Hotaru no Haka

In 1945, teenager Seita and his younger sister Setsuko's house is destroyed in a firebombing along with most of Kobe. They escape unharmed, but their mother dies from severe burns. Seita and Setsuko move in with a distant aunt, and Seita retrieves supplies he buried before the bombing and gives everything to his aunt, save for a tin of Sakuma drops. The aunt convinces Seita to sell his mother's silk kimono for rice as rations shrink and the number of refugees in the house grows. Seita uses some of his mother's money in the bank to buy supplies, but eventually, the aunt becomes resentful of the children, deeming them unworthy of earning her food.

Seita and Setsuko decide to leave the aunt's home after excessive insults, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They release fireflies into the shelter for light. The next day, Setsuko is horrified to find that the insects have died. She buries them in a grave, asking why they and her mother had to die. As they run out of rice, Seita steals from farmers and loots homes during air raids, for which he is beaten by a farmer and turned into the police, but he is released by a sympathetic officer. When Setsuko falls ill, a doctor explains that she is suffering from malnutrition. Desperate, Seita withdraws the last of the money in their mother's bank account. After doing so, he becomes distraught when he learns that Japan has surrendered, and that his father, an Imperial Japanese Navy captain, is most likely dead, as most of Japan's navy has been sunk. Seita returns to Setsuko with food, but finds her dying. She later dies as Seita finishes preparing the food. Seita cremates Setsuko's body and her stuffed doll in a straw casket. He carries her ashes in the candy tin along with his father's photograph.

Later on 21 September, shortly after the end of World War II, Seita dies of starvation at a Sannomiya train station. A janitor sorts through his possessions and finds the candy tin, which he throws into a field. Setsuko's ashes spread out, and her spirit springs from the tin and is joined by Seita's spirit and a cloud of fireflies. They board a ghostly train and, throughout the journey, look back at the events leading to Seita's death. Their spirits later arrive at their destination, healthy and happy. Surrounded by fireflies, they rest on a hilltop bench overlooking present-day Kobe.

Grave of the Fireflies author Akiyuki Nosaka said that many offers had been made to make a live-action film adaptation of his short story.[9] Nosaka argued that "it was impossible to create the barren, scorched earth that's to be the backdrop of the story".[9] He also argued that contemporary children would not be able to convincingly play the characters. Nosaka expressed surprise when an animated version was offered.[9] After seeing the storyboards, Nosaka concluded that it was not possible for such a story to have been made in any method other than animation and expressed surprise in how accurately the rice paddies and townscape were depicted.[9]

Isao Takahata said that he was compelled to film the short story after seeing how the main character, Seita, "was a unique wartime ninth grader".[10] Takahata explained that any wartime story, whether animated or not animated, "tends to be moving and tear-jerking", and that young people develop an "inferiority complex" where they perceive people in wartime eras as being more noble and more able than they are, and therefore the audience believes that the story has nothing to do with them. Takahata argued that he wanted to dispel this mindset.[9] When Nosaka asked if the film characters were "having fun", Takahata answered that he clearly depicted Seita and Setsuko had "substantial" days and that they were "enjoying their days".[11] Takahata said that Setsuko was even more difficult to animate than Seita, and that he had never before depicted a girl younger than five.[9] Takahata said that "In that respect, when you make the book into a movie, Setsuko becomes a tangible person", and that four-year-olds often become more assertive and self-centered, and try to get their own ways during that age. He explained that while one could "have a scene where Seita can't stand that anymore", it is "difficult to incorporate into a story".[12] Takahata explained that the film is from Seita's point of view, "and even objective passages are filtered through his feelings".[11]

Takahata said that he had considered using non-traditional animation methods, but because "the schedule was planned and the movie's release date set, and the staff assembled, it was apparent there was no room for such a trial-and-error approach".[11] He further remarked that he had difficulty animating the scenery since, in Japanese animation, one is "not allowed" to depict Japan in a realistic manner.[9] Animators often traveled to foreign countries to do research on how to depict them, but such research had not been done before for a Japanese setting.[9]

