Flanders no Inu (Movie)

Both are a touching depiction of how life can be cruel, especially to children. The art-styles of the two have a similar old feel to them, and both are very nicely animated.  

Both are powerful historical tragedies narrated in a style suiteable for children, but transcending that audience by a mile. Both depict historical class injustice and and how eventually everybody everybody suffers loss and pain because of it. The ultimate fate of the young protagonist is the same in both. Both are tear jerkers but not in an overly kitschy and pretentious manner, the story itself is credibly tragic. Both deal with a couple of protagonists where one watches over the other. Unlike Grave of the Fireflies, Dog of Flanders has no war backdrop, which makes the outcome even more evitable and sad. 

Both movies treat a dog-child relationship, and how the noble animal helps the child cope with hardships. They also depict their respective real-life geographical regions (and the daily life of the peoples) with meticulous detail. Of course, I prefer Dog of Flanders by far, and believe it is a historical drama masterpiece, whereas I did not like Tibet Inu much because of reasons such as its characterization and a supernatural twist. 

Tearjerking movies that feature emotional animal characters in tragedies. Chirin (a lamb) is driven by his vengeance following familial loss and a shattering of his innocence while Patrash (a dog) is driven by his devotion to his struggling owner and friend Nello.