is a 1988 Japanese animated war film written and directed by Isao Takahata. It stars the voices of Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, , and . Based on Akiyuki Nosaka's 1967 semi-autobiographical short story of the same name, the film is set in Kobe shortly after its bombing by the U.S. Army Air Forces, and follows two orphaned siblings who desperately struggle to survive during the final months of the Pacific War.
Production began after Nosaka became interested in an animated adaptation of his book. Translated by Animerica from: Originally published in Animage, June 1987. This is a translation of a 1987 conversation between Takahata and Akiyuki Nosaka. It was animated by Studio Ghibli, and was Takahata's first film with the studio. Several critics considered it an anti-war film, but Takahata disagreed. The film was theatrically released in Japan by Toho on April 16, 1988, and was a modest success at the Japanese box office, grossing ¥1.7 billion. Its later international releases between 2018 and 2025 grossed overseas. It received universal acclaim and is considered by many to be Takahata's masterpiece, one of the greatest animated films of all time, and a major work of Japanese animation. It garnered particular praise for its emotional weight, and has been cited as one of the saddest films ever made.
Plot
In March 1945, American bombers destroy most of Kobe during the waning days of the Pacific War. 14-year-old Seita and his 4-year-old sister, Setsuko, children of an Imperial Japanese Navy captain, survive, but their mother dies. She is cremated in a mass grave outside and Seita is seen carrying a small wooden box containing her ashes. Seita conceals their mother's death from Setsuko. The siblings move in with an aunt. He hides his mother's box of ashes in the garden. Seita retrieves a supply cache he buried before the bombing and gives everything to his aunt, save for a tin of Sakuma drops, which he gives to Setsuko. The aunt convinces Seita to sell his mother's silk kimonos for rice, which devastates Setsuko.
As rations dwindle, the aunt becomes resentful of the children as Seita does nothing to earn the food she prepares for them. At her suggestion, Seita withdraws some money from his mother's bank account to buy a charcoal stove and other supplies. Following an air raid, the siblings move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Among the belongings is the wooden box of his mother's ashes. They capture fireflies from the marshes and release them into the refuge for light. The following morning the fireflies have died. Setsuko buries them and reveals their aunt told her their mother died, then tearfully asks why the fireflies had to die so soon.
The situation becomes dire when they run out of rice. A friendly farmer recommends that Seita swallow his pride and return to his aunt, but he refuses, instead stealing crops from farms and breaking into homes during air raids. A farmer catches him and brings him to the police station, but the sympathetic policeman lets him go.
Setsuko falls ill, and a doctor explains she is suffering from malnutrition. Seita withdraws the last of the money from their mother's bank account. He is distraught to learn that Japan has surrendered and that his father is most likely dead, as most of Japan's naval fleet has been sunk. Seita returns to Setsuko with food and finds her hallucinating. She dies as Seita finishes preparing the food. Seita cremates Setsuko's body and her doll in a straw casket. He carries her ashes in the candy tin along with his father's photograph.
Seita dies of starvation a few weeks later at a Sannomiya train station surrounded by other malnourished people. A janitor, tasked with removing the bodies before the Americans' arrival, sorts through Seita's possessions. He finds the candy tin and throws it into a field. Setsuko's ashes spread out, and her spirit springs from the container, joined by Seita's spirit and a cloud of fireflies. The two board a ghostly train and, throughout the journey, look back at the events leading to Seita's death as silent, passive observers. Their spirits, healthy and content, arrive at their destination: a hilltop bench overlooking present-day Kobe, surrounded by fireflies.
Voice cast
+ Character Japanese voice actor English voice actor Tsutomu TatsumiJ. Robert SpencerAdam GibbsLucas Jaye Ayano ShiraishiCorinne OrrEmily NevesLuna Hamilton Veronica TaylorShelley Calene-Black Amy JonesMarcy BannorRen Hanami
Production Development
"Grave of the Fireflies" author Akiyuki Nosaka said that many offers had been made to make a live-action film adaptation of his short story. Nosaka argued that "it was impossible to create the barren, scorched earth that's to be the backdrop of the story". He also argued that contemporary children would not be able to convincingly play the characters. Nosaka expressed surprise when an animated version was offered. After seeing the storyboards, Nosaka concluded that it was not possible for such a story to have been made in any method other than animation and expressed surprise in how accurately the rice paddies and townscape were depicted. Although the film deals with World War II, with the exception of Isao Takahata, most of the key staff members belonged to a relatively young generation that had not experienced the war firsthand. When Nizo Yamamoto was approached by Takahata to serve as art director, he initially intended to decline, reasoning, "Wouldn't someone who experienced the war and knows the conditions of that time be better able to depict it realistically?" However, Takahata reportedly persuaded him by saying, "It is precisely because you don't know the war that I want you young people to do this". Takahata drew from his personal experience to create a realistic depiction of the air raid on Okayama. He criticized TV shows and movies that had recreated images of incendiary bombs, "They include no sparks or explosions, I was there and I experienced it, so I know what it was like."
