Piano sheet music: Grave of the fireflies

about the movie: Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓 Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 anime (animated) movie written and directed by Isao Takahata for Studio Ghibli. It is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. Many critics (most notably Roger Ebert) consider it to be one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made. Animation historian Ernest Rister compares the film to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and says, "it is the most profoundly human animated film I've ever seen."

Taking place towards the end of World War II in Japan, Grave of the Fireflies is the poignant tale of the relationship between two orphaned children - Seita and his younger sister Setsuko. The children lose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe, and their father in service to the Imperial Japanese Navy, and as a result they are forced to try to survive amidst widespread famine and the callous indifference of their countrymen (some of whom are their own extended family members). Ultimately both children die of starvation, and the graphic nature of their suffering and death is uniquely harrowing in the annals of anime.

The movie provides an insight into Japanese culture by focusing its attention almost entirely on the personal tragedies that wars give rise to, rather than seeking to glamorize it as an heroic struggle between competing ideologies.

In common with other Studio Ghibli productions, the movie is noteworthy for the high quality of its design and artwork.

Its initial theatrical release was accompanied by Hayao Miyazaki's much more lighthearted My Neighbor Totoro as a double feature.