I'll watch movies that are sad stories about kids, but I won't normally watch them twice. Video games are a different type of entertainment for me where I need to put in physical and mental effort into the story to make it progress. By adding that extra involvement I become much more emotionally entwined with a game than I ever would in a book or movie.

I'm not saying that I don't like conflict or stories with trails and tribulations in general, it is more that some subjects when presented a certain way make me uncomfortable so I'll choose other forms of entertainment instead. It's akin to people not liking horror flicks because they don't like to be scared.

Grave of the fireflies is a good example of a movie that I think is really good, but I don't have any inclination to see again. While being very well done and putting a very realistic light on war, it is very sad and I don't search out entertainment that makes me sad.

No worries on the attack bit, I don't mind explaining myself when I was just being sincere.
>> ^dannym3141:

>> ^visionep:
Very well done, but like Heavy Rain I won't be playing this game.
I'd rather not explore those stories where I might interject my love and caring for my children with a digital character that is abused by the writers.

Do you not watch any films or read any books then? Or is it only digital fictional characters that you refuse to give emotional feeling to? It sounds as though you think you're being evilly manipulated. They've only done what fictional storytelling has done since forever.
"Abuse" of fictional characters is what leads to tragedy in a story, it gives a story a purpose and there's tragedy in (i'll be bold and say it) every decent story. Harry Potter's parents were murdered, he wants revenge. JK Rowling did not manipulate you to feel care for Harry so that you'd buy the book. Without his parents being murdered, there was no reason to be interested about his particular story of revenge and growth.
Would you really like to.. i dunno, read about some hobbits that find a magical ring which turns them invisible, so they win at hide and seek and live happily ever after? That's just a toddler's book.
How do you feel its different in game form? Genuine question, not an attack. Edit: well, probably a little bit attacking, you caught me off guard with that comment!

I'll watch movies that are sad stories about kids, but I won't normally watch them twice. Video games are a different type of entertainment for me where I need to put in physical and mental effort into the story to make it progress. By adding that extra involvement I become much more emotionally entwined with a game than I ever would in a book or movie.

I'm not saying that I don't like conflict or stories with trails and tribulations in general, it is more that some subjects when presented a certain way make me uncomfortable so I'll choose other forms of entertainment instead. It's akin to people not liking horror flicks because they don't like to be scared.

Grave of the fireflies is a good example of a movie that I think is really good, but I don't have any inclination to see again. While being very well done and putting a very realistic light on war, it is very sad and I don't search out entertainment that makes me sad.

No worries on the attack bit, I don't mind explaining myself when I was just being sincere.

Edit: (whoops, hit profile reply instead of 'quote', I'm going to post this on the video comments too)

In reply to this comment by dannym3141:
>> ^visionep:

Very well done, but like Heavy Rain I won't be playing this game.
I'd rather not explore those stories where I might interject my love and caring for my children with a digital character that is abused by the writers.


Do you not watch any films or read any books then? Or is it only digital fictional characters that you refuse to give emotional feeling to? It sounds as though you think you're being evilly manipulated. They've only done what fictional storytelling has done since forever.

"Abuse" of fictional characters is what leads to tragedy in a story, it gives a story a purpose and there's tragedy in (i'll be bold and say it) every decent story. Harry Potter's parents were murdered, he wants revenge. JK Rowling did not manipulate you to feel care for Harry so that you'd buy the book. Without his parents being murdered, there was no reason to be interested about his particular story of revenge and growth.

Would you really like to.. i dunno, read about some hobbits that find a magical ring which turns them invisible, so they win at hide and seek and live happily ever after? That's just a toddler's book.

How do you feel its different in game form? Genuine question, not an attack. Edit: well, probably a little bit attacking, you caught me off guard with that comment!

Reminds me of the movie Grave of the Fireflies. Also a kick ass Anime around the time of the World War. Very awesome. It may make you cry.

Grave of the Fireflies was excellent, probably one my favourite movies of all time, horrendously depressing though. What's your favourite shows? Mine'd probably be:

1 - Ghost in the Shell: SAC
2 - Bokurano
3 - Paranoia Agent
4 - Cowboy Bebop
5 - Mushishi
6 - FMA
7 - Ergo Proxy
8 - Death Note
9 - Baccano!
10 - Planetes

A bit nitpicking isn't it Blankfist? Most original fans fucking hated the initial awful dub, so one of the biggest features was the actual re-recording, I really doubt they even thought about adding the old one for LULZ factors. I always watch anime in Japanese with English subtitles. The blu-ray of Akira is fantastic I thought, amazing transfer and great DTS remaster.

Grave of the fireflies is actually one of my favorite animes, because it deals with very adult themes about war and loss in a format not traditionally known for that. I think Perfect Blue is along similar lines as well as Millennium Actress. One of my biggest beefs with animation in the west is that it's not in any way adult, Pixar produces really safe animated films.

Speaking of Anime... Everyone knows of the great titles like Ghost in the Shell and Ninja Scroll, but here's one you may have passed over. It's called Grave of the Fireflies. I recommend watching the Japanese audio with English subtitles. The Japanese little girl's voice is pretty damn precious.

Like Akira, this is an animated film released in '88. According to wiki, "It is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, intended as a personal apology to the author's own sister." And it's amazing. A straight animated drama that will certainly tug at the heart strings.

>> ^Farhad2000:
>> ^spoco2:
How you watched anime films like Grave of the Fireflies?

