Conde - Grave of the Fireflies, what audience?

 Grave of the fireflies.. For me, definitely the most touching anime that I have seen that we have watched so far. Actually, probably the most touching anime that i have ever seen. There isn't really one specific thing about the film that makes watching it so emotional, but a collection of the occurrences in the film make for a meaningful and significant story. I am not saying that it made me necessarily shed a tear, but it did however make me think. This film puts you in a situation where you actually feel for children and all of the heartache that they have to go through. I think that the mixture of the innocence of the children being faced with these serious situations is what is really capturing about the film. Some of the things that they go through(for example, their mother dying, or little sibling dying)are things that it would even be difficult for a grown man or woman to go through.

One of the things that is interesting is how so much responsibility is put on the older sibling. Even though he is 14, he is faced with having to take care of his little sister, who is only 4, which is something that normal 14 year olds never really do. He has so much to deal with for her that it almost occasionally seems like his sense of being a kid is often lost. I found myself forgetting that he is only 10 years older than his little 4 year old sister, which is a huge reality check. No 14 year old should be put through situations like that. This does make him a good brother, and son to his mother, but it is still a struggle for him in the end, especially because he has to face the fact that both his mother and sister die.

One thing that was brought up in class was whether or not this should be a story for children or a story for adults. I thought of it to be an interesting question because a pretty decent argument can be made on both sides. Some could say that it could be a story for children because the children who watch it may relate to the children in the actually story, so they may understand more about what they are thinking about, and that relation between the character and the physical, real-life watcher can make a very strong connection, which can make the story even better. But at the same time, is this a situation that young kids should be experienced to when making that connection. Death is used in many films for kids, but usually speaking they are deaths of maybe animals or other types of creatures that can maybe be related to humans. For ex. (The Lion King, those thousands of animated ant/bug movies that have wars between different types of insects..the list goes on, i just don't feel like naming anymore..) Maybe this is because it gives younger kids a slight, feathered introduction to a serious topic such as death, but personally, i feel that this movie should be geared towards the audience of older kids and adults, because of how serious some of the situations get, especially because of their reasons for death..

Like really? What child wants to see that?