Therapist Reacts to GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (Studio Ghibli)
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2023
- How do you make meaning out of your life and find joy when things are not getting better?
Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are watching a movie you dared us to watch, Grave of the Fireflies. In Jono’s words, this movie is inspiring, wholesome, and devastating all at the same time. They talk about the themes of hoping for a better tomorrow and the cost of war, particularly for civilians. They also compare the Disney/U.S. perspective of animation being for children and staying innocent vs. the Studio Ghibli perspective of the wonders of childhood that result in us growing up. This movie captures the best and worst of humanity, and while it’s a vegetables movie (important to watch), it’s still engaging and beautiful… and we’ll probably never watch it again because it wrecked us.
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Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Edited by: Trevor Horton, tzhediting.com
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis
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Grave of the Fireflies really is one of those films where you watch it once, and never again.
Yes. Absolutely. And despite watching it only once with full focus (the time before I was a child and didn't remember much), I remembered everything. I was crying in the first few minutes of this video.
I just saw the video title and went "Oh GOD."
YEP. Seeing a new video uploaded to the channel but then seeing it was this movie and then being like "Oh no, this movie?.....I mean.....I don't really wanna......>_
My absolute favorite movie that I never ever want to see again.
Exactly. But you don't need to, really.
If you want some extra feels, this film was based based on a true story, with the only major difference being that Seta didn't die in the end. He lived on, never forgiving himself for his sister's death, and he wrote the book as a way to come to terms with it.
It's too big of a burden to bear on your own as a young child yourself. For all the 'what ifs' he undoubtley thought about during his life, his sister never stood a chance.
I didn't know there was a book, I'll go find a copy. Thank you for sharing.
@@Leo___________ You're right. There's only so much a 14 year old can do to protect his little sister from the giant, grinding, crushing gears of war; Setsuko and all other children lost due to wars never stood a chance, while the ones who survive will live with the loss and guilt for the rest of their lives.
Omg crush in the feels right there
Did they perhaps change the End to both of them dying, becouse that was secretly his Wish?
Becouse of survivers Guild.
My mom was 12 years old when she survived the firebombing of Yokohama and Tokyo. She has vivid memories of running from her house, jumping over dead bodies, hiding around a tree as they were strafed by fighter planes and just being terrified. She remembered the horror of seeing those little fire balls that were dropped all over her neighborhood and if one landed on you it would burn you to death because they were made with a sticky oily substance that would cling to skin. She saw a burned man walking naked like a zombie calling for his wife. That stuck with her and she tells me about it all the time. That’s why they wore those heavy hoodies and made them wet if possible to protect themselves.
After the firebombing raid, my mom and her family built a tiny shelter using whatever scraps they could find. Soon they were covered in snow as winter set in. But the worst part of it for her was the starvation. They had nothing to eat for months. She remembers going to the countryside and digging up potatoes from farmers fields when they weren’t looking.
As the country started to pick up again my mom had to work from the time she was 14 because her grandparents who were raising her were too old.
She’s 90 years old this year- she has always been cheerful no matter what happened- guess having seen the worst nothing phases her anymore. She is a food hoarder though. And she says if politicians want war then we should stick them on a deserted island and let them duke it out themselves!
She cried a lot watching this anime. Said it was just like that.
I’m so sorry that she experienced that. I agree with her about the politicians. My teacher went through that war when she was a girl too and her stories were fascinating in that she had such a hopeful outlook on life and was always so kind. I’m not sure if I could live through that and still have such a kind heart, or even live in a past enemy country.
Thanks for sharing your story ❤️
Thank you for sharing the story. Hopefully she's been doing ok lately, even though I'm a stranger, tell her I wish her well. This is the true reality of war, this is what war is. War brings no good. This is the parts of WWII the school history books skip, the part people don't want to hear about. People only want to hear epic "we saved the day" stories, and not accounts of children being strafed by fighter planes and having to dodge firebombs.
Stolen comment
wow.
They seemed to brush over something important: Seita is a child too. They say it was beautiful that he found joy in becoming a parent but I found it incredibly heartbreaking that a 14 year old boy had to grow up so quickly and take on the role of raising and providing for his younger sister, something which he fails to do because he made the foolish decision to take his sister away from the one place where they had some amount of protection. However, he's a kid who's been traumatized by war so I can't blame him too much for what happened.
This. He is only a child and is holding his world together with both hands. No child deserves to be responsible for their siblings life and death. Especially knowing it's semi-autobiographical, and the author wished he had been as selfless as seita, and wished he had died as penance. The survivors guilt after being placed in an impossible situation at such a young age is brutal.
In my pov and understanding, for Seita, his sibling is the one that attaches him and make him stay alive and be sane at that time after many things happened during the war. I may say that his younger sister is the symbol for him that he gotta stay alive to take care of her. Without her, Seita will feel lost, lonely and depressed cuz he got no one to hold on to.
and the fact that he didn't lose all will to live and instead delivered the world an extremely important message. i hope he found some form of peace 😔
He didn't choose to take his sister away from the home of his aunt his aunt pushed them out because of the food and housing . He was made to grow up and he didn't fail the elders and people around these children failed them.
This film gutted me when I was younger. I had grown up being told “we won, Japan was the bad guy and we won.” And it wasn’t until this movie that I started considering the people that suffered. There isn’t just black and white in the world and we aren’t the heroes I thought we were. I carry this movie with me.
I agree, it really doesn't matter which side of the war you are on, the soldiers (and people ofcourse) are always the victims. The amount of stories i've heard of the Germans hating themselves for what they did to the Jews is truly an eye opener. The only people who must be hated are the so called "leaders" who send innocents to war.
Edit: Just some spelling errors i had to remove
That’s part of the importance of films like this; to help us realize that the true victims in war are innocent people who never asked for any of this.
I describe it as something that can be rationalized, but never justified, because “justice” is nowhere near here.
We were thought because of the evil that Japan was doing at the time needed to be stopped. It just sucks that innocent people have to suffer for the acts of those in charge
@@dacianastorm7231 Exactly. China could have made a film very similar to this of the Japanese invasion. And Uighars could make a film very similar based on what China is doing to them. Throughout history, no nation is innocent of brutality.
My father was a WWII historian, so I grew up with it around me all the time. And I remember seeing a documentary that showed a picture of Erwin Rommel (the desert fox) and his wife. And I made the off-handed comment that his wife looked pretty rough. And my father said that her husband was a soldier and faced death and worrying about him must have taken a toll on her. It was the first time I ever gave thought to the 'bad guys' actually being people...just like us. Yep, there is no black and white, good/bad guys. It's people.
The worst part of this movie is that it is based off a real person, Akiyuki Nosaka, who wrote the short story 'Grave of the Fireflies', of the same name as the movie. It was a semi-biography of his experiences in the war, while he didn't die like Seita did, he actually passed in 2015, he felt such a strong guilt and regret in watching his sisters and adoptive father die from the firebombing and malnutrition that he wished he had died as well and write Grace of the Fireflies as a partial apology to them. Reading about the relation between Seita and the author is interesting in itself.
This is so important to know. To know that isn't even vaguely fiction, that even this story is based in someone's reality. I know it's mentioned somewhere, that he wasn't as kind to his sister as presented in the movie, which didn't help his guilt. Espeically as he grew into an adult. It's.. yeah. Heartbreaking.
I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that he was also somewhat admonishing himself because he felt he had failed his sister by her dying and his not
That is gut wrenching
The director also was a child who survived the fire bombing. Making it even more personal and even more accurate.
I think it gets even worse when you realize it wasn't just a fictional brother and child. The writer of the book also lost his father personally to the firebombing, as well as original sister and adoptive sister.
Setsuko while sweet and innocent is the blend of the two. Imagine how much trauma it could have been to a young child, not even able to comprehend death until the day, to be put in charge of a situation where their whole family was doomed to starve, from malnutrition, to starve to death.
__ Seita's struggle for survival, in a country that didn't care about his own. __
Trying to remain patriotic to a cause that left your country starve to death, to fight a unwinnable fight against a previously peaceful aggressor that was never trying to make their world end. Imagine losing your family once, imagine having to watch it 5 times as your mother dies, your father burns alive, you try to make it through, and then your original sister dies from sickness.
Trying to cope you try to adopt a abandoned sister who lost her family too, only for you to starve to death with survivor's guilt knowing that they died while you lived. And while being harrowed with hunger, you may have even thought of yourself as the one to starve them while you were put into a situation as a child, where the situation was out of control, surrounded in helplessness, while trying to put on a smile as everyone around you starved or withered or burned to death.
Then try to imagine trying to force yourself to smile through with it through the end. Not because they wanted to give up, but because it was all they had. That horrible, twisted existence to them was bittersweetly the most pure and innocent moment they had. There was nothing better to compare it to, they didn't have the luxury to know any better and thought they'd make it.
I never quite lived through the same, but i found Grave of the Fireflies as well as Jason Todd's Death From Batman:Under the red hood probably far more personally relatable than most. I grew up in a life where it wasn't a war tragedy, but basically a household of neglect with 6-8 children in a religious sect/doctrine that routinely ripped families apart and encouraged disowning/disinheriting.
To me, The horrible life of Grave of the fireflies was also like a black mirror to me i couldn't but help wish i could have had.
____ [My life] ___
I lived a life in a first world country where my family was basically cold, absent, emotionally absent or malicious/manipulative or harmful at best and at times violent in a country in a family that should have been perfect, (and easily chose to), but chose not to. Although our lives were torn apart, although every day to day seemed like a hellscape, not by neccessity but voluntary cruelty.
