“Grave of the Fireflies” is simply a work of art; a film that, more than thirty-five years ago, demonstrated that animation can be used to tell mature, bloody, emotional, tragic, believable and very human stories. [Full review in Spanish].

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 5, 2025

It is a moving piece in front of which the public cannot remain indifferent, the story enunciates with warmth and raw honesty, the consequences of war on childhood and its irreversible consequences and how the adults seem to be absent...

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Feb 1, 2025

The film has so much to say not just about war and death but also about pride. This is an incredibly worthy film that is a unique piece of Studio Ghibli's filmography.

| Mar 26, 2024

A flower on the grave of all the children who have died needlessly in war. It is eloquent, moving, and beautiful.

| Sep 7, 2023

A gripping drama whose defiant youths refuse to bow to war, hunger and indifference, Grave of the Fireflies is a film for children to learn the harsh realities of life so that they can do all in their power to prevent the cycle from continuing.

| Aug 1, 2023

It’s one thing to have a film really sadden you, but I also found it sublime in its beauty... [Setsuko and Seita's] happiness together is transcendent.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 7, 2022

It is the most haunting, heart-wrenching and tragic tale ever told on film, and that includes live-action films

| Sep 23, 2022

It does more than ‘tug at your heartstrings’. It evokes deeper and more complex emotions.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 21, 2022

There is no aspect of this film that doesn't work beautifully.

| Original Score: 4.0/4.0 | Sep 9, 2020

It is not difficult to assume the qualification of Masterpiece that deserves one of the best films ever filmed about the war. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 29, 2019

One of the most startling and moving animated films ever.

| Jan 3, 2019

Isao Takahata makes survival the thematic core of the story, but he never degrades his characters or fetishizes their suffering.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 30, 2018

Some movies are such singular achievements that they deserve to be seen at least once by everyone who considers himself or herself to be a lover of film. Grave of the Fireflies falls into that exclusive category.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 28, 2018

A sophisticated work of art.

| Aug 9, 2018

This film isn't easy to watch but it's essential viewing among the great works of animation--or really of all film, for that matter.

| Jul 3, 2018

Once seen, this is seared in your heart, deep as your worst relationship break-up.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 5, 2017

Isao Takahata's masterpiece is one of the most profound anti-war statements ever brought to cinema

| Original Score: A+ | Feb 20, 2014

...a well-made and heartfelt drama that's just not as engrossing as it should be.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 30, 2013

Such odd hopefulness, flitting around a child, mixed with the overwhelmingly sad, pervades Isao Takahata's film. And all around Seita and Setsuko, nature, in the face of human destruction and tragedy, persists in its beauty.

| Jul 11, 2013

The stylised images suit the simplicity and gravity of a grim story of love, sacrifice and survival in the face of adult indifference and cruelty.

| May 27, 2013