30 Animated Movies That Are Not for Children

Studio Ghibli’s most devastating film, Grave of the Fireflies is set in Kobe, Japan, and tells the story of war orphans Seita and Setsuko, and their struggle to survive during the closing months of WWII.

After their mother dies, Seita and his young sister Setsuko move in with their aunt, who scorns them, sells their mother’s belongings, and ultimately starves them out of her house. Left to their own devices, the pair move into an abandoned bomb shelter and attempt to live off the land. And with Isao Takahata rather than Hayao Miyazaki at the helm, their story takes several dark turns before ending in disaster.

We expect the bomb to hit and end it all, but it never comes - not directly, not for this family. Because, while Grave of the Fireflies does seem to be a metaphor for the suffering the people of Japan faced in WWII, its narrative looks inwards more than anywhere else. Seita and Setsuko’s story is really one of the unwillingness of family, community, and society to overcome their strict notion of what custom, duty, and morality ought to be, in order to save their most vulnerable members.