We learned to survive, withstand and make it our own. I learned to numb myself and protect myself to survive, and eventually became powerful enough to escape from it. But it seemed hollow, like kindness had never worked once in the family, only force to fight could escape it's violence. Force to escape was the right answer for the wrong reasons.
___ [Seita's life] ___
Seita Lived a life in a war torn stricken country in a family that loved him, every part of his family was warm, loving, close, and always there for him until the end of their lives. Although their life was torn apart, although many people would call his life a hellscape. He tried to do almost everything he could to shelter the cruelty and make it a good home for Setsuko, not by necessity but voluntary kindness.
He saw all his kindness left everyone around him die, he couldn't withstand it or bear with it on his own. Instead of numbing, it all took over him and eventually he wished he could have just left and been with his family again. But it all seemed bittersweet. While kindness had always kept them smiling and doing all he could to escape violence's clutches, he was left alone without his family. Kindness was the wrong answer for all the wrong reasons.
There are stories where a child marsupial was taken away from it's family and given the choice of a cold metal hand, that would feed it, but provide no warmth. And a Sock puppet of it's mother, that would give it warmth but couldn't feed it. Many of the marsupial children would choose the warm hand as they starved to death. I kind of feel like that why i felt Seita and Jason Todd both felt more personally relatable than most could.
Jason Todd also gets written off as a edgelord, but he was hurt by the ones who were supposed to protect him, and abandoned him for high horse ideas while leaving a child to die.
He wanted to fight or slay the murders and gangsters who caused harm, but maybe, taught to survive in a cruel world, the only way to survive is to throw your heart away and be tough. And snarl back to a world that's never loved you, but always beaten and discarded you. I wonder if some of those people might have wondered what it'd be like to see kindness, or wondered what it could have been like to have a different life. To have the things they never had, even if it would have been a terrible death.
To have people who loved you briefly but faintly, vs people that stayed forever but always tried to hurt by choice. Which horrible life would you have rather have? A life where people were sweet to you but perished, or a life where people lived forever but never were once kind. It's a terrible choice but a rather painful one if you had no choice over what happened.
I admit the past is over now, many of those people might cope by numbing their true emotions to the point they don't feel anymore and being stoic. But it's nice to hurt, and nice to go back to seeing a family that once loved each other with all their heart until the end, and wonder. 'what if', things could have been different. What if Seita and Setsuko had survived. What if there could have been a more loving family for a fictional character. What if things could have been better for ours. Fiction is often touted as a way to escape reality. But sometimes it seems useful as a way to cope and revisit sharing it.
Just a little note: this movie must be watched in the original Japanese version with subtitles, because of the phenomenal performance of five-year-old Ayano Shiraishi, who speaks a dialect right from Kobe. No dubbing can reproduce this.
If you can, Yes! BUT it's not a must for those who can't. The dub is beautifully presented and although not in the original Japanese.... the dub is a great substitute.
I got to watch the subtitled movie on the big screeen for it's 35th anniversary and it was such a beautiful yet harrowing experience.
I also like it in original Japanese as well but yes watch it however you can if you can! :) ❤
The Japanese dub is phenomenal and just sooooooooo heartbreaking especially with Setsuko's VA.
@@estherfu6288 totally agree
What makes “Grave of the Fireflies” such an important anti-war that the movie does not let you forget the fact that it’s children who suffer the most during. It’s children who have the highest death count, highest amount of civilian injuries, the highest amount of displacement from their homes, highest rate for malnutrition, starvation, and diseases! With both Seita and Setsuko being children, it’s non an anomaly, but a hard reality of so many children who were unfortunately caught in the middle of a war that was no fault of their own!
Being anti-war is so childish. It's like saying you're anti-bad-thing.
@@cyclone8974what??? Have you seen how pro war people are? The message of anti -war is incredibly relevant
@@youraveragepasser-by7367 That isn't the point. You can't just end war it's never going to go away. You have to be ready or else.
@@cyclone8974you act like war is something nobody can control or is responsible for lol
@@Bengesdream You act like you can just surrender for peace.
This movie shows how much we underestimate small children. The little sister wanted to take care of her brother as much as he wanted to take care of her. She was willing to give up food for him. find a doctor for him and just generally caring for him. Children of her age do have empathy. They do understand that sometimes we need help.
Children need to be protected at all cost. They remind is what humans really are about. Caring and empathy.
Yeah
@@sidneyboo9704 amen
There was one time I had a panic attack and I tried to hide it. I was sitting at the dining table at the time. But my cousin, who is about 3 years old walked to me and told me "It's ok" and patted me on the back. She thought I was having a stomachache.
Japan does differ from the United States in this regard, their creations do not believe that adults are always more correct than minors, and their stories are often about adults making mistakes without knowing it. I think it's because they lost World War II and the United States didn't
In my friends' ethics class, they were doing the obvious "is a man who steals food to feed his starving family wrong?" And the professor also asked, "if he is, is the man with enough food to give wrong for not giving to those who are starving?"
It's this exact question that led me to the conclusion that capitalism is immoral
indeed
In the Bible it states that a man who reaps his fields must not go back for the gleaning (leftover grains and stalks that fall from the harvesters) He is to leave those on the edges and in his wake so that the poor and the foreign can go behind him and gather food.
Not very "churchy" anymore but if I ever have enough money to make a difference I will always remember this.
@@mischr13 Anti-capitalism is a subset of White Elitism/White Supremacy propped up on the backs of indentured servitude and slavery. Suffrage, the right of the Common Folk to own land(Capitalism), and vote is a keystone of advanced, egalitarian societies.
@@cyberwolf_1013the book of Ruth is Torah in action, working at its best. It doesn’t stop people from having to work… in fact, gleaning was hard work. But it meant there was something worth while to work for.
What's beyond devastating is that children innocent men and women are going through this right now in Gaza, Congo, and Sudan. Starvation, amputation without anesthesia, abduction and abuse. feeling hopeless but knowing we have to do whatever we can.
That’s exactly what I was thinking about
Sad truth. I have activists in my family who talk a lot about palestine and its so heartbreaking, the pictures of the children, innocent people. Same to congo and Sudan genocide and war.
I am watching this now and the G*nocide in Gaza is still on going and there are countless stories like this and the world continues to watch and the West continues to cheer it on… why do we never learn from history
I am a Japanese living in Japan. Japan learned a lot from its defeat.
My grandfather was an English interpreter. Thanks to that, I was not summoned to the battlefield, so I was born now.
My grandfather always told me this when he was alive.
"America is not bad, human greed and war itself are bad."
Next month is the thirteenth anniversary of my grandfather's death.
no shame, it was Japan that invaded China and killed millons, that is Japan snakey attacked Pearl harbor that killed thouands of US soldiers first, they get what they deserve, i think they didnt get enough. how dare you to say America is bad, it was Japan all along that is greedy, you only got a small taste of war for civilian at the very end of the war, China suffered 8 years, and Japan never apologize for this, you have no rights to ask other people to reflect
He sounds like he was a wonderful man. Thank you for your forgiveness. I wish your family nothing but love and happiness.
Thank you for sharing!
America is pretty bad though, always had been, your grandpa sounds nice, but a little privileged on that front.
May he rest easy knowing you carry his message of peace.
What hits me is that the promotional poster of this movie has the siblings standing off a field surrounded by fireflies. But if you brighten it, you can see that those "fireflies" are actually firebombs being dropped from a plane behind them. Another metaphor to the movie. And since in Japan the fire "fireflies" and "drops of fire" are almost the same, it hits different.
You can actually still see the plane prior to brightening if you look hard enough. Certainly crazy though.
In one of the promotional posters if you brighten it you can see a bomber in the sky while the two siblings play with the "fireflies". Also in my country it was promoted with the tagline "From the creators of 'Heidi, Girl of the Alps' and 'From the Apenines to the Andes'". My mom rented the tape when I was 10 and we were traumatized.
Too darn depressing 😢
@@aylishoconaill6710 I was also way too young to watch it, maybe 9 or 10 and our school thought it’s a movie for children..
蛍火 vs 火垂る for those who are wondering
My younger daughter was really fond of Sakura drops, so when Satsuko started putting rocks in her tin to pretend she wasn't starving, I basically broke. I hardly ever cry in movies. This one broke me.
I'm so sad that the manufacturer of those candies closed this month after 114 years.
They WHAT
@@reikun86 Yeah. The company decided to call it quits due to higher manufacturing costs (ingredients, supplies, labor, shipping, etc.). The same company also famously refused to raise the price on their products, which drew praise at first but looking back on it with 20/20 hindsight, this probably was not a wise choice given the rising costs of inflation worldwide.
Also, a Japanese friend of ours gifted us (me and my wife) this past Christmas with a tin of Sakura drops candy with Satsuko on the packaging, showing her holding up the empty tin above her head peering inside of it. Talk about a bittersweet gift!
Sakuma*
Yes, that's what got me too. I didn't cry when I watched that scene at the moment, but that's the one scene that when I think about it, I do cry, especially looking at my daughter
I think they didn't notice that Seita had his mom's ashes with him the whole time, he lied to Setsuko about their mom been buried in a peaceful place and that when he tells her this the camera moves to the box where the ashes are
I agree. I thought they would notice, but they probably noticed just the fireflies.
