Background
Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓) is a Japanese animated film scripted and directed by Isao Takahata in 1988 (before some of you were born!). It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel by Japanese novelist Akiyuki Nosaka. Some stories attract people’s attention either because the plot is excellent or because they can relate to the characters' lives. Akiyuki Nosaka wrote the novel is based on his experiences before, during and after the firebombing in Kobe in 1945. One of his sisters died as the result of a sickness, his adoptive father died during the firebombing proper, and another sister died of malnutrition in Fukui. It is written as a personal apology to his sister, regarding her death.
Plot
The film is based on a 14 year old boy Seita and his younger sister Setsuko and their story after the end of World War II. It begins with a fleet of bombers flying overhead Seita and Setsuko, who are left to secure the house and their belongings, allowing their mother, who suffers from a heart condition, to reach a bomb shelter. They are caught off-guard as the bombers begin to drop hundreds of incendiary bomblets, which start huge fires that quickly destroy their neighbourhood and most of the city in Kobe. Although they survive unscathed, their mother is caught in the air raid and is horribly burned. She is taken to a makeshift clinic in a school, but dies a short time later.
Having nowhere else to go, Setsuko and Seita move in with a distant aunt, who allows them to stay but convinces Seita to sell his mother's kimonos for rice. While living with their relatives, Seita goes out to retrieve leftover supplies he had buried in the ground before the bombing. He gives all of it to his aunt, but hides a small tin of fruit drops. Their aunt continues to shelter them, but as their food rations continue to shrink due to the war, she becomes increasingly resentful. She openly remarks on how they do nothing to earn the food she cooks.
Seita and Setsuko finally decide to leave and move into an abandoned bomb shelter as they become orphans and homeless. They release fireflies into the shelter to use them as light, and Seita tries his best to find food to feed not only himself but his sibling Setsuko after they run out of rice. This forced Seita to steal from local farmers but he got caught, and found out that his father probably died at the bottom of the ocean. After Setsuko dies from malnutrition, Seita puts her ashes in the fruit tin, which he carries with his father's photograph until his own death arrives from malnutrition in the station.
Characters
Seita
Being only 14 years old when his father went away with the Navy, Seita is the responsible member of the household. During the air raids, he is the one to take care of this sister while instructing his Mum to go to the shelter first. He protects his younger sister Setsuko like a parent, and tries his best to keep her safe. When she is sad, he tries to cheer her up with a fruit candy tin. He believes very strongly in his father and the Japanese army. He is stubborn and didn't believe they were going to lose but the war took almost everything: his mother, his home... This made him grow up very fast, and he became his sister’s protector.
Setsuko
A very happy and innocent girl at the start of the film. She is 4 years old and adores her older brother Seita, eager to help him out whenever she can. She seems too innocent to understand the war taking place around her. When she becomes aware that her mother is dead (even without anyone telling her), she cries that her mother is never coming back. With all this suffering and loss in her life, she becomes terrified of losing her brother but it turns out he is the one to lose her.
Seita and Setsuko's Mother
Their mother is a respectful and natural identity. She is an ideal mother figure. She loves her children and has a good control of things, even during the war which has made her husband go off to fight.
Seita's Aunt
Seita's aunt is attached to her values, which include hard work and solemnity during wartime. As a typical house wife, she is strict and often quite cruel or selfish but this could be a reflection of the natural human state during wartime.
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