The film features Niteko-ike pond (ニテコ池), which is described as the "birthplace" of the novel and where Nosaka conducted his daily routines of dishwashing and personal ablutions. Notably, during the final days of the Pacific War, Nosaka, then 14 years old, sought refuge with his younger sister-in-law in a relative's house and nearby bomb shelters near the pond.
Takahata said that he was compelled to film the short story after seeing how the main character, Seita, "was a unique wartime ninth grader". Takahata explained that any wartime story, whether animated or not animated, "tends to be moving and tear-jerking", and that young people develop an "inferiority complex" where they perceive people in wartime eras as being more noble and more able than they are, and therefore the audience believes that the story has nothing to do with them. Takahata argued that he wanted to dispel this mindset. When Nosaka asked if the film characters were "having fun", Takahata answered that he clearly depicted Seita and Setsuko had "substantial" days and that they were "enjoying their days". Takahata said that Setsuko was even more difficult to animate than Seita, and that he had never before depicted a girl younger than five. Auditions were held for her role based on his request for "a child actor of the same age as Setsuko who speaks the Kansai dialect", and Ayano Shiraishi, then five years old, was selected. After being cast, Shiraishi received verbal direction on her lines from her manager and then recorded her voice using the "prescoring" method (where the voice is recorded before the animation is completed),Grave of the Fireflies movie pamphlet which stemmed from Takahata's desire to "incorporate the timing, accent, and even the breathing of the performer into the animation" (In Japanese animation production, it is common practice to record the voice-overs after the animation has been completed). Takahata said that "In that respect, when you make the book into a movie, Setsuko becomes a tangible person", and that four-year-olds often become more assertive and self-centered, and try to get their own ways during that age. He explained that while one could "have a scene where Seita can't stand that anymore", it is "difficult to incorporate into a story". Takahata explained that the film is from Seita's point of view, "and even objective passages are filtered through his feelings".
Takahata said that he had considered using non-traditional animation methods, but because "the schedule was planned and the movie's release date set, and the staff assembled, it was apparent there was no room for such a trial-and-error approach". He further remarked that he had difficulty animating the scenery since, in Japanese animation, one is "not allowed" to depict Japan in a realistic manner. Animators often traveled to foreign countries to do research on how to depict them, but such research had not been done before for a Japanese setting. Since depicting wartime scenery was a major challenge for the production staff, location scouting was conducted in advance in Nishinomiya and Kobe under the guidance of Nosaka. Additionally, the staff watched director Yasujirō Ozu's films Tokyo Story and Good Morning, drawing inspiration from their depiction of the cramped Japanese houses typical of around 1945 and their focus on measured, understated performances. While animating the movie, Takahata also created several different cuts of the scene in which Seita cremates Setsuko's body. Takahata spent a lot of time on this scene, trying to create the perfect iteration of it. Each of these cuts remained unfinished and unused in the end.
Most of the illustration outlines in the film are in brown, instead of the customary black. Black outlines were only used when it was absolutely necessary. Color coordinator Michiyo Yasuda said this was done to give the film a softer feel. Yasuda said that this technique had never been used in an anime before Grave of the Fireflies, "and it was done on a challenge". Yasuda explained that brown is more difficult to use than black because it does not contrast as well as black.
Grave of the Fireflies was Takahata's first animated film produced with Studio Ghibli.
Production of Grave of the Fireflies and My Neighbor Totoro proceeded simultaneously at Ghibli. It is said that even Toei Dōga had never worked on two feature-length films at the same time, and since there were only a limited number of key staff members (animators) who could meet the high standards of Takahata and Miyazaki, the production team struggled to manage their personnel.Toshio Suzuki,『映画道楽』ぴあ、2005, p101-p102 A particular point of contention was the treatment of animation director Yoshifumi Kondō. As a result, while Miyazaki's team focused on newly recruited staff, Takahata's team gathered veteran staff members he had known for years, such as Kondō, Yoshiyuki Momose and art director Yamamoto. In later recollections, Takahata stated that securing Kondō was his "top priority—no, an absolute must" in terms of personnel, and that he did not personally recruit any other members.Isao Takahata「『火垂るの墓』から、はや二十四年」『アニメーション、折にふれて』Iwanami Shoten, 2013, pp.122 – 126 (First published in Yoshiyuki Momose Studio Ghibli Works Ichijinsha, 2011)