The worst part is that not even her ashes... rather a bunch of people's ashes mixed together, hundreds of mothers, fathers, aunts, cousins, brothers, and sisters are represented in that box
When I traveled to Nagasaki a few years back, I visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. It was horrible. As Europeans, we tend to be more focused on WWII crimes like concentration camps and people suffering here, and everything about Japan is taught more matter-of-factly. Whenever I see the Grave of the Fireflies, I vividly remember one of the pictures from the Nagasaki museum. It's a young boy (around 8-10), standing straight, stiff, with a blank and almost shocked expression. He has a little boy strapped on his back, the same way Seita in the movie has his sister. The little boy looks like sleeping. Under the picture was a text that the boy is carrying his dead brother to a specific place so he can be cremated. I will never forget that. Never.
I had a similar experience when I had the privilege of visiting Hiroshima as part of a Japan tour with my History of Asian Art class. As an American, every single memorial, grave, monument, and museum we visited that day was heartwrenching. My whole class was somber that day but I lost my composure completely when a group of local schoolchildren (around elementary age) happened to join us at a children's memorial just *covered* in paper cranes. Their teacher led them in a tribute song, and I was fresh off of Japanese 2 in my college, so I was able to understand some.
After all the horrors we'd been facing, these tiny little kids, probably no older than 8 or 9, sang of hope and peace for the future, of joy and kindness to each other.
I crumpled. My classmates didn't know why I was hit so hard, why I was *sobbing* into my hands while these children were singing. I couldn't really explain it in that moment; I was emotionally gutted.
We stayed in Hiroshima city for a couple of hours after that and the tears almost never stopped flowing, especially when we visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park museum. I will never forget two of the artifacts they had on display -- a woman's dress, still covered in blood from the shrapnel that pierced her body, and half-melted from when it had fused to her skin in some places. She died in that dress. The other was a child's tricycle, half melted into a near-unrecognisable twist of metal from the nuclear heat. This was 2018, so some of the details are fuzzy, but I don't believe the tricycle's owner survived.
The rest of the day was spent on Itsukushima just off the coast, but my entire class was noticeably subdued, and we'd been a pretty jovial bunch until then.
It's one thing to read about the horrors of war. It's another thing entirely to touch the scorched bark of a tree that survived the blast, to walk under the Atom Dome yourself, to stand in front of a twenty-foot mound containing the ashes of every innocent man, woman, and child who died as a result of the bomb.
It was a necessary evil. The Japanese emperor and all the citizens were prepared to die before surrendering. Imagine how many more lives would have died if the war continued. They were taught to kill themselves before surrendering.
I get it, you see the subdued Japanese people today. But they were not like that back then. Ask any country that they invaded what the Japanese did to them. Korea, Philippines, and China to name a few.
@@barrymckockinner9292 lmfao shut uppppp do you think I don’t know what the national mindset was at the time? I know very well what Japanese soldiers did in Nanking and countless other places, and I’m not talking about those soldiers.
I’m talking about innocent civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki who had absolutely nothing to do with Pearl Harbour or any of their government’s other horrific acts, who did not deserve to DIE because of something their country did. Certainly not in such a cruel and gruesome manner. Certainly not CHILDREN.
Seriously, what the fuck made you feel that that comment was necessary? Jesus Christ. We all know Japan committed atrocities during the war. We ALL know that, and we can still have a pinch of goddamn nuance and grieve the innocent who shouldn’t have paid for the crimes of others by association.
Go sit in the fuckin corner and think about what made you open your big mouth.
@@barrymckockinner9292The common people from Japan do not share the blame for what Imperial Japan did. What Japan did to my country and others were horrendous, and what the Japanese people, who had no connection to the government or military, endured is also not something to be brushed off. Both sides were in tragic states. The difference is that the government of the other called for bloodshed that no one else wanted.
Alan and Jonathan described this film perfectly; Grave of the Fireflies is the vegetable of films. You won't be entertained, your heart will be ripped out, but it's _such_ an important film.
Thank you Cinema Therapy for covering this movie.
Whenever I recommend this to my friends I always say this is the best anime I've ever seen but I don't want to see it ever again. The feels, dayum...
One of my best friends is half Japanese, her mother is the only surviving child of her parents of the bombings, and when the entirety of our grade was studying Japan and WWII she brought in the film for the entire grade to watch, and well everyone was crying.
Veggies make me happy, though. This movie is the total opposite. I can't possibly compare this movie to something as satisfying as veggies. What's something that's good for you but rips your heart out and leaves you an emotional husk for hours to days afterward?
I'm Ukrainian and I just cannot cry about the war horrors anymore as much as I did at the start of the war, I am mostly just numb now and not feeling anything. But when Alan looked up and said “sometimes you're just living your life and somebody else decides to invade your country” - I started crying. Thank you for the acknowledgement ❤
Did you consider that when your government was slaughtering and persecuting ethnic Russians with random artillery fire for years???
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Saw this movie at the theatre back in 1988 as a child. They actually showed this with “My Neighbour Totoro”. I still remember hearing all the parents sobbing including my dad.
WORST SATURDAY EVENING EVER lol - whose Idea was that?
When my son was 4 years old, I used to watch a lot of the ghibli movies alone before I watch them with my son so I can translate them for him. I watched this one alone when he was at the daycare, and it ended around 2 pm, and I just sat there until 4 pm after it ended, I did not move. I did not show him, he is 14 now and I am gonna watch it with him soon. Its so important to watch.
The reason I was just sitting there for 2 hours, was I remember being so hungry when I was little around 5. My family struggled a lot. My mom used to pick berries when we fell asleep in the winter, digging snow. Sometimes all we had were crowberries for lunch and thats all we ate for a day. Sometimes dry bread because they were saving it to last til payday. Sometimes they did not eat for days.
Then years later after my dad and mom worked for years, my father was laid off, and I had to go through that. I was 16, my little brother and sister had to eat, I did not eat for 3 days at a time. I survived on strong coffee and bread with no toppings.
I remember on my payday, I was so hungry when I bought food and had to bring 2 bags a short road to my house, I could barily hold the bags, I was so weak. They felt so heavy and every step I felt like falling. Just taking one step at a time. Reminding myself my family has to eat. I did not eat until everyone had their shares. I never stopped working ever since. I worked while studying. My son 14 and daughter 6 will never know what that hunger feels like. So hungry you are nauseated. So hungry you are shaking and barily can stay up.
I still have to remember to feed myself to this day. After that much hunger, eating everyday sometimes makes me grateful that I have food. I still forget to eat sometimes 1 whole day.
I am 32 now. Appreciating every food I get.
giving you virtual hugs. i cant imagine how hard that must have been like. im glad that it seems youre in a much, much better place 💕
@@noface____ Thank you. I am much in a better place. I keep working on the future, and making sure my babies never go hungry. Thank you so much for reading it.
I'm so hug you right now 😭
@@AigleEnOr12 Thank you for reading my comment. I guess I really needed to let it out.
Nuclear World War 3 is not an impossibility so most of us might experience that extreme hunger in the future
When you learn this is based on a autobiography written by someone who was a trainstation child it hits harder.
Note: Trainstation children were homeless WW2 children who had nowhere to hide so they had to try and wait out the war in the trainstation, but were imprisoned or driven out because they were getting in the way of war efforts. Many of them were killed just to get them out of the way. Children were the BIGGEST victims of WW2 and that's why this movie was made.
The final shot of Seita looking directly into the camera while the modern world passes on by kills me inside. So much is in that look. Rarely have I seen a look like that pulled off in a piece of art. Its heartbreakingly beautiful. I always got the feeling in part that look was from the people of that era telling the viewer to remember them and how horrible that war was. How hollow it leaves the soul in the end. Like the look he gives. Like a hollow eyed warning. Then right after it just shows this modern prosperous city where it all happened. Something about that contrast feels wrong to me. Like we did forget. Or maybe we just don't want to think about it. Maybe that kind of horror is just too much. After all, just this one movie alone is hard to watch. Hard to say. I just felt so empty by the end. Almost guilty for trying to move on.
Exact point where I cried, the thought that they’d never be able to live through a life of peace, and could only longingly observe it from a forgotten distance, was so sad man
I knew going in Grave of the Fireflies was gonna be a sad experience…. but it surpassed my expectation in the most devastating ways possible. Hardest I’ve ever cried for a movie.
Check out "Gallipoli" or "Breaker Morant"
@@MichaelNolenthe ending to Gallipoli gutted me and left me with a blank stare for a good few minutes.
Not only is this based on real history, it’s based on true events that happened to the creator Akiyuki Nosaka himself. He wrote this story as an homage to his family who died, and Seita was a stand-in for him. He’s said that Seita was a better brother than him because he often wouldn’t share food with his own sister and was generally more selfish, and also the reason Seita died is because Nosaka believed he should’ve died with his own family back then. So yeah, depressing as hell
I always found it so poignant that the girl's eulogy music is Home Sweet Home, a song adapted from an *American* Opera ... by the culture of the people who took her family, and (indirectly) her life too, and then I found out this isn't just any opera track... oh no, it's the melody played in counterpart to "Over the Rainbow" in the final scene of The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy tells her family, "there's no place like home". 😭
On a more light hearted note, that clip of Dr Evil/Disney - chef's kiss.
...I realized none of this when I watched it, and you just made me love it even more. I wouldn't have even had the heart to put two and two together anyway because that would have devastated me even more.
