for my way of thinking, one of the most stirring aspects of director Isao Takahata's remarkable Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is not so much that it is anime, but that such a story would even be chosen to be depicted in anime, rather than conventional live-action. as such, it becomes a painting within a heart, and such a very haunted one. working from the popular semi-autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, the film depicts the civilian firebombing of Japan in late WWII, and within it, the struggle to survive of orphans Seita and his young sister Setsuko. bombs, death, grief, cartoons all. and i have never encountered two characters more memorable, or real, in any other film.