History Anime / GraveoftheFireflies

* IDidWhatIHaveToDo: Seita himself, who is only doing questionable things (i.e., looting from houses and farms) for the sake of his sister's health and survival.

* AntiVillain: Seita himself, who is only doing questionable things (i.e., looting from houses and farms) for the sake of his sister's health and survival.

* DadsOffFightingInTheWar: Seita and Setsuko's father is away in the navy. Seita tries to write to him, but he gets no response. The ship that he is shown to be on, Japanese cruiser ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Maya Maya]]'', was a real ship that was sunk in October 1944 with the loss of 479 men. Thus, it's obliquely implied that he had already died before the events of the story. When Seita finds out Japan surrendered, his first question is asking the adults around him if his father's ship sank. He gets no helpful response, and eventually walks off and accepts that his father likely has died. Tragically, this happens moments before the scene where his sister passes away.
* DeathFromAbove: The plot kicks off with bombers flying over the city of Kobe, dropping small incendiary pellets that set everything they touch on fire.

* TheFaceless: The Americans are rarely seen, and even more rarely discussed. The war itself is treated as a sort of unending natural disaster the Japanese are trying to survive. Creator/RogerEbert said Asian filmmakers seldom ever identify the enemy as anything but the enemy, since most of the Asian countries have had many wars on their soil with so many nations that they don't need to name them.

The film is based on the short story of the same name written by the late Akiyuki Nosaka, who based much of the plot on his own childhood in Japan during and after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. The film begins with Seita dying and reuniting with his little sister Setsuko as a ghost and [[HowWeGotHere the two have another look at the last few months of their life]], starting with the loss of their home and their mother in the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Kobe_in_World_War_II 1945 bombing of Kobe]] until Setsuko's death.

* WarIsHell: Oddly enough, the point of the story ''wasn't'' to carry AnAesop about this. Despite this, however, the movie hammers the point home anyway by showing two orphaned children struggling to survive.

* RulesOfOrphanEconomics: The worst-case scenario.

* JerkassHasAPoint: Seita and Setsuko's aunt, depending on your interpretation as to how much of a three-dimensional character she is, isn't certainly a pleasant person, especially how she can treat her nephew and her niece at times but has a good point to make at times.

* DullSurprise: {{Invoked|Trope}} and justified. When an air raid goes off, the aunt just casually says, "Not again" as if it were a minor inconvenience.

** Averted with the titular fireflies that manage to cheer up the two siblings and help to illuminate the bomb shelter, only for a moment.

* MatureWorkChildProtagonists: The film is about two young siblings trying to survive in war-torn Japan during the final days of World War II. The beginning scene makes it clear the protagonists are doomed and while the violence isn't hugely graphic, the movie doesn't shy away from depicting the terrible effects of war on civilians and especially children. It's got a reputation as one of the saddest movies ever made for a good reason.

-->'''Seita:''' ''[-[in a voiceover]-]'' [[WhamLine She never woke up]].

** When an air raid siren goes off, the aunt says, in a very disinterested tone, "Oh, not again".

* LimitedWardrobe: Completely justified - the clothes the kids wear throughout the film are the only clothes they have left after the rest of their belongings burned with their home.

* AdultsAreUseless: Justified, considering the wartime. Even the kind farmer who lends Seita his wagon wishes he could afford to share his rice with the latter, but he can't. Seita and Setsuko's aunt also resents the two extra mouths she had to feed, because she was barely getting by without them.

* KansaiRegionalAccent: As dictated by the setting (Kobe). It's not meant to be funny.

''Grave of the Fireflies'' (火垂るの墓, ''Hotaru no Haka'') is a 1988 film directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata and produced by Creator/StudioGhibli. It was released theatrically as one-half of a double feature; the other half was the [[MoodWhiplash uplifting]] ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro''.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_poster_15810.jpg]]

[[caption-width-right:300:''"Why do fireflies have to die so soon?"'']]

[[caption-width-right:300:''"Why do fireflies have to die so soon"'']]