Upon its release in 1988, Grave of the Fireflies captivated audiences with its relentless drama. Directed by Isao Takahata at Studio Ghibli and based on an autobiographical story by Akiyuki Nosaka, the story of two Japanese children struggling to survive in the last days of World War II unfolds with a realistic harshness that is unprecedented in animation. Grave of the Fireflies has since been hailed as a classic of anime and war cinema. In a 2018 ranking, USA Today named it the greatest animated film of all time. However, Ghibli's serious masterpiece remains little analyzed outside Japan, despite the intense debate surrounding its significance - Takahata himself lamented that few had understood its message.

In the first book to study the film in depth in the English language, Alex Dudok de Wit explores the themes, visual techniques, and pioneering use of animation, as well as the political context in which it was created. Drawing from untranslated references from the film's team, he also describes its problematic production, which almost spelled disaster for Takahata and his studio.

Pages: 104, Year of Publication: 0701, Dimensions: 13.5x13.5cm