Everyone: you owe it to yourself to see Grave of the Fireflies. Sure, you may be stuck in the worst depression of your life for a few weeks after watching it, but trust me, it'll be worth it.

"Some critics (most notably Roger Ebert) consider it to be one of the most powerful anti-war movies ever made. Animation historian Ernest Rister compares the film to Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and says, "it is the most profoundly human animated film I've ever seen.""

>> ^spoco2:
Really, Anime fricken leaves me so cold. People wax on and on and on and on about how it's so damn superior to western animation, but really, so much of it is lazy (a LOT has an awful lot of static image in the frame with barely a mouth moving), outlets for the repression of the Japanese culture.


Really you made that entire conclusion from watching a short segment of the entire film and what you saw on Nickelodeon?

The entire film is centered around animals fighting mans encroaching development on their forest, packaged in this cute way that sometimes borders on the ridiculous for western viewers but is actually highly relevant to Japanese folklore and mythology.

How you watched anime films like Grave of the Fireflies? Perfect Blue? Millennium Actress?

I don't think you explored enough in the genre to make such a statement, its like saying all Hollywood films suck because they are all centered around violence and sex.

The reason I posted the original story above was to show that the Disney short was a near exact translation of the original literature, so as such, Disney couldn't have done much in the way of "sanitizing" the story. The original theme of Anderson's work was to portray the terrible living conditions of children in Eastern Europe at the time, and that theme carried over to the animation quite well. Yes, the girl is bright and optimistic in the beginning, but it's her innocence and hopefulness that make her eventual fate all the more heartbreaking. Would the animation have been quite as touching if she had been a dirty urchin?

And if you study Anderson's original work, you'll see that he makes several allusions to her being "beautiful." In fact, in the text she's described as being fair-haired, something which was changed in the animation, and could arguably have LESSENED the beauty of the character portrayed.

As to comparing to Takahata's works, do note that Studio Toei did make their own interpretation of this work, which can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvGKPMXRa0
(Do note that at the time it was made, Takahata WAS working at Toei, so it's quite likely he was involved with the project as well.) It is notable that while Toei's interpretation is more accurate with relation the girl's look and the location of the story (Holland), the story itself has been altered quite a bit more than Disney's version, and in fact has less of an emotional impact. One could argue that the dubbing contributed to that, but the overall meaning of the scenes is not lost, and in this case they prove to make the Toei version inferior. (Or as inferior as one could call it. It's still a decent animation.) While in the Disney version the girl was friendless and alone, with everyone indifferent to her predicament, in the Toei version people either treat her like dirt, or feel a great sense of remorse over her death. These extremes are too exaggerated, whereas the Disney version feels a lot more like something that would happen in real life.

And on a side note, enough comparing Disney's works to anime, people. While Disney is indeed guilty of producing quite a bit in the way of lousy works, a lot of it was the result of the leadership during the Michael Eisner era. The Walt Disney era was full of great works (which despite their changes with relation to the original stories were quite beautiful), and the Rob Iger era seems like it's on route to turning the company around. It's also important to remember that Disney animations and most anime target different audiences. Disney targets a younger crowd (in general), while anime targets an older crowd (mostly adults). Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies," for example, is most definitely not for children. They would find it boring, and perhaps a bit too sad in the end.

Disney's version of The Little Match Girl does walk a fine line here, as it has a more adult theme, and perhaps would be too sad for the children who did catch that ending. However, I think this one was made just as much for adults, as it was meant for the next iteration of Fantasia, and Fantasia is meant to be for both children and adults.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'grave of the fireflies, war, ghibli' to 'grave of the fireflies, war, ghibli, anime' - edited by mauz15

epic win for sad. Grave of the Fireflies makes me cry EVERY goddamned time i see it, or even encounter bits of it.. combine that with the defacto theme for Empire of the Sun (which, incidentally, did briefly touch on nukes) which also makes me cry a little (and want a Hershey bar) and there, in all it's glory, is 2.25min of crying.

You know, I do remember hearing something along those lines, but I haven't ever watched it dubbed. Mononoke-hime is actually possibly my favorite Ghibli (that or Grave of the Fireflies...SO SAD), so I guess I ought to upvote anyway lol.

In reply to this comment by smibbo:
the English version of "Princess Mononoke" was not a dub, it was rewritten by Neil Gaiman especially for American/English audiences with the supervision of Miyazaki. It had American and British stars and while not at all a different film was much more than a dub. I know because I own both the subtitled original and the reworked English. THe reworking is just as excellent as the original.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
I don't vote for dubs as a general rule.

I remember the first time I saw this and was completely speechless.

Oh, and that wasn't a Miyazaki movie, just a Studio Ghibli movie. It was written and directed by Isao Takahata, who is most known for his movie Grave of the Fireflies.

This movie WILL make you sob. Do yourself a favour and buy or rent Grave of the Fireflies this week, it really is a movie that you are poorer for not having seen.

It's a very difficult movie to watch; even more painful since it's portrayed from the POV of children, instead of adults. I have a tough time believing the same studio that created childrens' fables such as Porco Rosso and Kiki's Delivery Service (along with dozens of family and dating movies) came out with this movie.

Nonetheless, Grave of the Fireflies is very important to have on your "to watch" list, since it lays out in detail the devastating impact the Allied bombing had on Japanese cities throughout WWII, before Truman even authorized the use of nuclear weapons.