It's not just the fault of the Americans, it's also the fault of the Japanese for needlessly attacking and provoking America, and also the fault of the German leadership that riled up Japan vs America, and the fault of the leaders at the Treaty of Versailles who destroyed Germany economically and created a scenario of desperation that allowed Hitler to take over, and so on and so forth. War is an endless cycle, and everyone loses.
The hardest part of watching this for me was seeing the moments when Setsuko is playing while her brother is out. It hits so hard, seeing the innocence of a child amidst all the starvation and loss. Life can be so difficult. Spread love to those around you, cause you never know who might need it.
I have ADHD and rewatching movies helps with emotional regulation. Sometimes, I just need to let myself feel sad, and movies like this one help with that. But as someone who's lost track of how many times I've seen it, I completely understand why you don't want to watch it ever again. It's very much a single view film. But it's so incredibly powerful, and beautiful. I'm so glad you got to experience it and I thank you for sharing your journey into it with us.
Speaking of therapy: When Grave of the Fireflies was first shown in the U.S., the American distributor did not look at GotFF too deeply, noted that they were both animated movies, assumed they were both for children, and released it as the second movie in a double header with My Neighbor Totoro. I cannot /imagine/ the number of traumatized families after the second film.
I don't believe they were shown as a double-feature in the US as both were released on video first though Totoro did get dubbed and theater screenings when it was released by Fox many years before Disney got the rights. It WAS released as a double-feature in Japan and intentionally so.
i had friends when i was younger who had a dual-DVD set, first was Totoro and second was Grave of the Fireflies, so maybe it was only released in select places?
Uh this is incorrect. It was released IN JAPAN as a double header with Totoro, and it was done because GoTF was made by a more well known company.
@@kristinross6890 Wow, I had never heard of that. A US release?!
One of the most tragic details I've heard about the movie is that the book it's based on (which is an autobiography of the older brother, who survived irl) details how when his sister was starving she didn't have any energy to chew, so he would chew on what little rice they had and then transfer it to her mouth, but he found himself swallowing each time because of his own hunger. And all these years he had to live with that guilt and the horrible thought that "I caused my sister to die".
That poor boy
@@SabiLewSounds :(
damn...
He states that he was not as generous as Seita. Making Seita far more kind and generous than him. He was relieved when his sister died so he wouldn't hear her cry at night.
He'd hit her. He'd eat her food.
I'm not sure where you found that he was 'chewing it for her so she could eat it' I have found references where it's talked about that she couldn't swallow well, but I'm just not finding this altruistic read on the author like you are.
@@stardustorchard9316 I think it was mentioned in behind-the-scenes or some other bonus content on the dvd. I haven't read the book, so I guess I might be way off
I saw this film when I was in high school. I was just starting to get into both films and anime when I came across this at my local Blockbuster circa 2005. Needless to say I had no idea what I was getting myself into. After watching the opening scene where Seita and Setsuko's spirts leave the train station; I remember taking a deep breath and thinking to myself, "Well... at least the movie is letting know ahead of time that those two don't make it." My reason for thinking this is that to me it was softening the blow so to speak. Since I now know ahead of time that they don't make it when inevitable does happen I was able to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for it... to the best of my ability anyway. After the movie was over I just sat in silence for like 30 minutes absorbing what I just watched.
Spoony put it best when he said that Grave of the Fireflies was "the best movie that I never want to see again."
私も、辛すぎて観ることが出来ません。
No matter how many times I see this, and show it to someone, I always lose it during the eulogy score. This is what I love about the people that created Studio Ghibli, their attention to detail is majestic even when its tragic, and their characters are so full of life (even the villains). Disney is a master at their craft, but they have never come close to matching the soul that is born into these Ghibli films.
This movie is in a very select group for me. It sits alongside Schindler's List as one of the very best movies I am NEVER. WATCHING. AGAIN. I knew this movie was going to destroy me emotionally going in to it. I picked a bright sunny day where I had nothing else going on, and even then after it was over I just wanted to crawl into bed and not leave it for a week. It's a magnificent film and I'm sure if I did watch it again I'd get even more out of it...but oh man do I need to be in a place of emotional fortitude to do so.
This is definitely on my try to NEVER WATCH AGAIN list, along with Requiem for a Dream, Trainspotting. Such a brutal movie.
Very important movies to watch though
Don't watch Barefoot Gen. Or well. Do. But you'll only watch that once too.
Yep, right up there with Bicycle Thieves. Beautiful film with a message that needs to be broadcast...but it wrecked me before I was even a parent.
Now?
With a three year-old who is so full of life and love for everyone?
In the midst of economic and climate collapse?
Nah bro.
I can't afford to take a week off from being human.
@@gigabrother458oh yes, Requiem for a Dream is in my list too.
I watched this movie years ago, thinking, its a "nice anime"... I was so wrong. 15 min into the film and I was SOBBING. When it finished, I remember the silence in the room and my tears running down my face. 11/10 for an emotional damage
I don’t usually cry when I watch movies. I can get emotional, but tear up, not so much. I think I never cried so much watching a movie.
I was exactly the same when I discovered this as a kid, naively thought “ooh a studio ghibli film I haven’t seen yet…” the whole time I just thought, it’s gonna get better tho right, they’re good kids?!” But as they said, I wasn’t watching Disney 😬 the fact it’s so sweet makes it all the more heartbreaking 💔 powerful filmmaking in every sense.
The movie reminds me a little about a German book that would translate as "Sadako want's to life". Sadako is a 4 year old girl who witnessed the bombing of Hiroshima together with her brother who is 10. They are not orphaned but the effect of the bombing is descriped and also the struggle after the war. Later on when she is 14 she dies of Leukemia. Her brother is the one who persuades his parents to ask american doctors to treat her but she dies anyway. Someone tells her the believe that if she succeeds to make 100 origamy cranes she will be cured but instead she goes to heaven. It is very touching too.
FUN FACT: At the time of the film's theatrical release, "Grave of the Fireflies" was shown simultaneously with "My Neighbour Totoro". Simultaneous screening means that you can see two film productions for the price of one. This meant that both "My Neighbour Totoro" and "Grave of the Fireflies" could be seen at the same time.
When the films were first shown in the theatre, there was no switching of audiences as there is today, and it was up to the audience to decide which film they wanted to see first.
Which film would you see first?
I would think seeing Grave of the Fireflies would be a better choice for the first one, than My Neighbor Totoro.
Firstly Totoro, because after Fireflies I couldn't get through another movie.
I'd watch Grave of the Fireflies first, so after it devastated me, I could watch a happy uplifting movie after.
Totoro first. I think if you can bounce back after such a sad movie, just from seeing happier content, it wasnt really appreciated thoroughly, and the meaning of the film didnt sink in. Much raryer end the movie night with grave of the fireflies - but to each their own. 😂
@@JayJay-qu4nwbounce back fully, no, but see it as more of a chaser so people wouldn't leave the theatre totally depressed
I have a degree in International Relations and something Jonathan resonated with me. “We don’t have to do this to each other.” It stood out to me because when we talk about WWII we always talk about it in terms of us vs them when really the ENTIRE world shared trauma for this. We absolutely did not have to go this far and the recovery from it still isn’t done mentally and emotionally.
Exactly. I read in the news some years back, that here in Germany, about 70% of people 50 years or older who are in therapy are there because of their parents WW2 trauma.
Even my 30 year long struggle with mental issues is linked to WW2. I am 40 now. My mother was a child at the end of the war. The emotional abuse she suffered in the years after the war, because of the war, left her an emotional wreck and an incapable mother.
My life is completely messed up. In parts it is because of that.
This is a whole mood...when I really sit down to think about WWII, I can put me into stomach knots just how globally destructive it was. Not that WWI wasn't destructive obviously, but there's a reason WWII is etched in our collective consciousness. Almost 100 years later, it's arguably the most destructive social upheaval in history, and I can only imagine even people who didn't believe in any kind of 'end times' probably started to think the world was ending. And the worst part is that it did end for millions of people. All because of a few crazed men and their gullible followers.
I remember when i startde IR, the first thing my teacher said is how it is very grim and not positive subject, and damn was he true😥
We didn't even need to do WWI to each other, and the Allies ESPECIALLY didn't need to do the postwar sanctions to the Weimar Republic to leave the people desperate enough to elect something like Hitler. The 80 million or so who died in WWII in general, and the 6 million Jews, 2 million Poles and half a million Romani(which were a quarter to half of all Romani, closer to the 40% of Jews than the Poles despite the lower gross numbers) in particular would not have been genocided have people just CARED.
@@nitzan3782 * irony mode on * You certainly figured out the human condition and psychology. *irony mode off *
EDIT: I was too harsh.
No one "needs" those wars. They happen nontheless. Why? Just look at the rise of Donald Trump. It needs one maniac with unrelenting will to power and uneducated masses with bad economic outlook. The US is on the brink of a civil war thanks to him and his followers. A civil war within a country that posesses, what, 8000 nuclear wraheads? God help us all.
Our societies needed to be way more just (not equal!) and less psychologically damaging to not produce such crisies.
This was an EXTREMELY abbreviated version of the story.
Fun fact: the wording of "火垂る" (fireflies) in the movie title can also mean "fire falling (from the sky)"
The author changed the original hiragana to kanji, making it a pun/metaphor for the lives deceased in the war, which is why they use fireflies as a theme.
i got goosebumps
I don't know if I would call it a "fun" fact, but it is an interesting and important one. Thank you for sharing it.