Most of the illustration outlines in the film are in brown, instead of the customary black. Black outlines were only used when it was absolutely necessary. Color coordinator Michiyo Yasuda said this was done to give the film a softer feel. Yasuda said that this technique had never been used in an anime before Grave of the Fireflies, "and it was done on a challenge".[9] Yasuda explained that brown is more difficult to use than black because it does not contrast as well as black.[9]

The film score was composed by Michio Mamiya. Along with the original soundtrack, the song "Home Sweet Home", performed by coloratura soprano Amelita Galli-Curci, was included.[13] Dialogue of the film is part of the soundtrack, the music and dialogue are not separated in any way.[14] Mamiya is also a music specialist in baroque and classical music.

During an interview about his music, Mamiya stated, "Arts should be used for the peace, for the peace, not for encouraging the battle. It's my hope and the thing I want to feel from my music.

Some critics in the West have viewed Grave of the Fireflies as an anti-war film due to the graphic and emotional depiction of the pernicious repercussions of war on a society, and the individuals therein. The film focuses its attention almost entirely on the personal tragedies that war gives rise to, rather than seeking to glamorize it as a heroic struggle between competing nations. It emphasizes that war is society's failure to perform its most important duty: to protect its own people.[16]

However, director Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war film. In his own words, it "is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message". Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties.[17][18]

Since the film gives little context to the war, Takahata feared a politician could just as easily claim fighting is needed to avoid such tragedies. In general, he was skeptical that depictions of suffering in similar works, such as Barefoot Gen, actually prevent aggression. The director was nevertheless an anti-war advocate, a staunch supporter of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and has openly criticized Japan's penchant for conformity, allowing them to be rallied against other nations. He expressed despair and anxiety whenever the youth are told to fall in line, a reminder that the country at its core has not changed.

The film was modestly successful at the Japanese box office,[31] where it grossed ¥1.7 billion.[2] As part of the Studio Ghibli Fest 2018, the film had a limited theatrical release in the United States, grossing $516,962.[3]

The Ghibli ga Ippai Collection home video release of Grave of the Fireflies sold 400,000 copies in Japan.[32] At a price of at least ¥4,935,[33] this is equivalent to at least ¥1.974 billion in sales revenue.

The film received universal critical acclaim. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his list of great films.[23] The film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating based on 40 reviews with an average rating of 9.30/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "An achingly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of Studio Ghibli's most profoundly beautiful, haunting works".[34]

The film ranked number 12 on Total Film's 50 greatest animated films.[35] It was also ranked at number 10 in Time Out's "The 50 greatest World War II movies" list.[36] Empire magazine ranked the film at number 6 in its list of "The Top 10 Depressing Movies".[37] The film ranked number 19 on Wizard's Anime Magazine on their "Top 50 Anime released in North America".[38] The Daily Star, ranking the film 4th on its list of greatest short story adaptations, wrote that "There is both much and little to say about the film. It is simply an experience—a trip through the lonely boroughs of humanity that the world collectively looked, and still looks, away from".[39] Theron Martin of Anime News Network said that, in terms of the original U.S. Manga Corps dub, while the other voices were "perfectly acceptable", "Setsuko just doesn't sound quite convincing as a four-year-old in English. That, unfortunately, is a big negative, since a good chunk of the pathos the movie delivers is at least partly dependent on that performance".[27]

On 25 December 2016, Toei Company made a Twitter post that read "Why did Kiriya have to die so soon?" (なんできりやすぐ死んでしまうん, Nande Kiriya sugu shinde shimaun?) in order to promote an episode of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. The hashtag became popular, but Toei deleted the tweet after receiving complaints that referencing the Grave of the Fireflies line "Why do fireflies die so soon?" (なんで蛍すぐ死んでしまうん, Nande hotaru sugu shinde shimaun) was in poor taste.[40] Before that, the ranking website Goo's readers voted the film's ending the number 1 most miserable of all anime films.[41]

On June 2018, USA Today ranked 1st on the 100 best animated movies of all time.