Grave Of The Fireflies

There are many ways to die, each with their own connotation of good or bad, and there various beliefs in what happens after death depending upon one’s faith. The way deaths happen and how others react to them reveals a lot about what people think of death and those who are dying as well as reveal what they think happens after death. This is seen by how people treat their dead, how they envision the afterlife, and information given by doctrines based on their religions, such as reincarnation or entering a different plane of existence that is similar to our own. The concepts and ideas pertaining to death, religion and the afterlife will be engaged by analyzing the films, Grave of the Fireflies, produced by Studio Ghibli, and, After Life, which

The movie begins by showing the older brother, Seita, dying of starvation in a station in Kobe where adults in the immediate vicinity did nothing but, watch and move on with their own lives with commentary about how it is unsightly to have dead bodies laying around in the station. Once Seita dies, a janitor throws out his belongings, one of which was a candy tin that carried the ashes of his deceased sister, Setsuko, who rejoins his spirit and then Seita reveals the struggles that he had faced to the audience through flashbacks. Early in the movie the children lose their home and mother to the firebombings dropped on Japan, where the mother died of severe burns and infection, leaving the children in the care of an aunt. The aunt convinces Seita to sell/trade his mother’s belongings to buy rice and to share food, besides a candy tin that he saved for his sister, that he had stashed away before they were attacked, however, once food becomes more scarce the aunt resents the children for not helping the community in any way. Seita then decides to take Setsuko to an abandoned bomb shelter and they begin a new life together, away from society. Initially, they find themselves having a great time, lighting their newfound home with fireflies they captured outside and with lots of play, and plenty to eat. However, they quickly find themselves lacking in food and Seita finds Setsuko making a grave for the fireflies that once lit their home, revealing that she knew about the death of their mother. With food running short, Seita turns to raiding homes and stealing from nearby farms in order to feed himself and his younger sister, all the while the adults around them offer no sympathy or support. With Setsuko suffering from malnutrition, Seita goes to a bank to withdraw the last bit