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Americans tend to think of animation as kiddie fare. However, not all animation is cartoonish in nature. There are artists of the abstract whose animated films do not conform to traditional narrative conventions. There are stop-motion animators who use their medium to show solid inanimates whimsically coming to life. There are even animated porn films, most well-known being "Fritz the Cat" and those Japanese color fests with female characters displaying ZZZ-cup breasts.
Ah, yes, Japanese animation. Long before "Toy Story" and "The Prince of Egypt" brought a grown-up sensibility to contemporary American audiences, the Japanese realized that animation could often convey artistic truths better than live-action films. Without the burden of realism, animation expresses ideas in their purest forms. An animator can choose to show nothing but a distilled concept, unfettered by concerns about not appearing "believable". The Japanese have tapped into the medium´s greatest strength--painterly emotionalism--to infuse and to suffuse their films with deep feeling.
To be sure, Japanese animation has its share of lows. There are inane children´s cartoons like Pokemon, countless variations on the "teenagers-piloting-big-robots" theme, fluffy comedies, and the aforementioned pornography (known as hentai). By the time you´ve seen your third movie with heroes and villains flying through the air with slashing swords, you´ve seen them all. Yet, the highs reached by Japanese animation have given movie lovers some of the best moments of their lives.
At a time when Disney hand-drawn animation has taken a back seat to the dazzling computer work of Pixar ("Monsters, Inc."), DreamWorks ("Shrek"), and Square Pictures ("Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within"), hand-drawn animation in Japan may be enjoying the longest sequence of masterpiece after masterpiece in the history of the genre. Yes, I know that Disney labels everything from "Beauty and the Beast" to "Hercules" as classics, but let´s be honest, are Disney´s movies all worth watching repeatedly? Japan´s Studio Ghibli has hit home runs with every one of its releases during the past 20 years. Its triumphs include "Kiki´s Delivery Service", "Princess Mononoke", the recent "Spirited Away" (which drew standing-room-only crowds on its way to becoming the top-grossing film of all time in Japan), and the lyrically poignant and devastatingly moving "Grave of the Fireflies".
Based on a novel by Akiyuki Nosaka (which was based partly on his own childhood experiences), the film follows 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister as they deal with their post-WWII condition. Orphaned and rendered homeless by American bombers, Seita and his sister take shelter in caves. They scrounge for food and do their best to survive, but the rest of society ignores their predicament. In fact, the children are reduced to making mud cakes, mud pies, and mud balls, pretending that they can enjoy feasts on a daily basis.
Throughout "Grave of the Fireflies", it´s evident that the filmmakers look fondly upon their young protagonists, but they also reflect sadly on the despair that occurs on personal levels in any cataclysmic event. History busies itself with dates and events, trying to capture the "big story". However, every-day life has nothing to do with the "big story" and everything to do with the small things that define our existences. Oftentimes, children like Seita and his sister are the ones who suffer the most when statesmen conduct grand follies.
The animation is superb in its artistry. You´ve probably heard the complaint that Japanese animation has characters with eyes that are too large for their faces, but keep in mind that animation is not meant to be realistic in the strictest sense of the word. You will be overcome by the grief, the hunger, the sheer need etched onto the characters´ faces.
"Grave of the Fireflies" may be an animated movie, but it´s not for children only. In fact, given the brutal impact of its story and its visuals, parents might want to screen the movie before deciding if their young ones should see it at all. The main theme of the film is loss, and there are losses of every variety--loss of family, loss of basic human needs, loss of national pride following wartime defeat, and even loss of basic human decency. Other characters in the movie treat and resent the children as vagabonds without taking the time to understand their personal tragedy. The filmmakers condemn both violent aggression as well as the indifference that arises from selfishness.
Note: For some reason, Americans refer to Japanese animation as "anime". The truth of the matter is that "anime" is a French word (meaning animation), and the Japanese refer to their brand of animation as...yep, you guessed it, animation. Therefore, I have no idea why many a self-styled otaku and fan-boys insist on referring to the genre as "anime" to the exclusion of any other term. I mean, what sense does it make to label Japanese creations with a blanket French term? Also, what´s wrong with saying "Japanese animation", especially when that´s exactly what these motions pictures are?
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[release]10539[/release]