Grave Of The Fireflies - Blu-ray SteelBook

When I first saw Grave of the Fireflies roughly 17 years ago, I considered it a great film. Perhaps one of the best depictions of warfare ever committed to the screen. It’s unflinching, uncompromising, and absolutely devastating. That the victims of the horrors of war are children makes watching the film even more difficult. And while I loved it, I considered it too painful to ever watch again. So, when I found myself tasked with reviewing Shout! Factory’s Blu-ray release, I wasn’t exactly excited about watching it again. But I was honored to review such a powerful work.

1945, near the end of WWII, the Allied forces’ bombing campaign against Japan had increased in an effort to end the war. In one of these firebombing campaigns, young Seita and his sister Setsuko are separated from their mother, who is killed. Their father is away, serving his country’s navy. The two, without parents, move in with their aunt. Their aunt is upset with her situation, now having two extra mouths to feed, and she feels that the children are not grateful enough to her for offering them shelter.

Seita takes Setsuk,o and they leave, making a home out of an abandoned shelter. Seita is resourceful and smart, and decides that they can make do without her. And, at first, they do. He has items to trade in exchange for food, but it doesn’t take long for those trade items to run out, and their food source to go dry. He’s too proud to go back to his aunt and beg forgiveness, so he and his sister quietly suffer in a war-torn country that’s short on resources.

Grave of the Fireflies is a devastating film, made even more devastating that the victims of war are children. Somehow, instead of having this message softened or its impact lessened, it’s intensified by being an animated feature. Perhaps it’s because with a live-action story, we’re so focused on the specific, literal details, while an animated feature allows us to focus on ideas. Director Isao Takahata doesn’t dwell on relentless depression. He allows there to be moments of sheer joy and pure beauty in the midst of all this horror. The scene with the children capturing fireflies and releasing them in the shelter, glowing and illuminating their surrounding areas, is a beautiful sequence.

While impactful in providing a powerful anti-war statement, Grave of the Fireflies also manages to be apolitical. Its message is a universal one: That during a time of great strife, we often don’t think about the civilians, or the youngest victims of the mechanism that is warfare. We see the horrors through their eyes, in all their wide-eyed innocence. Grave of the Fireflies is a masterpiece, one that doesn’t shy away from the gory reality of violence leveled at unarmed civilians.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Grave of the Fireflies is available in both a standard edition and a SteelBook version. Both editions are a Blu-ray/DVD combo, containing the film and all special features on both discs. The SteelBook release from Shout! Factory is hauntingly beautiful, featuring the two children among a pitch-black night sky, lit only by the glow of the fireflies.

Grave of the Fireflies is presented in 1080p high definition for this release and looks absolutely stunning in its realization. While Studio Ghibli is no stranger to having disturbing images in their art, Grave of the Fireflies really feels like an outlier in their filmography, to have these soft-colored, nearly watercolor sceneries, juxtaposed with the hellfire of war. Unlike something like Princess Mononoke, which does have some very scary sequences, the terror of Grave of the Fireflies is that what we’re seeing is grounded in our reality.

The video quality from end to end is superb, sharply detailed, and intricately colored. Sequences, like the fireflies illuminating the shelter, are awe-inspiring in their beauty. Other sequences, like the result of a firebombing campaign, illicit an appropriate terror. Grave of the Fireflies uses animation to every advantage it has, highlighting the drama, the fear and the joy of its story.

Viewers have three audio options to choose from, all 2.0 stereo mixes encoded in DTS-HD MA: The original Japanese audio, the 1998 English dub, and a more recent English dub from 2012.

Aside from the spoken language, all three options are essentially identical in their overall impact, which is extraordinary. As a stereo mix, this is going to be solely on the front-end of the soundstage, but the film deftly balances a number of effects, both loud and subtle, with grace. Whether it’s the buzzing insects of a scenic shot, an explosion from a bomb falling from the sky, or the soft whisper of a child, it’s mixed for maximum clarity. During more dramatic moments, Michio Mamiya’s wonderful score swells and takes center stage, without being overpowering.

Grave of the Fireflies has a number of great supplements, including an interview with Isao Takahata and an interview with film critic Roger Ebert. There are also feature-length storyboards and deleted scenes storyboard.

• Feature Length Storyboards
• Deleted Scene Storyboard 1 (SD 1:52)
• Deleted Scene Storyboard 2 (SD 0:38)
• Image Galleries
• Joint Project Promotional Video (SD 15:19)
• Interview – Director Isao Takahata (SD 17:48)
• Interview – Film critic Roger Ebert (SD 12:17)
• Trailers

Grave of the Fireflies is a tremendous film. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking, both in equal measure, and in some instances, simultaneously. And while the story is so, so sad (seriously, try to keep your eyes dry while watching this), it never feels exploitative or like an exercise in punishment for the audience. It’s impactful because we care for Seita and Setsuko. We root for them, even though we already know what’s going to happen to them. Shout! Factory has assembled a magnificent release of this film with an excellent A/V presentation. The video transfer is excellent, essentially flawless while we have three clean and clear audio options - Japanese with subtitles or two solid English dubbed tracks. Bonus features may be archival but they're informative and worth viewing once you've recovered from the main feature. Grave of the Fireflies isn't an easy film; it's not one you turn on for simple enjoyment, but it's an essential experience. Highly Recommended.