Trivia / Grave of the Fireflies

• Actor-Shared Background: This was invoked as Isao Takahata intended to have both children voiced by actors from the Kansai region.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Isao Takahata.
• Children Voicing Children: Ayano Shiraishi, Setsuko's Japanese voice actress, was five years old at the time of production.
• Creator Breakdown: The original short story was written by Akiyuki Nosaka out of guilt that he was unable to save his younger sister from malnutrition during World War II. His alter-ego Seita dies in September 1945 as a vagrant teen in a subway.
  My sister's death is an exact match with the novel. It was one week after the end of the war. At the countryside of Fukui prefecture where I was, it was the day the restrictions on lighting were removed. It must have been the 22nd. It was evening, and I was picking up my sister's bones. I was coming home in a daze when I saw the village lit up. There was nothing like my surprise then. My sister died in my side of the world, and the light was coming back in the other.
• Creator's Oddball: A retroactive example; Studio Ghibli eventually became known for whimsical movies that had a downplayed edge, starting with their following works My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service. While this is only their second feature, it is not uncommon for newcomers to be shocked at how Ghibli ended up producing a film so dark and grounded in reality.
• Defictionalization: Of a sort. Sakuma Fruit Drops have been around since 1908, but every once in a while they're released in a commemorative tin that looks just like the one from the film.
• Dueling Dubs: Has two English dubs. One was made in 1998 by Central Park Media and New York-based Skypilot Entertainment that was exclusively used for all VHS and DVD releases as late as 2011.^note With Broadway actor J. Robert Spencer as Seita, veteran anime voice actress Corinne Orr as Setsuko, and early work from Crispin Freeman, Veronica Taylor, and Dan Green. After CPM's closure, ADV Films released it to DVD in 2009, and then Sentai Filmworks put out a remastered release in 2011. A new dub was made in 2012 by Houston-based Seraphim Digital for Sentai's Blu-ray because the original dub audio couldn't be remastered in HD.^note With Adam Gibbs as Seita, Emily Neves as Setsuko, and featuring Shelley Calene-Black, Rob Mungle, Blake Shepherd, David Wald, David Matranga, and Luci Christian. It didn't help that the original dub always had a mixed reception, and the new one was, at the very least, considered an improvement. The 1998 dub was still included as a bonus feature for its historical significance. The UK and Australian Blu-rays contain only the 1998 dub. GKIDS has the theatrical rights in North America, and their screenings include the 2012 dub.
• Enforced Method Acting: Since Studio Ghibli wasn't used to having Ayano Shiraishi's lines pre-recorded given her age, they tried to avoid angles from where her mouth could be seen.
• No Export for You:
  • While Grave of the Fireflies has been streamed on HIDIVE in the United States, it never had a digital streaming release in Canada.
  • Grave of the Fireflies has never been released in China, Hong Kong being the exception about this.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Reportedly, back in the 1990s, an anime club in Australia scheduled both Grave of the Fireflies and Windaria at the same meeting. The screening schedule was changed at the last minute for fear that club members would end up harming themselves.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Hero Yoshihiko and the Devil King's Castle: At the end of season 3, a Dark Buddha actually the Demon Lord pulling The Final Temptation convinces Yoshihiko to pick an alternate end to his adventure. One is the ending of Grave of the Fireflies.
  • Kuukiyomi: In some levels of post-2018 installments, there are the recurring Big Bro and the little girl, who look exactly like Seita and Setsuko (the protagonists of Grave of The Fireflies). They're orphans and live in poverty just like Seita and Setsuko. The presence of Big Bro in certain competitions puts the player character in a dilemma about whether to win or lose on purpose so Big Bro can win and get rewards.
  • Samurai Jack: Much of the episode XCIII takes place in a grave of the fireflies.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: When GKIDS acquired the license to all the Ghibli films, they weren't able to license Grave of the Fireflies since the film's rights are owned by Shinchosha and Toho, meaning that it's not available to watch on Max with the other Ghibli films. They eventually did get the theatrical rights to it about a year after they got the rights to the rest of the Ghibli films after Disney's rights expired.
• Vindicated by Cable: While critics and audiences both loved the film, the film didn't perform as well in cinemas due to audiences finding the subject matter too depressing. When it and My Neighbor Totoro came to home video, however, with Totoro making loads of money in merchandise, this film started receiving more recognition alongside Totoro. And it has now become one of the most beloved films of all time in Japan.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Numerous offers had been made to do a live action film adaptation of the original short story, all of which were rejected by author Akiyuki Nosaka as he felt it would be impossible to recreate the backdrops of his childhood that he'd drawn on. When Ghibli made an offer to do an animated adaptation, he was quite surprised, but quickly grew enthusiastic and declared it was the only possible way it could have been done.
  • Takahata hoped to use more experimental animation techniques, but the release schedule was far too tight to allow it.
• Word of God: There are two common interpretations of this film, both of which were denied by Takahata:
  • Takahata always maintained that Grave of the Fireflies is not an anti-war film. The reason is that, as a staunch anti-war activist himself, he was worried that governments might use Seita and Setsuko's plight as propaganda to argue fighting is necessary to prevent greater tragedy, and that showing human suffering without context cannot dissuade typical human behavior.
  • The other interpretation is that the film was aimed squarely at juvenile delinquents in 1980s Japan, with the message being: "When they were your age, your parents went through hell on Earth, and this is how you repay them?!", and that kids should be grateful to their elders and quit being delinquents. In reality, Takahata hated this interpretation because he was an outspoken critic of Japanese society's traditional demand for conformity.

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