Patrick Drazan. ‘War is Stupid: War and Anti-War Themes in Anime’ in ANIME EXPLOSION! THE WHAT? WHY? & WOW! OF JAPANESE ANIMATION. Stone Bridge Press. Berkeley. 2003. pp. 192-207
In brief, the article introduces the plots and analyzes the features of several representative Japanese animated films which tell different stories about both fictional and real wars that Japan was involved. As the author indicates at the beginning, these are two major kinds of animated war films in Japan (except those have no connection to the Earth). The gravestone of fireflies screened this week belongs to the real one. But however, in my own opinions on the film, how real or completed it is, in terms of reflecting the war?
“September 21, 1945. That was the night I died”. Such heart-breaking words spoken by a 14-year-old boy, as well as the every single piece of the film which constructs a desperate, miserable atmosphere for audiences. As a piece of Art I can’t find any moment in this film that I don’t appreciate or enjoy. Two young lives are struggling to survive is a great perspective and the scene of fireflies flying in their shelter and the boy burned his sister at the end is brilliantly drawn. And I have to say, it is, indeed, an anti-war film because just watching it you will find yourself more hating war than ever. But however, war is complicated. As the author points out, ‘It is difficult to see issues such as Japanese war guilty or atrocities In Asia and Pacific could be introduced as anything other than an artificial and ideological driven digression from the stories these films are trying to tell’(p. 194). Almost all real war films introduced in the article focus on the terrible situations inside Japan and describe Japan as the biggest victim of the war and only based on this point, they reflect the WW2. Therefore, I think this reflection is not completed. If it is not completed, how cloud it be true and real?