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*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS LIGHT SPOILERS*


“Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning.”
― Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
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Introduction
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Ever since Studio Ghibli movies came out on Netflix, I've slowly been burning through my backlog. Grave of the Fireflies, though, is surprisingly *not* included in the Ghibli Netflix lineup for some reason, despite other more obscure Ghibli titles like Pom Poko being there. Moving right along, I have mixed feelings about this film since while it does tell a tragic story, it is frustrating to know that ... the events of the film could have been avoided if the main character wasn't such a blockhead. However I still gave the story a 10 because it's not like the story didn't flow, it simply aroused some frustrating feelings in me, which may have been the whole point. More on this later.

Technical
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Technically, the movie is pretty good as you'd expect from Studio Ghibli. The animations are smooth and detailed and show even small movements that newer studios take for granted or don't even bother with. Even though the round cheeks that are a hallmark of Ghibli character design don't really endear me to them, other character designs are done well and the backgrounds are always incredible to see, with this film being no exception. Aurally, most of the movie was okay though I swear I heard Setsuko's crying being played on a loop in one scene because the audio abruptly stopped while she was still bawling and acting out and then just as abruptly started again.

The voice acting was hit or miss, with some of Seita's lines sounding heartfelt at times and downright wooden during others. I don't think there was a single scene in the movie where his laughter didn't sound forced. Setsuko, though, sounded pretty authentic--you don't really get to hear the kind of unrestrained, childlike squealing that you hear in this movie in most anime, much less in anime movies. This tells me that the kid who voiced her probably had a real blast during recording since she sounds authentically amused when she's joyfully playing by herself. Taking it in addition to Seita's lines, this tells me that the VAs voicing these two were complete amateurs, and a quick look at the cast page for the movie confirms that these were the only voice acting roles for their respective voice actors.

Story
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Going back to the story, the overarching themes jump out at you pretty quickly. War is hell and affects everyone, even those whose homes didn't get leveled or burnt to the ground. It suppresses kindness and makes people callous where they would have been compassionate. But even during war, it's important to have your small celebrations and little hopes, just as Seita and Setsuko did. Additionally, even though I said that war affects everyone, it also doesn't choose who gets the short end of the stick and Seita's family, despite apparently being somewhat affluent, become some of the most unfortunate people gobbled up by the tide of the war. And all of this is happening while the rich get to just go on vacation and come back after it's all over like nothing has happened. Very realistically-grounded, this movie is.

And finally, what seems to be the most misunderstood story element of the movie and the make-or-break element of some of the other reviews on here: Seita's pride. Before we talk about that, let's talk about the Japanese people and culture. We all know that the Japanese people are diligent and hardworking and often don't complain about their lot in life. Seita exemplifies this in the second and third acts of the movie when he works unwaveringly for his sister's sake despite their fortunes turning bleaker and bleaker by the minute. Notice that he does not curse Setsuko for being a burden nor does he lament the fate that the war brought upon him and his sister. Only halfway through the third act, when he learns of his father's fate, does he seem to show some despair. But he soldiers through it all anyway for his sister's sake.

People have harped on and further on about how if he weren't so desperate to cling to his pride and went back to his foster home then maybe the second and third acts of the film might not have happened the way they did. But the thing is, this sort of pride is not something that is looked down on in Japanese society. It's a fairly common trope for characters in "battle" anime to fight battles they know they aren't going to win, even when some of them are entirely avoidable, for the sake of their pride. Indeed, one soldier in the movie embodies this by yelling "Long Live the Emperor!" in the aftermath of Seita's hometown being burned to the ground. In the Japanese "bushido" culture which permeated their society at the time and still can be seen in their media today, pride is seen as more important than life. Many military and bushido-related works of pre-WWII Japan emphasize that one should not be too eager to hold onto his life, as shown in the quote above.

So, was Seita acting more or less within the expectations that his culture placed on young Japanese men? Yes, absolutely. His head unbowed (well, at least figuratively, until the chronological "end" of the film), he eked out an existence for himself and his sister in a way that few people could probably do today. Was what he did incredibly foolish? Of course it was, by modern standards. As some have rightly pointed out, he dragged his sister down with him in his hubris, putting out the lights of their youth before their time. The fireflies that feature so prominently throughout the film are analogues of that brash attitude: Seita wished so badly to shine brightly, proudly like a firefly and in the end, the other great overarching theme that the movie wished to impart on its audience was that bushido culture no longer had a place in post-war Japan and that it would only lead to pointless death.

Conclusion
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Tragedies are often tales of human folly, and this one is no exception. Ghibli stories always tend to include some element of grounded sadness to juxtapose against the general happy and/or whimsical tone of their movies; Grave of the Fireflies does the opposite and ends the movie on a sad note, as seems to be more typical of their earlier works as compared to their later ones. I would think that the bad taste that "Fireflies" leaves in the mouths of some may explain why Ghibli stories never really got this dark again, and why this is the only Ghibli film that was produced as a double bill together with "My Neighbor Totoro", which is probably as far from "Fireflies" as can be. Looking quickly at an article at Den of Geek (https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/my-neighbor-totoro-grave-of-the-fireflies-an-appreciation/) confirms this:

"It’s said that, when Totoro was shown first, some cinemagoers were unable to sit through the distressing Grave, and left before the end. Exhibitors found that, if they switched the films around, the cheerier Totoro served as a welcome antidote to the stark realism of Grave."

In the end my appreciation for the movie hinges more on a more nuanced (at least in my opinion) understanding of the story while acknowledging that this is definitely not a movie to be "enjoyed" but rather something to sober us up from our fantasies, a necessary grounding to complement the lofty stories we often take for granted. Other, similar gut-punch stories include "Kaiba" and "Now and Then, Here and There" with "Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom" as an honorable mention.

A rare gem of an anime, made for people who are mature enough to enjoy a calm and slow-paced but inspiring drama.

The musical score is breathtaking, and quite appropriate for the gritty city setting of the bar, with a lot of nice jazzy tracks.

The characters in Bartender are very colorful and human, each with their own flaws and problems.

On a whole, little about this series is idealized and dumbed-down for the masses; on the contrary, it's a very classy anime that has a certain maturity requirement to watch. If you don't appreciate this show for what it is, then it's your loss.