# grave of the fireflies \*yawn\*
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 26, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190 "2004-05-26T15:57:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/1 "2004-05-26T15:57:43Z")
i have seen a couple of Hayao Miyazaki’s anime. \*my neighbour totoro, kiki’s delivery service \* and others. needless to say i am impressed. so when i read the dope and came across numerous recommendations to watch _grave of the fireflies_ if you wanted a touching story, i settled in for a good watch.
grave of the fireflies sucked. totoro is more touching. bleh.
on preview: no wonder. it’s not directed by miyazaki.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/2 "2004-05-26T17:52:54Z")
I’d have to say that it’s visually impressive as any anime I’ve ever seen, but while the ending was sad, it wasn’t “devastating” in the way so many other tend to characterize it. Plus, I was hoping to see more of what happened that led to the boy to the state he was in at the beginning of the film, but they end on the “tear-jerking” moment, which was a little too abrupt for me.
So I wouldn’t say it “sucked”, but I am inclined to call it a bit overrated.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [May 27, 2004, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/3 "2004-05-27T20:02:29Z")
right, it’s overrated. i was just so disappointed as it was the first studio ghibli show that failed to move me.
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### Author:  [@CheapBastid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheapBastid)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/4 "2004-05-28T01:03:07Z")
I have it, but haven’t watched it. I’d read so many comments on how much of a tear jerker it is, that I only got through about the first 20 minutes. I knew where it was going, and I didn’t feel up for the ride.
But if I’m hearing that it wasn’t as moving as many have said it was, my interest has been re-awakened. I might actually watch it now.
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### Author:  [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/5 "2004-05-28T01:37:07Z")
I wouldn’t call it devastating but watching someone lose everything while trapped in a world of apathy and destruction it heart rending.
It’s worst moments are the quiet moments where you can tell the characters just don’t know what to do yet all they can do is think too tired to even hope.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/6 "2004-05-28T02:16:04Z")
Not overrated, in my opinion. It does make certain demands on the viewer, such as a fairly long attention span, the ability to empathize, and a basic grasp of mid-20th century world history.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/7 "2004-05-28T03:12:19Z")
> [@shijinn](#):
>
> grave of the fireflies sucked. totoro is more touching. bleh.
Eh. I didn’t like Totoro nearly as much- I thought Totoro was kind of pointless- but I didn’t feel the same way about Grave of The Fireflies as most people seem to do. It was sort of sad, but… I wrote about it in my live journal, actually [http://www.livejournal.com/users/elfkin477/](http://www.livejournal.com/users/elfkin477/)
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### Author:  [@Jurhael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurhael)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/8 "2004-05-28T04:43:39Z")
Grave of the Fireflies made me cry.
☹
It’s difficult to watch, but I really liked it.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/9 "2004-05-28T05:50:24Z")
Theme, narrative structure, character development - I can’t fault this movie on any of these accounts. It’s just that, well… it’s an animated cartoon, with drawing of people with oversized eyes. Don’t get me wrong: _Guernica_ and Francis Bacon’s “scraming pope” paintings are mightily evocative without being photographic, but I just can’t get past my innability to become emotionally involved with cartoon characters.
Maybe it’s just my Saturday morning conditioning, or maybe not. I mean, I really liked Art Speigelmann’s _Maus_, which was playing the form of the comic book against itself. _Because_ it was a comic book, with cat Nazis and mouse Jews, it was stronger (for me) than _Schindler’s List_. Forgive the artspeak, but it turned my expectations against me with a vengance.
But GOTF doesn’t try to be anything besides or beyond an animated cartoon, albeit one with excellent narrative virtues. Frankly, if it had been done in black an white with live actors, I could have taken those kids a lot more to heart.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/10 "2004-05-28T05:54:06Z")
I’m curious. Are any of you who are underwhelmed by GotF parents? Before I had kids of my own I don’t think it would have affected me so strongly. Now I find it so painful as to be virtually unwatchasle.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/11 "2004-05-28T07:28:13Z")
> [@Baldwin](#):
>
> Not overrated, in my opinion. It does make certain demands on the viewer, such as a fairly long attention span, the ability to empathize, and a basic grasp of mid-20th century world history.
heh, put the shotgun down. but you might have scored a hit out of three - empathy.
[spoiler]i couldn’t get pass the depiction of the children lazing about their guardian’s house expecting to be treated like the nobility they think they are, especially with the boy old enough to be out doing something useful. later, when it is evident that the poor girl is suffering from malnutrition and sickness, the boy chose to steal instead of looking for help from his guardian, his relatives or his friends.
his poor sister died for his young pride.
[/spoiler]
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### Author:  [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/12 "2004-05-28T09:45:50Z")
**shijinn**
Wow did you watch another movie or something? The ‘guardian’ stole all the money and items that were rightfully the kid’s then treated them like crap. The kid couldn’t just go out and get a job there were no jobs he was already semi starved anyway what work could he do?
As for reaching out I think it was clear at that point nobody would give him anything. If he would have shown up at his guardian’s doorstep she would have put a boot in his ass I bet.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/13 "2004-05-28T10:44:04Z")
> [@Darkhold](#):
>
> **shijinn**
>
> Wow did you watch another movie or something? The ‘guardian’ stole all the money and items that were rightfully the kid’s then treated them like crap. The kid couldn’t just go out and get a job there were no jobs he was already semi starved anyway what work could he do?
I think I must have watched a different version. In the one I saw the boy had money in the bank but didn’t make any attempt to get it until the sister was already dying.
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### Author:  [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/14 "2004-05-28T12:34:45Z")
It’s a very sad movie with not too much of a payoff except making the viewer very sad. If you want to be made sad, definitely, this movie is all you.
A lot people aren’t too hip on a movie that brings and enforces a “negative feeling” (for lack of a better term), and understandably so. But the animation quality is quite good IMHO and the sentiment is genuine and honest.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [May 28, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grave-of-the-fireflies-yawn/247190/15 "2004-05-28T18:18:35Z")
> [@Darkhold](#):
>
> … Wow did you watch another movie or something? …
i watched the same version (sub, if there’s any difference) as **elfkin477** ’s 🙂