The more I get into the world of anime, the more impressed I am. From Studio Ghibli, (the same people who brought us Hayao Miyazaki’s works PRINCESS MONONOKE and my personal favorite SPIRITED AWAY) comes the tragic, semi-autobiographical story of two children struggling to survive in the aftermath of WWII.

Recently orphaned Seita and his younger sister Setsuko wander the streets of Japan, their father off fighting in the Navy and their mother killed in a firebombing. If there is anything they encounter that more disturbing then the images of death and the hunger they encounter on their struggles to survive in this post-war environment, it is the
indifference of their fellow man. Without giving away too much about the rest of the film. I will say that this film is one of the few animated films to bring tears to my eyes. With astonishing animation and (tragically) believable characters, this film belongs on the charts with other great war movies like LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, SCHINDLER’S LIST and EMPIRE OF THE SUN.