McCarty History of Marine Animal Populations

I somehow managed not to realize that Grave of the Fireflies was a Studio Ghibli film until about an hour and half into the movie when the screen suddenly went black, save for the text "A Studio Ghibli Film." This moderately surprised me for two reasons: One, this is simply something I expect myself to know, and two, for a studio whose works often feature magic, animals, healthy people, and healthy, magic animal-people, this particular film has a noticeable lack of all of these things.

No horrible death from malnutrition here...

While pondering just why the men behind the studio would make such a deviant move, I came to a few realizations. Whatever symbolic relevance or sheer fantastical value healthy, magic animal-people (henceforth referred to as HMAPs) may have, their appearance in a film which is attempting to portray some extremely grim actualities that have occurred in our world may be somewhat unnecessary and would certainly not make any sense at all. Having established this I began to think about these grim actualities, and, upon realizing just how grim and actual they were, got sad again.

...or here...

Grave of the Fireflies does not depict a fantasy world as Ghibli films are wont to do, rather it depicts our world as it has been, it depicts our people as they have acted towards one another, it depicts how they have suffered and died, and it depicts how they have lived and will live on forever. This realism is why Grave of the Fireflies tends to be so much more emotionally significant than most other films ever: it shows us some incredible highs and lows of human behavior on both large and small scales that we, as humans, feel like we can really relate to. We relate more to humans being human than to a talking cat, a talking fish, or a talking pig.

...or here...

The concept of sibling love is easily the most commonly conveyed theme in the movie. From the two playing together at the beach, to Setsuko's mud treats for her brother, to Saita's constant concern for his sister's well being, there's hardly a moment in the film that doesn't touch on their love for one another.
Other concepts explored semi-prolifically are the indifference of others towards the pairs plight, and their conceptual immortality. Important scenes highlighting societal indifference include Saita's brush with the law, and their visit to the doctor. I find the immortality thing pretty fascinating, considering how closely paired it is with the siblings' ephemerality. Their lives (and lives and general) are seen as tragically brief; they didn't get to get in as much quality living as possible before dying, somewhat akin to fireflies. However, the final scene of the movie shows Setsuko spiritual self sleeping in Saita's spiritual lap, and it's the afterlife, and they're together, and I'm supertired and this blog is going superdownhill, but you get what I mean, I'm sure.
This kind of purely human emotion tends to reach deep down our throats and grab a hold of our hearts in a way that fantasy just can't. Here's another picture of HMAPs eating food.

...goodnight.