Could it also be a metaphor for the burning napalm bombs raining from the sky?
That some meta thinking
@@shivrajtakhell9111 Yes, that is what he is refering to. If you look at the movie poster of the children sitting among fireflies in the grass, the fireflies are actually mixed with falling firebombs and in the darkened sky above the silhuette of a plane can be faintly made out.
I think what makes this hit so hard for me is that the characters feel like real people. It's so easy for drama like this to feel detached at times due to exaggerated direction, writing, or performances, but this movie's portrayal of people feels air-tight.
That's probably because it's based on someone's real experience. WWII wasn't that long ago. The real life Seita didn't die, at least not then. He grew up and wrote grave of the fireflies.
This movie is based on a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka.
He once said about this work, "I never want it to be only a tearjerker." However, It is said that the author himself fled the venue because he couldn't bear to watch the screening. The story is based on his own experiences, and he was alive (he passed away 8 years ago), but he allowed his sister to die. He said that he was never a kind brother. It seems that his life was filled with a deep sense of self-blame.
I find it so powerful that while Seita and Setsuko's parents were both direct casualties of the war, Seita and Setsuko die due to the aftermath. Seita and Setsuko should have survived. They were alive after the dust had settled and there wasn't immediate threat to their lives. However due to their family (their horrible aunt) and those around them in their communities not caring about them, they starved. It stands that when we have kindness and compassion, and the means to help others, we should.
What makes this movie 10000x more sad for me is finding out that it was adapted from the short story with the same name by
Akiyuki Nosaka who wrote it as an apology letter to his sister.
oh my I-
That makes my heart hurt
The first time I saw this movie, I thought it was going to be another delight like Spirited Away or Kiki's Delivery Service. I couldn't turn it off and I have been destroyed ever since. I have seen it once more, when I showed it to my friends in college after touring a museum exhibit on the fire bombing of Japanese civilians and cities. This story breaks my heart and I still can't process the way it does so.
I first watched, the only time I watched it, when I was in college. It made me so sad, I was sick and I was in this fog for three days. I was so heartbroken for the children, and could only imagine how this was reality for so many children - not so long ago. I'm grateful that this movie taught me and gave me insight to what history books couldn't personalize. It SHOULD be a required watch, but it should definitely be prefaced with talks and give space afterwards before discussion to digest it. What an icredible, but heart wrenching story. I was hesitant to watch this cinematherapy simply because it WAS so hard to watch the first time, but I'm glad I did.
Have you seen Oppenheimer?
An amazing film, arguably Nolan’s best and leaves you with a sense of despair afterwards.
After ghibli got popular in the west, that can of jelly candy appeared at grocery stores, especially asian food stores like hmart. It was years after I saw the movie, I saw the tin, and instantly the final scene played in my mind, and I couldnt stop myself from crying. It is one of those rare moments in media - in the art world at large, even, that hurts you, changes you deep in your soul, rips apart your heart and makes you feel something so raw and painful that you’ll never breathe the same way again.
The company had unfortunately closed due to bankruptcy just recently. The candies might be discontinued.
I saw the same thing but it had a picture of the little girl on it and that's how I learned about the movie
That tin of candies appeared on my tiktok feed a few years ago and it made me cry like a baby.
@@kentoylampingasanSo, that company had actually split years ago, and only one of them went bankrupt.
"This feels a lot more real than the live action films." I have the same sentiment.
I remember I bought the DVD for this movie while I was still in secondary school. My mom was sick and couldn't go to work one day, so before I went out for school that morning, I told her she can pop in the movie and watch it.
Years later, she asked what was the title of the movie I bought. When I told her to specify the movie, she said, "It's that live-action of those two children in the middle of war." The movie felt so real to her, she remembered it as live-action.
For me this was all new. I watched the live action version, instead of this one. And yeah it still destroyed me and haven't watched it again in all these years.
Yeah that quote is because this isn't a piece of fiction but written from the experiences of the writer who created this book as an apology to his sister who died during WW2.
There is actually a live action version of this, but honestly the animation is so raw and beautiful and poignant that it is just as good as a live action, if not better.
I'm sorry guys I got 2:44 into this episode and then decided I can't put myself through this soul-destruction again right now. I'm sure the ep was as great as usual and I'm sure I'll attempt this again in the future lmao
I’m at 1:18 and I’m already getting teary eyed. I haven’t seen the film so I think I’m going to stop watching it once I get to your time stamp, I feel like I have to watch it on my own first before I hear them discuss it
@@zacurragazzo9432It would.. definitely connect you more to the characters.
I watched this entire episode absolutely weeping
my grandma is a hiroshima survivor. she survived because her father (who couldn't get drafted) dug a tunnel for his family. she was 3 but she told me the story in great detail last year. i haven't seen this film yet, but i'm glad this episode of ct exists.
Grave Of The Fireflies is my number one "everyone should watch this movie once" movie. I don't think I can ever watch it again, but I'm glad I did watch it. For similar anime films dealing with the sadness/horror of war that I feel everyone should watch once, I'd recommend Barefoot Gen and In This Corner Of The World.
For Grave Of The Fireflies, it's worth noting that the original author told this pseudo-biographical story because his younger sister died. Though he himself survived, in the story he had the main character boy die as well, largely due to his own survivor's guilt.
Oh gosh that last sentence...😭😭😭
I'm sure he's lived his whole life with the crushing guilt, always questioning what he could've done so his little sister didn't have to die. Maybe it was an act of mercy on his part to have Seita, a character who is basically himself, die rather than live a whole life crushed by the guilt he's lived with. Maybe it was something that he wanted at the time when he lost his little sister.
I watched this at a sleepover in high school and it broke me. Just imagine a room full of teenagers all in tears for an hour and 30mins.
Hahaha bad idea man very bad...
this is not the kind of movie you watch at a sleepover lmao
@@galllowglassLol nope. It was my friend's birthday and she thought this would be a good movie to watch. I have no idea if she knew what it was about beforehand.
@@misstressfoxtail05 haha maybe she thought it was a cutesy ghibli movie
I watched it with a girl i was trying to get with. I was in my 20s. We thought it would be another whimsical movie like howls moving castle or my neighbor totoro. We were both a blubbering mess by the end. I kept trying to be manly and hide my tears but she eventually noticed them asked are you crying. I said you are too. Lol. We both laughed. I don't think I saw a dry eye coming out of that theater. To this day i tell people its good but prepare yourself. They ask why. I jyst tell them watch and see.
I kept doing breath work to keep myself from crying and when the eulogy part started I started sobbing uncontrollably. It's like a dam broke. And I already knew what was coming in the film.
For me seeing this film once was enough. 😭
I rarely and I mean rarely cry, I can't remember when was the last time I cried, but with this movie as I started tearing up I began to smile not believing that I would cry because of an animated movie, but it did
An animated movie actually made me cry. And I don't have it in me to watch it again
And the outro music as well...
@@UnKnowmanNumber2 I totally understand about not wanting to watch it again. It's just too much!
@@laviniasnow4494 not about re-watching it several times but the thing that can be obtained is that your family is the one who really sincerely loves you, when the aunt gets angry at Setsui and Setsuko it really hurts
I watched this movie for the first time as a young teenager and it had such an impact on my outlook on life. In my second last year of high school I was taking history as an elective with one semester focusing on Japan during WWII. Teachers often closed the semester on a movie related to what we were studying at the time, and I remember begging my teacher to show this movie to the class, going so far as bringing it to class so he didn’t have to do anything. Instead we watched the Last Samurai and I spent those last few classes completely incensed the Grave of the Fireflies was passed over for it. No idea why he wouldn’t do it but I felt like the majority of the people in my class were incredibly sheltered (and pretty privileged too) and this would have given them an opportunity to think about the other side of the stories we hear about.
I can’t wait for my children and cousins to be old enough to watch this film as I’m sure it’ll spark some really interesting conversations albeit once we all stop crying
They should make an anime about the Nanking Massacre.
Dear cinema therapy,
Odds of you reading this are very low, but I just want to show my appreciation for you guys nonetheless. I just had a mentally draining morning with my dad, watching you guys being internet dads just having fun while helping people such as myself does more than you could possibly know. You and your whole team have made the world a slightly better place and I thank you for that.
PS: upon the chance that you guys read this, please let Sophie know that she is now who I want to be when i grow up (no pressure) ❤
Welp time to like so that Cinema Therapy can read this! 😁
Edit: I've just been reading some of the comments below mine and I'm no therapist but I do want to say that I personally think during tough times, let it out. Let your emotions out, people tell you not to cry but if that can calm you down if sitting down and watching a sad movie will help you then do it. Also, never be ashamed to ask for help or even talk to a friend or family or even just have a chat with someone to feel better, heck if you want tell us! We will often find ourselves in tough times and thats okay. Also, here is a cute cat to make everyone feel better:
∧,,,∧
( ̳• · • ̳)
/ づ♡
I just had a hard morning too, been crying and feeling hopeless, then I watched this (given, that didn't help at all at first, as I'm familiar with the movie and now there's a huge pile of tissues on my desk). I don't know, I might have needed a good cry. I feel calm, and I think I can slowly get back up that slope, thank you.
