Ranking All Studio Ghibli Movies

4

GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES

One of the most emotional animated movies of all time.

In a war torn Japan, siblings Seita and Setsuko are on the brink of survival. After having their home burnt down in an Air raid, they are sent to live with their distant aunt who turns out to to be rude and calls the two selfish and lazy. The siblings leave their aunt's home and relocate to an unused shelter. After moving to this shelter is where everything goes wrong for the two. 

A Studio Ghibli film with a more serious story. When you are greeted with such an opening scene like this :

You just know what's about to go down. Not to mention our main character is shown dying in the first five minutes.

I guess everyone was kind of expecting the two main protagonists to die but their deaths were still heart wrenching and took me by surprise.

Now let's address the mean aunt. At face value, she seems like the biggest grump in all of Ghibli's films, however if you consider the circumstances, she has every right to be frustrated with her situation. Japan is suffering from war and having to feed your family is hard enough, let alone your niece and nephew. Having two kids you've probably only met once or twice shoved into your house and all of a sudden your responsibility as well isn't the best. I'm sure everybody would be mad if they were put in a situation like that.

After their unpleasant stay with their aunt, Seita and Setsuko decide to leave her house for a shelter. They buy everything they think they need and Seita thinks they can both live happily there until the war is over. Seita was wrong. Very wrong. 

With no money and tiny rations of food, the two begin eating anything they find in the pond and surrounding fields. When the food still isn't enough to fill the two, Seita even decides to steal the crops of nearby farmers, and surprise surprise, he gets caught.