Grave of the Fireflies
By, Sean McAninch and Merrik Saunders
Grave of the Fireflies starts with a voiceover from the main character Seita (J. Robert Spencer). Talking about the year and he tells us the viewers that he was going to die. This makes you feel a shift in power. This is not known at the start but after you watch the movie for the first ten to twenty minutes you learn how the power changed. From the viewpoint of Seita he tells his story showing what led up to his death. Through this young boy’s story he shows what you can really lose from war.
In the movie a repetitive sequence was the firebombing of the towns. This theme always followed a motif of someone saying something about the power structure. Like in the beginning of the movie, Seita(J. Robert Spencer) is hiding food underground so he can get it after the bombing is over. But after the mother dies and they go to their Aunt’s house she tells them. “You are a Navy man’s son.” This leads us to think that the military is a higher ranked society around the Japanese community.
When Seita and Setsuko first move into their Aunt’s house it is clear that she isn’t too happy about it. She continuously treats them unfairly due to Seita and Setsuko’s father being in the Navy. The Aunt feels that Seita has cheated everyone else because he is treated better being in a military family. The Aunt stats her feelings to Seita and Setsuko constantly. When feeding Seita and Setsuko she only dips out broth to them but the rest of the family got the rice and meat that was in the pot. Since they don’t work and where privileged she thinks that Seita and Setsuko doesn’t deserve food. It turns out that Seita did work before the bombing and the food he saved after the bombing he shared with everyone. After an argument with the Aunt Seita and Setsuko find ways to get their own food. Even then the Aunt is unsatisfied and continued to make living their hard. The Aunt really shows how war times can change a person. Seita and Setsuko are trying their best but past prejudiced prevent the Aunt from helping her family. Seita and Setsuko are at the mercy of the Aunt until they decide to leave to live on their own.
At the time that Seita and Setsuko leave the Aunt’s house you see Seita’s spirit look over them in their new living space. This come up at different points of the movie. Since Seita died at the beginning of the movie this story is him looking back before he dies. His spirit is shown in red when bad things are happening or when he loses more. After Seita and Setsuko leave the Aunt’s house they live at a shelter. This shelter is a very small one that is in the side of a hill. When Seita and Setsuko first start to live their it seems happy but soon after the living conditions start to worsen. New problems arise for Seita and Setsuko. They start to lose more and more be it their health, nourishment, or even themselves. The red spirit of Seita represents loss in his life as if someone is looking back at their own life to see how they have lived.
After they start to live in the shelter. Seita starts to learn how hard life can really be, after a few of his deals fall through and he can’t get food for Setsuko. So he then turns to theft first stealing tomatoes. Then going all the way, running around the towns that are being firebombed to get supplies. This only stops when Setsuko become sick and Seita tries to get sugarcane for her. But he gets caught and beat up by the farmer, but when he gets taken to the police the officer shows his pull on power by making the farmer back down by threatening him with his sword.
Through these and many other hardships that Seita and Setsuko face they show that war isn’t anything to take lightly. Each character and what they do is important in this story to show how much a person can lose. The character/character development truly make this movie.
Grave of the Fireflies starts with a voiceover from the main character Seita (J. Robert Spencer). Talking about the year and he tells us the viewers that he was going to die. This makes you feel a shift in power. This is not known at the start but after you watch the movie for the first ten to twenty minutes you learn how the power changed. From the viewpoint of Seita he tells his story showing what led up to his death. Through this young boy’s story he shows what you can really lose from war.
In the movie a repetitive sequence was the firebombing of the towns. This theme always followed a motif of someone saying something about the power structure. Like in the beginning of the movie, Seita(J. Robert Spencer) is hiding food underground so he can get it after the bombing is over. But after the mother dies and they go to their Aunt’s house she tells them. “You are a Navy man’s son.” This leads us to think that the military is a higher ranked society around the Japanese community.
When Seita and Setsuko first move into their Aunt’s house it is clear that she isn’t too happy about it. She continuously treats them unfairly due to Seita and Setsuko’s father being in the Navy. The Aunt feels that Seita has cheated everyone else because he is treated better being in a military family. The Aunt stats her feelings to Seita and Setsuko constantly. When feeding Seita and Setsuko she only dips out broth to them but the rest of the family got the rice and meat that was in the pot. Since they don’t work and where privileged she thinks that Seita and Setsuko doesn’t deserve food. It turns out that Seita did work before the bombing and the food he saved after the bombing he shared with everyone. After an argument with the Aunt Seita and Setsuko find ways to get their own food. Even then the Aunt is unsatisfied and continued to make living their hard. The Aunt really shows how war times can change a person. Seita and Setsuko are trying their best but past prejudiced prevent the Aunt from helping her family. Seita and Setsuko are at the mercy of the Aunt until they decide to leave to live on their own.
At the time that Seita and Setsuko leave the Aunt’s house you see Seita’s spirit look over them in their new living space. This come up at different points of the movie. Since Seita died at the beginning of the movie this story is him looking back before he dies. His spirit is shown in red when bad things are happening or when he loses more. After Seita and Setsuko leave the Aunt’s house they live at a shelter. This shelter is a very small one that is in the side of a hill. When Seita and Setsuko first start to live their it seems happy but soon after the living conditions start to worsen. New problems arise for Seita and Setsuko. They start to lose more and more be it their health, nourishment, or even themselves. The red spirit of Seita represents loss in his life as if someone is looking back at their own life to see how they have lived.
After they start to live in the shelter. Seita starts to learn how hard life can really be, after a few of his deals fall through and he can’t get food for Setsuko. So he then turns to theft first stealing tomatoes. Then going all the way, running around the towns that are being firebombed to get supplies. This only stops when Setsuko become sick and Seita tries to get sugarcane for her. But he gets caught and beat up by the farmer, but when he gets taken to the police the officer shows his pull on power by making the farmer back down by threatening him with his sword.
Through these and many other hardships that Seita and Setsuko face they show that war isn’t anything to take lightly. Each character and what they do is important in this story to show how much a person can lose. The character/character development truly make this movie.