Grave of the Fireflies and the Ghibli-Problem of War Anime

Abstract

This paper briefly outlines various factors that have contributed to Studio Ghibli’s Hotaru no Haka ( Grave of the Fireflies, 1988) becoming understood as supposedly representative for Japanese cartoon animation on the topic of World War II. It clarifies that the film is indeed iconic, but not representative for the contents of other films in genre of war anime. To this point, the paper uses the example of the broadcast history of Hotaru no Haka and other Studio Ghibli films on Nippon Television’s Kinyō Rōdo Shō as a short case study. Based on this case study, the paper elaborates on some of the problems that arise in the research of war anime as a genre due to the misinterpretation of Hotaru no Haka’s status, arguing that the perceived representative nature of the film suppresses the potential for other works to be made accessible to international audiences and researchers.