We watched this for our Asian Cinemas class, and it’s partly because I am overemotional, but I spent most of the movie in tears.

I really like that Japan has realised that animation isn’t just for children. If I’m thinking Western animation for adults, I couldn’t name any big name, mainstream movies that are composed entirely of animation for children. Something like More comes to mind.

MORE tells the story of an old, tired inventor as he struggles through joyless life in a drab and passionless society, leading the same cold and colorless existence accepted by the identical drones around him. At once tortured and inspired by his dreaming of and yearning for his younger carefree days, he struggles to finish the invention he hopes will give his life meaning and worth. His world, and the world of those around him, is transformed when his secret invention is completed. However, his subsequent success does not come without sacrifice. The inventor realizes that the true essence of his inspiration cannot be manufactured…

More is amazing and has won awards, but most people haven’t heard of it. (At least, that’s what I believe.) And even More is a stop motion, quite different from typical anime. Anime is usually hand drawn, or at least much more “traditional” looking. Otherwise, shows like Futurama and Family Guy are geared towards adults, but are still light entertainment.

Looking at Japanese animation, it’s something that people of all ages enjoy, at least in Japan. I’ve found shows like Death Note are incredibly dark (the premise is that Death Gods possess Death Notes in which they write down human names. A Death Note falls to the human world where it is picked up by a high school boy. Terror ensues.), while of course there are very simplistic animes for children – the obvious ones here are Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZBx0FFoUiI

And of course, we’ll come back to Grave of the Fireflies. This is Roger Ebert’s take on it:

His take on it is excellent, and quite similar to what I thought (not that I’m any Ebert). Grave of the Fireflies is set during World War II, which instantly caught my eye, because you don’t get a lot of Japanese perspective on WWII in the Western world. Of course, you could point out that the Japanese committed their fair share of atrocities.

But then, if you can’t identify with Japanese civilians because of that, then you couldn’t feel empathy for Americans, who as a nation are by all accounts are terrible, terrible people. Apartheid? Nuclear warfare? Can’t feel too bad about them.

Don’t listen to much to me though. I get really riled up about American arrogance. Those dicks.

American animation attempts to reproduce motion at 24fps to look more or less like objects and animals and people really do look like they’re moving.

Ebert points out that anime can be a little more simplistic than some American animation, you’re looking at it as art. You can’t compare abstract art to impressionism to realism. Well, you can, I guess.

I’m not sure what point I was really trying to make, but this is a good film. I cried, a lot. But I cry at everything.