Hotaru No Haka—Grave of the Fireflies, is a 1988 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka who, like the drama's main character, was a boy at the time of the firebombs, whose sister died of starvation and whose life was overshadowed by guilt. . This is probably the most serious and heartbreaking of Studio Ghibli's films. Tomb of the Fireflies opens on the evening of September 1, 1945, after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II. In a train station strewn with the corpses of sick, dead or dying children, the main character, fourteen-year-old Seita, dies alone. This animated picture tells the story of two young children, Seita and Setsuko, who fight to survive in war-torn Japan during World War II. It follows the final weeks of death and starvation in the lives of the siblings before they succumb to their own untimely deaths. The film features several definitive aspects of Japanese cinema and anime, including the unique character design and visual focus, targeting of older teen and adult audiences, violence, as well as a hint of surrealism. Japanese character design as well as emphasis on visuals is evident throughout Grave of the Fireflies. Anime characters tend to have large, expressive eyes, a feature particularly noticeable in the character Setsuko, Seta's much younger sister. Also worth noting are the visuals used throughout the film. It is interesting to note that before the creation of the animated film, the author of Grave of the Fireflies, Akiyuki Nosaka, believed that it would be impossible to create a barren, scorched land, which had to be the background of the paper. .oes seem to be a feeling of surrealism depicted in the film. This is illustrated by the spirits of Seta and Setsuko, both of whom make several appearances throughout the film. We know that the children have both died at the beginning of the story, but we see them throughout the picture, still happy and well-fed, with clean faces and all their original clothes. It seems like they are revisiting their own personal memories of what they experienced before succumbing to their deaths, and that is how the story is told to us, even though those memories. Grave of the Fireflies received near-universal acclaim from film critics. The film review site Rotten Tomatoes reported a 97% approval rating and offers the consensus: "A terribly sad anti-war film, Grave of the Fireflies is one of the most profoundly beautiful and haunting works from Studio Ghibli.".