Review of Barefoot Gen

This movie talks about, shows and documents to the viewer the harsh reality of the Japanese people living in Hiroshima during the year of 1945. Now where have I seen this concept done before? That's right. This movie was so influential to the point where it influenced Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. When you influence a studio as illustrious as Ghibli, you must be doing something right at the very least. Barefoot Gen did many things right to say the least. The movie opens up on a bright note, beginning with a father and his two boys, Gen, the protagonist of the movie, andShinji, his younger brother. The opening of this movie is so positive to the point where I was bobbing my head to the catchy opening song, and thinking "Yup, this is definitely going downhill from here."

It begins off by showing us just how loyal some of the Japanese are to their country, they scream and shout "Banzai" before sending their fellow comrades off to fight the enemy, and then singing what is supposed to be the national anthem. It shows us how loyal the Japanese were to their country, to the point where they just aimlessly take orders, shouting and screaming, and then going off to face a bigger enemy where they could die at any given moment.

Gen and his little brother, like the children that they are, start singing the anthem as well when they hear it, hoping to also be heroes and contribute to their country too. Just like how typical children would act, not knowing of the dangers that await them beyond the horizon of their imaginations. They then become hungry after five seconds of singing and complain about how their bellies are void of delicious sweet potatoes. This shows us how kids have dreams and aspirations they want to fulfill, yet are too weak and immature to understand the hardships that come with life, and how heavy the weight of those aspirations really is.
We see how war brings so many struggles with it, the lack of water and food being a major one. It shows us how two strangers will hurt each other for a bowl of soup, and how even blood related brothers like Gen and Shinji wouldn't mind doing the same as well, just to shut their hunger up for a while.

This movie has a wonderful cast, and some heart warming scenes. A pregnant woman hugging her two kids, showing us how family is the best thing to have when a person is struggling during very hard times. Things start to go dark after the first alarm in the movie goes off though, as the movie starts to show us how everyone is equal in the eyes of the enemy. From small children to the elderly, nobody is safe from a bullet or two. The scene of a little girl dying serves to show two things: The first being how cruel war can be, even killing an innocent little girl who didn't do anything wrong. The second being to show the contrast between Gen and the others like his mother, and how immature Gen is compared to the rest of his elder family members. Here is where we start to see Gen's influence on the main character of Grave of the Fireflies, as Gen suggests to his mother that the enemy is just playing jokes on them, while the mother scolds him for such an ignorant statement, mentioning the little girl's death to show him how war is everything but a joke. Gen is very naive and does not want to be serious for once, he prefers to think lightly of his situation while everyone else is working hard. Though he actually does learn a lesson or two a couple scenes later, and he actually helps for once by bringing his mother some food, he is still naive, but he's helpful and willing to go to great lengths for his sick mother.

We get a scene showing us the father's perspective on why he hates the government. He hates them due to them being madmen and not stopping the war, and honestly I would not blame him, a guy who has children to feed, working all day to provide for them, I feel sad for him because he just wants what is right for his kids and other families that are suffering as well. After that scene, we see a plane start showing itself over the top of the city. When Gen sees the plane, he starts to joke about it, saying how it is a spy plane and is nothing to worry about. Oh boy was he wrong!!! We finally arrive at what I would say is one of the best scenes ever put to animation. How good was this scene... my God. How good it was at showing us how truly disturbing the Hiroshima bombing was. After the plane drops the nuclear bomb, we see some of the most bloody scenes ever put to animation, it's all the more terrifying when you realize this actually happened and was a real event that went down in history.

It's mind blowing how five seconds before this we had a happy family, where the sun was shining over normal looking, healthy people, and then we immediately turn 180 degrees. The family is no more, most of the citizens suffered extreme burns all over the body and died, and everything burned down to ashes. Literally the only positive thing was Gen's change in personality from a naive and immature boy to a man. He's amazing. The war does not affect him mentally like it did his mother and some other people. He is truly amazing. After seeing his beacon of hope die in front of his eyes, Gen finally realizes that he has to do everything in his power to fill his father's shoes.

We get to see Gen make relationships after the war, helping other people to earn some money for his mother and his new siblings. Listen, when I say every character gets development, I mean every one of them gets development, even a maggot infested brat does. The thing that kept me happy during all of this depressing movie was Gen's determination and strong will to help those around him, and how he matures throughout the movie.

This movie is an underrated masterpiece. After comparing this with Grave of the Fireflies, this wins in almost every category. The depiction of war in Barefoot Gen is much better and more terrifying than that of Grave of the Fireflies. The characters are all around way, way better than any of the characters in Grave of the Fireflies could imagine to be, an example being Gen getting much more development than the main character of Grave of the Fireflies. It ends on a good note even though it was very depressing, delivers not just one good message, but many (Never give up even when a nuclear bomb destroys your whole city, think about others who are also in need instead of just selfishly thinking about yourself, question the higher ups and don't aimlessly follow everything they say, never look back and always keep moving forward etc.)

It did everything right, it impressed me and exceeded my expectations by a long shot.