Coats; Grave of the Fireflies

Image taken from here.

Truly a sad story, and a story told from a perspective most of us aren't used to. Grave of the Fireflies, by Isao Takahata, tells the story of a young boy named Seita and his younger sister, Setsuko. During this troubling time of war, the children are forced to live with their unwelcoming aunt after both of their parents are killed as a result of the war. She made sure the children knew how hard her family was working for the war effort, and how much of a burden they were on her family. Seita was put off by this and only wanted to keep his little sister happy and occupied. They would play piano to pass the time and keep their minds off of the horriffic reality of what was going on around them. Unfortunately, the children were scolded by their aunt for playing the piano, as it was not constructive or condusive to what was going on. Seita eventually gets fed up with how he and his sister are treated, so they both leave. Seita focuses of keeping his sister's life as normal and carefree a little girl's life should be, but their play time is often interrupted by war sirens. They don't sustain this lifestyle for very long, and both children become malnourished and subsequently starve to death. It's the ugliness of war that can bring out the worst in people, and these children saw the worst in their relatives when they were put out on the street to fend for themselves. We see playful scenes between Seita and Setsuko while Seita is attempting to distract his sister from the war, but these are heavily constrasted by the much more graphic scenes of war-violence and the starving children. Truly an artistic way of depicting the unfortunate ends of innocent people in a time of war.