Review of Barefoot Gen

I hate non fiction. I think when people make non fiction works it is usually because the staff is too scared to take a risk with something creative and just fall back on a script that can’t be bad because it actually happened in real life. I mean let's all go watch Lincoln (2012)! It can’t be bad since it actually happened, am I right? Nevermind the fact that the film was boring AF. Or let’s watch Goodfellas! It might be boring slice of life with Gangsters, but it ends with text on screen proving that it’s true so easily 10/10.What I am getting at is non-fiction tend to be uncreative, boring time wasters--either will little thematic depth to keep engagement or too much and comes off as preachy. And as a self-proclaimed film analyzer, what I value most in works are its concepts, creativity, and mixups. Non-fictions usually lacks all of these. Despite this, Barefoot Gen somehow managed to actually impress me.

The thing that makes this nonfiction film seem different than the rest is simply the subject matter being depicted. This might sound like a non sequitur given what I stated in the opening paragraph, but here me out; the scenarios depicted in Barefoot Gen are off an ugly reality of war that doesn’t usually get depicted like this. It is so refreshing seeing a war film from the perspective of the citizens who end up suffering at the behest of their irresponsible governments. This film is like, instead of 2014’s American Sniper, we got a film about the 165,000 Iraqi civilians that have died from direct war related violence caused by the US (Brown University). This alone makes the film so much more interesting to me, being someone who’s too woke on history.

Something else that made this film so interesting was the fact that Gen, a young boy, is the protagonist--to whom sees all the horrors of war as an innocent child. I think using Children as leads is a great way to mix up presentation of pre-established ideas and themes. What I mean by that is you can have a film with an adult lead who is old enough to comprehend the ideas being present, but it can be so much more interesting to have a film with the same themes but instead with a child who is not old or mature enough to comprehend the ideas. This makes it so the viewer will be unsure of how this child will adapt to these new ideas and thus create suspense. A great use of this is in the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. In the novel, watching the young--and also Autistic--protagonist, Christopher, slowly learn about the struggles his parents face as adults and trying to comprehend what is going on, made for a very painful yet gripping read. To the same vein, Gen and his brother not understanding why the Japanese people are happy about war whilst they are starving and suffering makes the themes being presented feel all the more interesting. And if you’re looking for other example’s off using childhood innocence to explore themes, literally any Ghibli film will do the job, most of them are great.

Unlike the Promised Neverland, the kids in this show are actually children. Gen’s dialogue with his brother and how they communicate with the adults around him gave me flashbacks to when I was a child and had similar patterns of problem solving. Like the film took a scene just to show the two boys looking at caterpillars and then proceed to ask each other if their pregnant mother could eat them. I remember when I was a kid me and my sister thought we’d be helpful to our mom if we “organized” a bunch of paper’s she had laying around her room. Needless to say, when we did these, we ending up making it so our mom couldn’t find any of her important paperwork, so we ended up hurting more than helping. My mother pretended to be grateful though. And so did Gen’s mother when they ended up stealing a rich man’s carp just so she could eat. The scene when they stool the carp was also priceless. I remember getting yelled at by old people as a child; it is never fun. So Seeing Gen and his brother get caught by the fish’s owner was all the more painful to see. However, when the man heard their story and gave them the carp, it ended up being all the more touching, showing that people are not inherently bad despite seeming so at first--which is an theme that comes up later in the film.

As one can assume from the scenarios that I described, this film is pretty bleak--like the bombing of Hiroshima bleak. When stories are so bleak, it is easy for a piece to go from being art to being just another edgy, misory porn snorfest. So how does Barefoot Gen stray away from being another edgelord piece? All it really does is give the scenarios being depicted a sense of weight and realism that fiction often leaves out. In Tokyo Ghoul, for example, whenever Kaneki would get brutalized and tortured, it was off little concert to the viewers because we knew he’d be fine and his healing abilities would help him survive. On the other hand, In Gen, when people would get hurt, maggots would start living in their wounds, people would shit blood from radiation poisoning, and people’s starvation would actually be a factor in their suffering. It is this kind of harsh realism that makes the film feel so gritter and painful to watch, yet all the more rewarding.

If I was to criticise this film for anything, it would be the structure of the film. Instead of the film having a beginning, rising action, climax, and falling action, it kinda has what feels like the climax in the middle of the film, and the rest of the film feels a little off due to this. This wouldn’t be an issue if this was a mini series, with the climax I am referring too be an end of an episode kind of thing. This criticism is mostly a nit pick though. A bigger issue I have is how the film kills off a character and then introduces a new character with an identical character design. I understand the point of this character; he is meant to be similar to show that even when people are lost you can still find happiness and companionship again. But having his character design be so similar makes it seem as a replacement undermining the death of a character. And I don’t care that this film is old; it isn’t hard to make a new character design. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is old, but it manages to use up a tone of fresh character designs. And if the writer, who actually experienced this, did in fact meet a kid who looked this similar to the deceased, then good luck convincing me because that scenario is unlikely.

While I am somewhat on the topic of the date of this film, I would actually say this film holds up. Now, I am not some imbecilic elitist that thinks retro is automatically better than modern; I actually think they are both equal bad for different reasons, and the only reason retro might seem better is because we only remember the good stuff. Regardless, Barefoot Gen definitely looks its age. And I actually think that is to its benefit. If this film had the modern anime clean, polished look, it would lose some of the charm that a historical piece should have. For example, I found the film Ojiisan no Lamp to be creatively lost due to the plainness of the artwork. If this historical film had more of a Gen or even a Megalo Box kind of look, It would’ve alleviate this problem and made it feel like a more timeless product. With that being said, I see Barefoot Gen now as some eggs in a grocery story that look expired, but at further examination, actually has “Expiration date: never” written on it.

Consequently, this film has a lot going for it. I love its message of anti-war and how the film depicts it through the suffering of the people not even fighting in it. The seriousness this film has towards life, death, poverty, starvation, disease, innocents, and the struggles of becoming an adult in a harsh world was painful yet beautiful. I was gonna give this film an eight since it is quite forgettable, but the stunning direction during the bomb scene was breathtaking enough to bump it up to a nine. Needless to say, this film is sick, it made me cry, and I hope you all enjoy it too.

PS. I don’t care about the sequel

PSS. I twitch stream anime analysis I have a working link on my MAL profile). If you like what I got to say, please check it out. Peace.