Netflix Gets The Most Powerful Anime Movie Ever

Grave of the Fireflies is a story explaining the true costs of wars. Most of the story centers around two siblings, Seita, a teenager, and Setsuko, a young girl, as they are separated from their parents during a firebombing during World War II. Trying to find their family again, the two have to learn to survive, rely on each other, and fight against overwhelming odds to live.

Like many films by Studio Ghibli, the story is based on a book. It was a novel by Akiyuki Nosaka with the same name, following two young siblings trying to survive World War II. The book was meant to be semi-autobiographical in nature, documenting experiences and horrors seen by many during the war.

While this is an amazing movie, Grave of the Fireflies isn’t one made necessarily for kids. Because it highlights the horrors of World War II in a brutally honest way, it may be too much for some children to watch. This is definitely not one to just assume it is child-friendly because it’s animated.

Grave of the Fireflies has an average score of 8.52 on My Anime List. It’s also popular amongst movie watchers who don’t traditionally watch anime and found they enjoyed the film, as the film also has a 100 percent critic score and a 95 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

It’s a Studio Ghibli film directed by Isao Takahata (Only Yesterday). Unlike other Ghibli movies, this one is a much darker and sadder story than you might expect. However, it’s a powerful and emotional tale that’s worth a watch, and despite its differences from others by the studio, it is often considered one of the greatest movies from Ghibli.

However, those who aren’t invested in anime or Ghibli might not have seen Grave of the Fireflies before. It was released at the same time as My Neighbor Totoro, and the two were actually often in theaters as a double feature.

It was thought that neither film would be able to attract enough audience members on their own, so it was decided to offer them as a double feature. While it worked, it also made a stark difference between the two films, with one being extremely depressing (Grave of the Fireflies) and one being a lighthearted tale about childhood (My Neighbor Totoro). The more lighthearted one often garnered more attention, and some people avoided the darker story to not traumatize their children.

It came The film first came out in 1988, but if you’ve somehow never seen it, now’s your chance. Grave of the Fireflies is coming to Netflix on September 16, 2024. It’s one of 22 of Netflix’s Studio Ghibli films and will be available in 190 different countries, excluding Japan, on September 16.