You will find two of the most unforgettable animated characters in history.
Isao Takahata’s adaptation of the short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka may be the most “not exactly for the little ones” films in the entire Ghibli catalogue, and yet its antiwar message is something to be considered by all demographics. As bleak as animation gets, this is the moving story of Seita and Setsuko, two siblings in Kobe, Japan, during the final months of World War II. They lose their mother early in the film after a bombing and face hunger, disease, and worse as the world around them almost crumbles to dust. It opens with Seita dying of starvation and then flashes back to show us how we got there; you won’t find talking cats or moving castles in this one. You will find two of the most unforgettable animated characters in history. Takahata does something that filmmakers have done for generations now in detailing the human cost of war, but he does so in a way that live-action film can’t. Animation trains the viewer to expect magic, but none comes for Setsuko and Seita, making their tragic end all the more haunting.