Grave Of The Fireflies review

First released on a double bill with My Neighbour Totoro in Japan (and showing as such in selected UK venues in an HD restoration), this 1988 wartime drama is Totoro’s dark, adult flipside.

Death haunts every frame as a brother and sister escape from the American firebombing of Kobe that kills their mother.

Charting their journey through the ruined landscape, Isao Takahata’s powerful anti-war movie is all the more harrowing for the care we invest in its beautifully drawn children.

Like post-nuclear worrier When The Wind Blows (1986), it’s a cartoon with the power to chill you.