1. The Hiroshima Sequence - Barefoot Gen
Image EntertainmentIn Japan, all manga is banned from schools, on the grounds that the toys, books, and anime might prove too distracting for children. However, in every school library, one manga remains€”Barefoot Gen. It is the only manga and anime allowed in schools because of its historical attention to the Hiroshima incident. The story is about a young boy, Gen, who survives the dropping of the Atomic bomb. The first half of the film is dedicated to showing Gen bonding with his younger brother Shinji as they struggle with hunger during a food shortage. It is the last days of World War II, their pregnant mother is growing weaker by the day from malnutrition, and their father is doing his best at work to produce anything he can. Flashes of violence and horror linger always in the background. Young men are still being marched off to war, and every other night families must crowd into air raid shelters. But the bombs never fall, and the next day Gen and Shinji are back to playing together and searching for food. Then, one terrible day, the bomb falls. What follows is the single most horrifically violent moment in animated history. The flash of radiation burns the bodies to ash, their skin turns deep red, and their eyes melt out their skulls. A crazed dog gnaws on wood before being burnt black and blown away. An old man's head falls off his neck. Glass windows break, the shards cutting people in half by the blast. Gen miraculously survives the bomb and runs home. There he finds his pregnant mother attempting to lift part of the caved in house off the rest of the family. He attempts to help her, but it is futile and his father makes him drag his mother away from the approaching flames. The last thing they hear is Shinji crying for their help as he burns to death.