Why do fireflies have to die?

I just watched the most beautifully, sad anime film I have ever seen in my life. I watched Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies.

With other great films from Studio Ghibli, especially from the great Hayao Miyazaki, Grave of the Fireflies is very underrated compared to the other works produced by Studio Ghibli. Which sucks because it really is a classic and one of the best anime films next to Spirited Away.

Grave of the Fireflies is an anti-war tragedy that follows two orphaned siblings, 14-year-old Seita and 4-year-old Setsuko, as they try to survive after the bombings of Kobe in the last months of World War II. They never experience the massive bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but what they have to go through and the constant raids they're faced from American planes just really tears your heart up into tiny shreds.

The title of this post pretty much sums up the movie without giving away too many spoilers. Why do fireflies live such a short time before dying? Why do innocent people have to be killed? They did nothing but get in the way of bombers in a war. It really does reflect on the horrors and pain the Japanese were forced to endure while we Americans just dropped bombs on them because we couldn't just let Japan take us over that easily.

I like how this movie has a lot of moments where it's no dialogue or even music and it's just pure silence. It gives you time to just think that this is what was happening while we were trying to win a war. And we did win but at the cost of many innocent lives. We had no choice but to go to war, but it didn't change that many lives, even the lives of children, were lost.

The movie also takes those slow moments to build the bond between Seita and Setsuko. They're all they have after their mother died in the bombings and have to stay strong. Mostly Seita to keep up hope that his father will return home from the war and to keep his little sister alive. Yet he's still just a kid. He's a bit self-centered and impulsive, but he's still caring for Setsuko and will do anything to keep her healthy and happy. And this is a big shock for both of them because they lost their homes and are constantly raided on, yet somehow in this cruel world they're still able to find some amount of happiness. The dark and terrifying imagery on such a dark subject is contradicted with beautiful images of nature and memories of Seita and Setsuko full of bright colors.

This is truly a brilliant masterpiece by Studio Ghibli that I recommend highly. I've heard that the English isn't really that spectacular so definitely watch in its original Japanese format. Can't find a DVD, then it's available on YouTube.

“Life is difficult. Sometimes more for some than for others. But even when life is at it’s roughest, you must keep pushing forward for those you love. It will all be worth it in the end.”

- Grave of the Fireflies, Hayao Miyazaki

STOP

God I pay more attention to my Tumblr than I do to this blog XD

So let's seem um.. God two weeks.. XD This is a bit awkward.

Well in the past couple of weeks it's mostly just been school work. My teachers are kinda evil and like to just load it on us. Not that any of it's hard but it's just extremely time consuming and by the end of the day my brain just feels like a mush of unsolidified Jell-O. So I just spend the night jacking around on Tumblr which is purely addicting as hell. Not to mention the heavy amount of Hetalia that floods it on a daily basis. As of now, 21 followers with over 300 posts XD Good God.

Anyway, I have become the president of the Anime/Manga Club and it's feels awesome. (Reminds me I haven't updated my anime blog in a while either...) I actually feel honored to have that responsibility to make this the best year the club has ever had, especially since the creators are seniors now. I want their last year at the club to end not with a bang but a giant nuclear explosion (Figuratively speaking of course).

And today was also Club Day where people sign up for clubs they want to join and we got about twenty people signed up. It really feels awesome to have the club expanded to such a great size. I know it's gonna be a fun year and I feel confident that I can make that possible.

I just needed time to slow down especially for today since my brain is just at too many places at once. Club day, independent art project, quizzes, English project, tests, oh my Jesus it's too much.. I know I don't want to fall behind but God it's just so much freaking work.. I still haven't written in such a long time. I need to get on that this weekend..

In fact I should decrease my workload a bit this weekend especially. My stepdad is finally coming home after being away at Japan for about a month. He's been working with satellites and stuff since the guy originally working and living there had to leave cause his pregnant wife got a nervous breakdown. Ever since he got there, my stepdad has had some odd events happen to him. The biggest highlights though were him getting stupidly expensive food bills, having to cover his tattoo in the pool cause of the Yakuza and having to take off his watch in the pool in fear of hurting someone else. (Trivia: My stepdad's tattoo is on his shin and is of a bald eagle with the american flag in the background) So my stepdad is on the plane right now and will be here in the morning. In fact he'll be time traveling since they're sixteen hours ahead and it's already Friday over there.

So yeah, that was my little break from school. For now anyway. I need to do this more often.

3 days of doing absolutely nothing... Cept for homework

Yeah my AP classes are evil. Not really. They're really easy assignments anyway and one of them isn't due until Wednesday. While I'm into my second week of school, the rest of my friends including my sister are just starting school. Guess it's cause my school year is freaking loaded with vacations at least once a month even if it's a three day weekend. Labor Day weekend is one of them.

Not really doing much of anything other than blogging, messing around on Tumblr, watching YouTube videos, y'know, lazy stuff. And of course the obvious getting homework done. I probably should update my anime blog with the rest of those anime openings cause I've been too occupied and too lazy to do that.

So thank god I was able to switch out of that God awful peer counseling class and get into drama with the new drama teacher, Mr. DeMelo. He's a great guy, very fun and I think we're gonna have fun with him this year. We've been doing quite a bit of improv games which have been hilarious but also so dramatic. I had no idea that you could make improv so heart wrenching. It's pretty amazing. And of course we got to play World's Worst which is always the best improv game ever.

I'm so freaking happy that I've gotten some time to let my creative juices in my brain relax for once and I can actually do all my free writing which makes me so happy. I really hope I get some time during the year to show some of my teachers some of the poetry and stories I've been working on.

Hmm. Kinda feel like watching Disney films right now for not particular reason.