Also, you can pin your comment so that it says up forever. Just select the 3 dots and you'll see the option. Only works for the creator of the videos and added moderators, though. ;)
I’m currently having a bad time with my dad, every time this happens he brushes it off and gets angry if I mention it, I am owed countless apologies and yet I can’t make him feel as bad for never caring as he’s made me feel since my early teens
@@googoogaga7986 I am So, SO sorry honey. A million apologies for the way your father wrongs you. I know what that is like. And no child should ever have that kind of father. I hope when you grow up, you can get away from him and never have to go back, know that you are not the issue, HE is. And that you are a very strong person who can take care of yourself and do good things in this world, you do NOT need him and he does NOT deserve you.
@@IwannatrywithKat I understand what that is like, and I know it can be hard, but I have no doubts that you will be able to climb that slope by your own strength. And if you can't, know it is also okay to lean on others and ask for help from friends.
What really tore my heart apart was Setsuko's changing body . Her cheeks were chubby at the beginning and as the film progressed they sunk until she looked like a malnourished child than a chubby girl . Her changing image was to me a huge metaphor of war destroying peace .
How tragic for a child as young as he has to suffer because he can't eat to live, especially when Setsuko asks her sister for fruit candy, it's just a small request for children to make her happy.
Her hair was also very colorful at the beginning and looked kinda fluffy, but trough out the film her hair gets frizzy and dry and more darker.
I was a chubby girl when I was little and my grandparents would look at me and compliment cheerfully how healthy and nourished I look. I was always annoyed by them because I thought being chubby is fat and ugly, and I didn't like them saying that. But now I understand, because my grandparents lived in extreme poverty and food was so scarce, it was worth celebrating if their grandchild was chubby.
Oh godddddd, when I saw her eyes start to look sunken, I just knew that it meant she would die soon. And I don’t want to except that.
Its based on the authors experience during that time where his own sister died from malnutrition. He never forgave himself and wrote Grave of the Fireflies as a way to cope
me and my brother are eight years born apart, he's older and we were in a highly abusive family. He was my protector my whole life, and he's gone now. This movie will never be the same for me.
i watched this movie for the first time during my 10th grade history class and had to physically refrain myself from looking at it towards the end because i didn't want to start sobbing in front of my peers. i had never watched an animation before where such a small and innocent child died such a slow and devastating death. i especially didn't expect it from a ghibli film. it's such a tragic yet important movie
To have in the first few minutes the ending revealed really makes my heart shatter because I know what the film will be like. Also it’s during the Second World War which was already devastating for all countries involved. Two siblings surviving on their own after losing their mother in a bombing really makes you think about your own life and the blessings you have, especially as they gradually starve and Seita goes to great lengths to get food for his sister. Gotta respect Studio Ghibli
Yes the beginning spoiling / tainting the happy moments they have is what destroyed me. And that a Animation Studio decided to show the realistic life, the story of them is something that could have happend in those circumstances for real, is risky but they did it sooooo well and with so much respect to the topic.
If its any consolation, the movie is based on an autobiography, so while someone did went tru that stuff, he made it.
It was definitely a clever decision. It's like "we're going to break your spirit... it'll be so bad that we will give you a heads-up at the beginning so you can prepare yourself."
I remember reading that Ghibli wanted to do this story so badly but it was a hard sell, so he created the beloved My Neighbor Totoro to play as a double feature with this movie so that He could create this story, the one he really wanted to tell.
@@TerraRose21 It makes sense that Studio Ghibli would do a war movie. I know Miyazaki was interested in making war films so he made Howl’s Moving Castle as a protest against the war in Iraq. Didn’t Isao Takahata direct Grave of the Fireflies since Miyazaki was working on My Neighbor Totoro?
This movie gutted me when I watched it as a teenager and I still cry when I rewatch it! ❤️
Also, at 15:30 when you see the fireflies staying a long time before a box: that’s the ashes from the communal grave, so their mother wasn’t buried and he’s transported that box everywhere they go. So he lied to his sister to spare her: their mother doesn’t doesn’t have a grave… 😢
I had not connected the color red with it's meaning until the end of the film; in this part both the box of ashes and the dead fireflies flying around are red, not green/yellow. I saw this 25 years ago, and it always stuck with me
Hol' up, sorry
RE-watch it? You masochist- I saw it once and it lives rent free in my mind, probably for the rest of my life.
Also he put his sister's ashes into a fruit drops tin, which is thrown out like trash into a field at the very beginning of the film.
@@booknerd234 OMG! I had forgotten that, so I looked up the beginning only of the film here on YT, and there it all was! ua-cam.com/video/ny386oI3TPM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=LeeryanTez
Even just watching these little bits are gonna make me cry all over again
A fascinating aspect of this movie that often goes unnoticed is its profound connection to the millions of children who currently endure life on the streets. Just as the Director, Isao Takahata, consistently rejected the notion that the film was an anti-war statement, stating in his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message." Instead, Takahata's intent was to portray the lives of the brother and sister, marked by societal isolation and despair. The true tragedy lies in the fact that, even in today's world, the number of children living on the streets (approximately 150 million) and suffering from hunger exceeds the toll of war.
This was a movie i watched when I was small, it instantly went on my "watch once and never again" list. Such a necessary, yet sad movie to watch.
War is not about who wins and who loses, it's about who loses and who loses less.
Yeah. This is up there with Schindler's List. It's something everyone SHOULD watch, but far too devastating for multiple viewings.
@@wordforger Exactly this. I've managed to watch GotF more than once, but I haven't gone back to Schindler's List since the first viewing and I don't blame anyone for only watching this movie once.
Yeah, watched it when I was young also with my little sister. Holy shit it hurts so bad, we both will probably never watch it again. But I would recommend this movie to anyone!
this movie is honestly why the cold and calculating way modern media portrays war really disturbs me. i can't stand how it's reduced to just numbers in most stories, it's so important that people realize each number was a person with hopes and goals and dreams that never had a chance to come true. seeing them reduced to numbers makes it hard for me to enjoy those films at all.
And who's left to pick up the broken pieces, while they too are shattered.
People who can say there is no such thing as an anti-war movie have clearly never watched this film. This is the only episode of yours I can't really watch. I'm just listening in the background and tearing up again after all these years. A once in a lifetime movie, sometimes literally.
i cant even listen to it, ill just give it a like
People say that???
Actually, the guy who made the film never meant it to be anti-war. He said the message was supposed to be about not disobeying one's elders.
@@loner1878 Wasn't it actually social commentary criticizing the Japanese goverment's ineptitude over helping their citizens back then, and to make sure they do better?
@@loner1878 That is exactly the message I got from this film. If I lived with his aunt, I would be doing everything I could, such as helping with the chores, to ease her burden of putting a roof over my head and putting food in my belly. If I acted the way that boy did to my aunt, my parents would have smacked me upside the head for being such a spoiled ungrateful brat.
Thank you for this. I knew this episode would be really hard so I didn't watch it when it was posted. Today I learned a friend of mine about my age (around 40) who has been fighting cancer and we knew wasn't getting better, passed away this last Friday. Watching this was the first thing I thought of doing. I wanted to cry and hold space for my grief. So very appropriate
This is the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. I haven't watched the whole thing in probably 10 years, but just thinking about it starts me crying, and I sobbed through this whole video. I have seen the movie maybe 20 times, and I break every time.
I was taught that WW2, the A bombs, and even the Japanese Internment camps were necessary. My grandfather bombed Tokyo in the Navy. Somehow I ended up with an intense love for Japan, a BA in Japanese from UCLA , and living in Japan for 5+ years. (And will probably be going back.) One of the most beautiful and inspiring things about Japanese culture is their optimism and positivity, as well as a reverence for childhood, all displayed in this movie.
When I was serving as an interpreter for a group from Japan, it came up that this was my favorite movie. They seemed shocked and a little concerned, and I was so embarrassed. Even so, I tried my best to explain that it is such an important, beautiful, moving movie with an important message--and that is why I revered it so. It still is my favorite movie today.
If you didn't know, this movie is based on a book. The author wrote it because he was actually the child in the story. However, he could never forgive himself because he survived and his little sister didn't. So, he created a story in which both died as that's what he thought he deserved. Another interesting thing is that there are hints of this movie in Totoro; some even theorize that they happen in the same setting and that's why the children in Totoro move to the country side, in a safer place. It has never been confirmed, but I think it is very interesting.
The two movies were a double feature in theaters, with one to balance the other because Fireflies was too devastating to watch by itself
Well, I felt the same energy in the Totoro movie with the older sibling looking for her lost sister. And they magically find her. To me, I always had the sense that something happened IRL and that the author wishes this upon children. Wishes protection on children.
The author also felt guilt for his sister death. During the war, as a boy, he was often sent out to find food but any food he found he would eat it. He often came home empty-handed. Thus his little sister eventually died of starvation.
jesus that would kill you later down the line, it cant never leave your mind your whole life
Back in highschool, I asked my world history teacher if I could share this movie with my sophomore class since we were finishing up our studies on WWII.
Around the first half, a lot of my classmates would groan every time Setsuko started crying, and my teacher would yell, "y'all were like that, too!"
When we got to the part where Setsuko died, they were the ones bawling... I always kinda found that funny.
best way to traumatize the whole class hehe
I suggested this movie to my 7th grade english teacher to watch during a WWII unit. I missed the class when we watched it, but I guess she had to stop it bc all my classmates were laughing. A serious topic and depressing (admittedly great) movie and they laughed.
