Art Criticism: Animation Art

“Grave of the Fireflies”

Submitted to:
Mr. Levie Nuñes

Submitted by:
Vianne M. Palomer
 The Grave of the Fireflies is a movie set on World War II in Japan where two orphan
siblings, Seita and his young sister Setsuko, set out on their own despite their difficult situation.
The movie was very moving and had a sad ending but I thought it was inevitable. Seita had
always imagined himself as a soldier like his father and regarded himself as someone capable of
taking care of himself and his sister. They experienced mistreatment when they were staying
with their aunt from a far village, at first, she seems warm and welcoming to their presence. They
even allow their aunt to sell their mother’s things to raise funds to buy rice. But after the aunt can
find no more self-benefitting use in the children being there, she begins to turn on them. Bad
mouthing them, giving them less and less food, regarding them as extra mouths to feed and
freeloaders. These pushed Seita to leave with his sister and live on their own. This was a bad
decision on Seita’s part, in my opinion. Seita wasn’t even a teenager but he was confident that he
could take care of his sister on his own. If it was me, I would choose to stay with the aunt until I
could figure things out on my own, I would set aside my pride and do my best to survive. Seita
thought he could take care of his sister at first but when their mother’s funds in the bank ran out
and their resources are rapidly running out, it slowly led to his sister developing diseases and
later to her demise. In times of war, people often forget how to be human and have compassion
for others. Like when Seita sneaks into a village to steal food, he is caught and thrown in jail. No
one is interested in listening to his story because they are all struggling to survive.