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Concept
Grave of the Fireflies
Summary
is a 1988 Japanese animated war tragedy film based on a 1967 short story by Akiyuki Nosaka. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, and animated by Studio Ghibli for Shinchosha Publishing.
The film stars Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara and Akemi Yamaguchi. Set in the city of Kobe, Japan in June 1945, it tells the story of two siblings and war orphans, Seita and Setsuko, and their desperate struggle to survive during the final months of the Second World War. Universally acclaimed, Grave of the Fireflies has been ranked as one of the greatest war films of all time and is recognized as a major work of Japanese animation.
In Kobe, the spirits of young war orphans Seita and Setsuko Yokokawa reunite and board a ghostly train as they recount how they survived the Bombing of Kobe in World War II.
In June 1945, a group of American Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers destroy most of Kobe. Though Seita and Setsuko survive the bombing, their mother is severely injured and later dies. Seita conceals their mother's death from Setsuko to keep her happy, which she later learns of despite Seita's efforts. 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 leave their aunt's home after excessive insults, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. They release fireflies into the refuge 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 and sent to the police by a farmer.
Official source
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