@@cyliandeath1763 oh man, yikes. I dunno what's so funny about a story of two recently orphaned children struggling in a post war country and go through many horrors and then die. 😭
@@SuperKendoman i would think that theyre laughing befcause they dont wanted to feel
@@eze2k I think that's true. It happened in my class as a kid. Not with this movie but about slavery. It was around 7th grade too. I don't think 7th graders should be taught these terrible topics. You'll get odd reactions because reality hits too hard.
This movie holds a very special place in my heart because I remember I had the same exact type of candy drop that came in that type of tin when I was about 6 or 7. I watched this movie when I was quite young, but it still made me cry every single time I watched it. The way they tell the story and the deeper meaning it has behind everything that I only understand now because I'm older. Despite that, the movie is still so great and I'm happy that it's not forgotten among the other movies that are just as amazing by Studio Ghibli. Great video and thank you guys for reviewing this movie.
This move was released in 1988 so I'm sure many of the creators experienced these events or knew someone who lived through this difficult time in human history.
One of the movies that helped me stray away from angsty version of my teenage years. I dont fully appreciate it at the time, but I felt something inside that made me care more for my siblings.
My Lola(grandma) was a kid in the Philippines when the Japanese Empire attacked. Though she would eventually have a family in Japan and live a nice life, it never left her; with the damages she took because of the war being linked to the disease that would take her life nearly 80 years later. I saw this movie months after her death and couldn't stop crying for hours, for all the victims of war and invasion who died or lived with it. No one should have to endure such a tragedy. I forgot who I heard it from but, "No one wins a war".
(Also, if you like Studio Ghibli I heavily recommend any Satoshi Kon's works. I'd love to see a CT episode on Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, or/and Paprika./g)
I'd love to see them react to Paprika. What a trip.
Strongly second Tokyo Godfathers! One of my favorite Christmas movies.
Yes to everything you said.
millennium actress my favour
This has to be the outright, saddest movie I have ever watched.
Coming from a Country(India) which was just dragged into world war, and sufferings happened at the hands of both British and Japan, this movie really hits hard and gives you a perspective that war is just not about glory and defeat, it's way more than that.
I am Japanese. My grandfather was in the navy, and miraculously, he survived. My grandmother managed to escape the air raids in Japan, barely holding onto her life. I cannot express enough gratitude for their survival, as it is because of them that I exist today.
13:45 i absolutely BAWLED the first time i watched this movie, her simple innocence of “mama died and is in a grave so i’m putting the fireflies in a grave like mama” NO MY HEART JUST SHATTERED AGAIN
19:26 and again, after she lists all the food she’s craving, she tells him “i don’t want any of it, you can have it, don’t leave me alone”… she knows she doesn’t have long for the world and she doesn’t want her brother to leave her. oh my gosh. i cannot. my heart 💔
I cried so much during this movie too
I watched this movie with my kids and I was 42.... I cried so hard and I couldn't hide that I was crying in front of them till my wife came and hug me and so my kids as well... After the movie finished it changed me so much I retired early and spend more time with my family and I also call my sisters and brother who live in other countries every weeks just to tell them that I love them...
That's so sweet n I'm glad ur family was there for you to let be comfortable enough to feel vulnerable yet safe. Wish u all continue to have a good life
Beautiful
素敵😢
@@syrusangi8743 hormat👍
Been crying all week. Setsuko wants him to stay because she knows she is dying but she ultimately died alone in the cave. And it pains me so much.
Studio ghibli use quiet spaces so well. Almost like how painters use negative space, studio ghibli is a master of the small spaces in life.
I completely agree with you guys. I watched this movie one time YEARS ago, and I haven't since. It's just too freaking sad. I can't. X'D
A friend of mine described this movie as a "slow motion punch in the face." The beginning is the moment the punch hits the nose and it's just 90 minutes of slow, excruciating contact after that.
Stab to the heart by celluloid
I watched this back in the early 2010s, and was left absolutely devastated by the end. I have a younger sister, and when it gets to the Seita finding Setsuko dead, accompanied by the song on the record player playing, I was absolutely sobbing and inconsolable. This film stayed with me for practically a week. I tried talking to my parents about it and describing it to them without emotionally falling apart, but I couldn’t do it.
That was the first and only time I ever watched that film. It got to me that much.
Please remember TO USE SPOILER WARNINGS!
Same experience here.
@@veramae4098 Everyone is writing how terribly sad this movie made them. It's about kids suffering through WWII. What do you think happens to the kids? What do you think makes this one of the saddest movies of all time? Spoiler warnings are useless because it's so very obvious why this is such a powerfully sad movie. Lady, you need to use a bit of common sense.
@@veramae4098 Throughout the entire video they hint that Setsuko would die and they also say it, I don't see the point of putting a Spoiler Warning before that piece of information
Edit: Also, why did you click on this video if you don't to get spoiled?
Not to sound rude, but it’s really not that big of a spoiler. I mean, the film literally starts out with a flash forward of the main character dying within the first few minutes of the film, and we don’t see his sister with him, so it’s easy to put two and two together to presume what happened. The film literally broadcasts what will happen to both of the characters by the end.
It’s not necessarily about the outcome, but about the terrible situations the main characters go through in order to get there.
I really appreciate how Alan said that "childhood is a wonderful magical time and it ends" instead of using a "but"
I watched this film and was gutted. Watching this video brought it all back and the brilliance of the film and the studio. Thanks for memories.
It would be great to see you do your thing to more of the Studio Ghibli films.
I’m so thrilled you guys did this film. It is such an emotional stab, and yet so beautifully done. I’m convinced it needs to be a required watch while kids study WWII
We watched this in hs in our Asian studies class during that lesson on that time period so at least some are
@@feathereddoggo7891 that’s fantastic to hear. I found it while in high school and tried to get my school to show it but the Board was convinced it was “too much”. I just keep thinking “THAT’S THE POINT”
Kids don't get taught about the World Wars unless it's being told that "you're awesome for being a white American because white Americans won and resolved the war." Kids aren't taught history in schools, they aren't taught about how the confederates fought to keep slavery, or how the genocide of the Native Americas was the biggest genocide that ever was (it's not even listed on lists of genocides, still; partly because it lasted for hundreds of years, and white people quantify a genocide as being a short period of time). Stuff like this SHOULD be shown to kids, because it happens to kids. It IS upsetting for kids to see it, but it's upsetting for adults to see it too, that's why so many adults avoid the topic altogether. It's very, very uncomfortable, AND we need to be talking about it.
@Ray Lee I mean maybe just the school I was in was good but I was in a US public school and we definately learned about the atrocities we committed granted the again studies class held more in perspective than the US history classes but still. I agree it was an import movie for us to see but a wild thing to sit through at 16 at like 10am before going to.gym and then to eat dry mystery meat burgers and cold cafeteria. potatoes.
@@kiarya7939 Then I also recommend Nuremberg Trials. By no means is it for schools, but adults might find it useful when learning about WWII.
I come from Poland so WWII history is taught in schools, including so called camp literature. Awful stuff to read, and truly depressing, so I won't be convincing anyone soon to read one of these. We also have mandatory school trips to Auschwitz and Birkenau and I remember, as a kid, this was so absurd for me, the level of cruelty, that my brain mostly blocked it. And it was good it did so, because as an HSP I feel things much more deeply.
The one good thing that came out of WWII was the UN and many other international organisations , the established laws , that would punish anyone for things that were unpunishable during WW II.
I guess, if people do not take out anything from world conflicts, at least "Grave of the fireflies" shows the reality of an average citizen who suffers the most consequences during any armed conflict. And yes, it should be shown, discussed, paralelled with experiences of people from other countries etc.
My Japanese professor had us watch this in class when I was in college. I felt so much watching the movie that I had to sit outside towards the end of it. He checked in with me after class and we talked about the war, and how you move on after such devastation. When the 3/11 disaster happened, I interviewed him for the school paper, and ended up talking about the same thing with him, except this time, I was the one comforting him. This movie brings all of those memories back....
The way I describe this film is:
It is a movie with just enough happiness so you don't become numb by the sadness.
I watch this every few years because despite it being gut wrenching and heartbreaking, it is so gorgeous. It is worth bawling uncontrolably.
Something I appreciate when watching this is Jonathan acknowledging the tragedy of it all and not trying to find a "solution". One of the hardest things as a therapist is to meet people who are in hopeless situations that will only get worse. I've met many people in my practice where things aren't going to be better, such as the parents of children with terminal cancer. It's easy to expect that a therapist will have the answers or solutions to your pain, but that's not always the case. Sometimes there's not a solution that will take away the pain. Sometimes you just need the right ear. Sometimes you just need to be reminded of something. But sometimes all you need is someone to guide you through the pain rather than away from it. We can feel powerless when the solution isn't there, and when we feel like everything is outside of our control. But even if we cannot change an outcome, we can make choices around the outcome. We can make choices in the way we approach the pain.
Beautifully written. I liked the expression "Sometimes we need someone to you through the pain rather than away from it". Thank you for sharing this ^^
My twin sister and I rented this from the library at 10 years old knowing only that it was Studio Ghibli and therefore, probably fun. I still remember the emotions of watching this on a crackling VHS in the basement on a summer day while our parents were at work. The movie ended and we both just sat there.
Twenty years later, and I still remember those emotions.
I never want to watch it again, but if you haven't seen it, you should. You will never forget it.
❤️
I watched it at around 12 with my sister. It was on Christmas holidays on TV and my parents weren’t there. We thought it was just a cartoon for children. I know EXACTLY the feeling you describe when you wrote « we both just sat there » 🤝
It's a once per lifetime movie.
