For four years, Netflix has released almost all anime films from the renowned Studio Ghibli on offer. However, one masterpiece was missing: the touching war film The Fireflies by the now deceased director Isao Takahata. At least until today.
However, fans of funny fantasy characters like Totoro should be careful. This is not only one of the saddest animes ever, but simply one of the most shocking films of all time before.
The Last Fireflies on Netflix: A war film masterpiece in anime form
Japan in March 1945: 14-year-old Seita and his little sister Setsuko are on their own. While their father is at war as a captain in the Imperial Navy, their mother is seriously injured in the bombing of the city of Kobe. When Seita can no longer stand living under the roof of his strict aunt, he wants to look after himself and Setsuko all by himself. But the film makes one thing clear from the start: we are not heading for a happy ending here.
The Last Fireflies is not intended to champion Japan in World War II. The political context plays less of a role here. Rather, it is a general and humanistic account of the immense misery of war, which affects above all the weakest, those who are abandoned by their nation.
Anti-war film…or not?
For his anime film, Takahata adapted the semi-autobiographical short story Grave of the Fireflies by Akiyuki Nosaka, who lost one of his sisters to starvation. However, the filmmaker always refused to call it an “anti-war film”, although for many it is quite obviously one. Instead, he wanted to judge the “anti-social” and “stubborn” behavior of his protagonist, as he explained in his book (Things I thought about while filming), among other places. A view that not all viewers of The Last Fireflies necessarily share.
The Last Fireflies was released in Japanese cinemas in 1988, on the same day as My Neighbour Totoro, and has been 16 September 2024 on Netflix online.