whatsoever with nothing but a tragic end. More so the case in difficult and uncertain times, such as wartime. Even good samaritans can only help so much when society itself is structured to maintain inequality, and reflective of the duality of human nature with selfishness & greed as integral as magnanimity & generosity.
 
Yeah, I got what the film was trying to show it just didn't really sell it to me personally, felt too forced, and too many silly decisions to be believable. I mentioned it before I think but Ghibli films (whether this chap or the other one) have never really interested me as much as others I've seen.

This is just my opinion though, I can see why it's something every anime fan should at least watch once, but it's not something I would rush out to watch again.
 
Lordhippos said:
Yeah, I got what the film was trying to show it just didn't really sell it to me personally, felt too forced, and too many silly decisions to be believable.
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The film is based on a semi-autobiographical story written by the author as an apology to his sister, whose death he blamed himself for. How accurately events mirror reality is unclear, but he portrayed Seita - or himself - in a deliberately unsympathetic way.

None of this means you or anyone else has to like the film, but I feel like the point is that what happened to the characters, and indeed the war itself, was tragically unnecessary.
 
Sometimes, it feels as if I have seen all the essential anime films, but there are still probably lots of gems out there waiting to be discovered.
 
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