I still want to watch it a second time, it's a masterpiece. But it's been more than ten years since I've watched it first and never mustered the courage to watch it again.
@@Kitsune-kun663honestly same. Watched it when I was around 10-11ish. Traumatized me for life. Didn’t help that my brother and I were studying abroad and lived in a dormitory, kinda felt isolated and helpless like the characters. I will never watch this movie again lol.
This film is one of the most beautifully animated, wonderfully written, and painstakingly crafted daggers I've ever had driven straight into my soul. An absolute must-watch of a masterpiece, but it is going to hurt you.
Even just watching this video broke my heart. I appreciate that you took the time to create this video and describe the intricate details and underlying philosophy, both of which we may have missed or not known about.
This is a movie that I watched ONCE and I cannot revisit it, but it is devasting, beautiful, heartbreaking, and just so important. As someone who grew up on the "Good Fight, Good War" mentality this movie shook me to my core and opened an entirely new perspective. One that I have been studying ever since. Once we let go of the idea that war benefits anyone, the world will be better.
“In this corner of the world” is another animated movie taking place during World War 2
It’s a beautiful movie that is also tragic but I feel like it has a more hopeful tone to it
if you’re ever curious in watching it! I highly recommend
I watched it 15 years ago and can never watch it again.
So you’re fine with genocidal fascist regimes that kill hundreds of millions of people for the crime of being slightly different.
I'm a Japanese. I really want to say thank you for introducing this movie.
This movie never blames against any country and any people, just focusing on what happened after occurring a war.
I watched it at a primary school
as a part of education. Of course, we all cried. I really appreciate you give me a chance to watch it again.
although it should have blamed the US considering it's the ONLY country in history that actually used it on civilians , and now the bastards claim to be good and moral.
The lack of blame is part of why it hits so hard. What kills the siblings in the end isn't the americans or even the war. They ultimately die because of the indifference of their fellow countrymen. The scene at the end with them looking straight at the viewer and the modern world is a painful reminder of all the innocents who never got to enjoy the comfortable peace.
I think any school in any country should need to show this movie at least once. So it becomes clear that war is nothing but death and destruction. And that we need to do everything to avoid it.
Hi Japanese! I was wondering if your school system teaches the history of Japan's colonization, including the atrocities committed by Japan, in our country, given that it was one of the countries colonized by Japan.
@@gilangx5 where are you from
I've watched this twice in full. Both times were gut wrenching. I watched this reaction video and I felt the same emotions, but on a smaller scale. It's so important to remember from time to time. It grounds me, in a way, to show myself how much worse things could be.
You know, I think, after World War 2, a lot of us who have the luxury to be able to watch these gentlemen and type things never really underwent the same situation as these two kids, and we forget that our grandparents and great-grandparents fought so that we'd never have to experience it, or experience it again, but the storm clouds are approaching us soon. This film is good at reminding us, that this is normative for most of our history. The peace we've mostly experienced was unprecedented in the history of humanity.
The mannerisms they captured with Setsuko are just so perfect. They captured a child's body language and thoughts so well.
I loved her snip snip song. Too cute!
I watched this film two times. First alone and than because I wanted to show it to someone. The second time was even harder. The tears ran down my face so quickly. Now I can't even tell someone about this film in any kind of detail without getting choked up. But it is simply a masterpiece. Devastating, but a masterpiece. And knowing that it's based on a autobiographic book by an author ridden by severe survivors guilt doesnt make it easier. Thanks for talking about this film.
I sometimes think that this movie should be a required watch at schools. It would give modern people an inkling of what previous generations had to get through. That would maybe lead to some perspective.
The second watch makes that intro scene so much more devastating.
Here's how I describe the impact & significance of this movie--
"Grave of The Fireflies" is a movie that utterly breaks your heart ... & then it goes & breaks it some more. All the while, it can make you hate watching it, & it can make you hate yourself for choosing to watch it in the first place
...but it will *never* make you believe that this movie should never have existed. No matter how many times it breaks your heart, this movie is the kind of movie that *needs* to exist -- a movie that forces you to feel the emotional impact of real things & events, simply by holding up a mirror to show us a reflection of reality.
@@zenkim6709 Beautifully put
Yeah, first time I didn't cry. Second time, I was watching with someone else and I did. Often, I don't cry the first time and other times, I nearly cry at a damn gum commercial...
Anyway, I have been to Japan twice now, making sure to visit war memorial cites. Big cities have Peace memorial museums (highly recommend to anyone who goes). My second trip included Hiroshima and Okinawa. It all opens your eyes to the fact history is written by the winners. They can say whatever they want and the defeated must concentrate on putting themselves back together. My latest trip was to Germany and Switzerland. The former, I made sure to visit the memorials in Berlin. The later had an exhibit with Anne Frank in one of their museums. And in between, I saw what it was like in Germany at the time. People were judged for being East German when they were divided post WWII because it was communist.
Only a few months ago, I realized I had been in all the axis countries, though Italy was when I was a teen and didn't control the itinerary. Try to go to any of them and see the memorials, museums, and the historical cites that are deemed "touristy." Don't overload and take a break.
@@EcstaticTeaTime The Italians are facist fools. They got out of the war in 1943, before the Axis got really ravaged...
... and a few months ago they voted an extremist right-wing party into office, which still carries the Facist Party's Logo from WW2 and actively worships Mussolini as a national hero. They didn't learn their lesson.
A deeply worried German
I normally don't like to watch anime or studio ghibli films, but I decided to click on this video on a 1 am whim knowing absolutely nothing about the movie. I was blindsided on how much this touched me. War is a horrid, awful thing, but the goodness that people are able to still have through times like that gives us hope for humanity. There are a thousand sides to every story and I'm grateful that I was able to learn a little more about this one.
I watched life is beautiful and grave of the fireflies thanks to you guys and my life is so much sadder and happier for it! Love what you guys do!
A friend of mine’s grandfather worked for Nissan in Tennessee until retirement. He had a boss that moved from Japan to work at that plant sometime in the 80’s or 90’s. His boss one day came in nearly hysterical because he saw something outside.
He took my buddy’s grandfather outside to show him and it was a small group fireflies. He was a child when the nukes dropped and hadn’t seen fireflies in nearly 50 years and was overcome with emotion at the beautiful sight.
My friend’s grandfather ended up taking him to a spot he knew of that was known locally for the incredible amount of fireflies that would visit in the summer.
It’s incredible the things we can take for granted that other people have been forcibly deprived of.
I watched this movie for the first time about two years ago or so. I knew it had a reputation for being "the best movie you'll never want to watch again," but even knowing that I was not prepared for laid ahead. Not only did I cry, but for two weeks or so I could not stop thinking about it. I felt like I was genuinely grieving for Setsuko and Seita, and I was so angry at all that happened to them.
I think one of the things that wrecked me the most was the fact that in the end, no one in the film mourns Setsuko and Seita. Seeing them suffer and die was horrible in itself, but I think the creative team who made this movie made a devastatingly brilliant decision in denying us a cathartic resolution of having someone stand over their graves and mourn them (be that person a father, their aunt or cousin, a distant relative that went searching for them, a neighbor who knew them, whoever). A scene like that would have given some emotional closure or bitter comfort, I think, because it would have shown us that someone remembers them and someone is grieving them just like we are. But we didn't get that. These kids were forgotten. They suffered, they died, and they were forgotten, just like so many victims of war. No one was there to mourn them except for us, the viewers, and denying us that closure or catharsis of having a grieving character to project our emotional reactions to really emphasizes the senseless evil of war.
Thank you so much for covering this and for your incredible analysis!
That's exactly why we all need to watch this stuff, because other places are still living like this, still having stuff like this happening to them. And we all not only need to be able to recognize and appreciate it, but also realize how important it is to always step up and help make sure this stops happening.
As for the mourning, the sad thing is that's the point of juxtaposing the kids in front of modern Japan (Tokyo? Wherever the final scene is). It's a statement to everyone, especially Japanese people, that "this is us now, AND this is our history on this same ground. What will you do about that?"
My father never really talked about the WWII. It was before I was born and my family evacuated to a country side, but he commuted to Tokyo because of his job as a journalist. But he did tell me the horror of the Tokyo bombing. Tokyo was guttered, so there wasn’t a landmark to get to his office. Along the way, my father saw the devastating carnage of the aftermath. One was a woman breastfeeding a dead baby as if her child was alive. Also, under these circumstances, he told me that he’d become so numb to see dead people everywhere as he walked. War should never happen.
The amount of overwhelming sadness I felt from this movie is devastating. I isolated myself. I lost appetite for weeks. I couldn't get myself to feel good for day. It was heavy. It affected me physically and emotionally in so many ways. Learned a lot.
I saw this movie about 8 years ago now. My family watched it all together, my dad being the only one of us who had seen it before. I was crying, full tears rolling down cheeks, at the end. More surprising, my dad, who does not usually cry at movies, was also crying. This movie is so sad and beautiful and important, and absolutely one I wouldn't blame anyone for only being able to watch once.
i feel him man, i feel like it's physically impossible for a parent especially to not cry watching this. i was devastated when i watched it as a teen but this episode absolutely gutted me watching it as a parent of a 3 month old baby who finds joy in just staring at ur face or moving objects and shadows. i am a mess right now lmfao and im not even a crier
I couldn't even finish watching it. 😭