AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

epocian I'll admit that there were moments throughout this movie that really did move me and I'm sure they'll be many for you too.I was stuck between the cloaked jovial and optimistic nature that it began with, based on the characters it centered on, even though being fully aware I was an watching an anime/film and also it's unnerving character study of sorts.What's you'll see in "Barefoot Gen" is a frightful though provoking tale,of an event never to be forgotten, that occurred at 8:15 am on an August morning in 1945, as one of the many concluding and devastating catastrophes of WWII.I didn't know whether to laugh at moments, or to go with my gut instincts and be stricken with awe, by the poignant portrayal,depicted before me,of the lives the Japanese "PEOPLE" had lived before and after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima.I say "PEOPLE" because what were dealing with,in this interpretation of the events,is simply that;everyday people, normal human beings, like you and me, who were just powerless to decisions made by their corrupt government officials, trying to satisfy their insatiable appetites of greed and power.The political context, when such a historical event is retold, can not be escaped.However, I don't see this as an anti-war story and Japan was not completely innocent, but no innocent person, man, woman, or child, should have to suffer for the wrong doings of a country they have no power over and to then share the blame when they themselves are blameless, is quite simply a human rights violation.I think the film shows the power of the human spirit, however clichéd that may sound, but I think it is true.When all hope is literally gone, what else have you got to rely on, but your own self will,or the love you have for others to see you all through, to a better day.That's what I think you'll get from "Barefoot Gen".The story of a young boy whose loses half of his family, due to this horrific disaster and how he copes with it.Pushed on by his hunger for food and the love for his mother, with expectant baby sister due.Overall, this a wonderfully moving anime,full of wisdom,drama and light hearted moments that is good for a one time watch.However, return viewings would be a must for teaching younger generations to come, in a colourful and engaging way, the depravity of humanity at times and the strength of will we all must have to help eradicate it.

tcsshelton I've basically pasted this from wikipedia, but since the autobiographical element to this story wasn't mentioned I thought I should post it. There is an interesting article with the artist here http://www.tcj.com/256/i_nakazawa.html (中沢 啓治, Keiji Nakazawa, born 1939) is a Japanese manga artist and writer.He was born in Hiroshima, and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother, and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing.In 1961, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a full-time cartoonist, and produced short pieces for manga anthologies such as Shonen Gaho, Shonen King, and Bokura.In 1966, following the death of his mother, Nakazawa returned to his memories of the destruction of Hiroshima and began to express them in his stories. Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain), the first of a series of five books, was a fictional story of Hiroshima survivors involved in the postwar black market. In 1972, Nakazawa chose to portray his own experience directly in the story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"), published in Monthly Shonen Jump (In 1982, the story was translated into English and published as a one-shot comic book by Educomics as "I Saw It").Immediately after finishing "I Saw It", Nakazawa began his major work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen). This series, which eventually filled ten volumes (six volumes in English translation), was based on the same events as "I Saw It" but fictionalized, with the young Gen as a stand-in for the author. Barefoot Gen depicted the bombing and its aftermath in graphic detail, but also turned a critical eye on the militarization of Japanese society in the World War II years, and on the sometimes abusive dynamics of the traditional family. Barefoot Gen was made into an animated film, released in 1983. It was followed three years later by a sequel.

iamnotazombie Sequels are always billed to be inferior to their predecessors and animé is no different - animé can potentially knock out endless sequels each one worse than the next, because of this my expectations were that this film was only going to be a shadow compared to the excellence of its prequel. I believed that once the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima not a great deal could happen in this film, thankfully I was wrong. Barefoot Gen was centred around the suffering caused by the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the immediate after affects caused by the disease caused by the nuclear fallout (Pika), that was emotionally ravaging enough, but this sequel builds further upon the effects of the bomb drop, its expands its critical claw further to how people are affected in the long term. Issues such as: the brutality, bullying and negligence of occupying forces; the long term affects and the slow death that Pika brings; children being orphaned and hated by the community for the deaths of their parents. All are done well and it could be argued to be one of the great contemporary anti-war films - along with grave of the fireflies. These films, whether left as Sequel and Original or if they are converged into a singular entity they are both incredibly emotionally harrowing as was intended when Keiji Nakazawa wrote that Manga which this was adapted from. Regardless of the strength of the sequel, the original is probably more horrifying and emotionally crippling, one scene in particular is the moment when Gen goes back to his house to see his younger brother, whom the director and indeed writer (Nakazawa) has masterfully created a beautiful relationship between the two, is trapped inside the house, not yet dead but in his last moment, that scene is amongst the most beautiful and heart wrenching I have ever seen in my 22 years that I've been around for. It's also amazing how a film which evokes sadness through the characters on screen merely crying can be so upsetting, again I can't emphasise the excellence of both the story and the direction (in this sense). I'll make no bones of it, this film is grim; the story is a thing that I could never forgot due to the horrifying nature of the power that the American military holds and the horrific nature of the very event the film is depicting in itself. Yet the beauty of this film is that it shows people in the most extreme conditions not being beaten down by their conditions, it shows the power of human nature: their city has been all but turned to dust, the survivors were beyond lucky to survive but regardless of that they are slowly being picked off by 'Pika' but the protagonists are always laughing and smiling, trying not to let their circumstances get the better of them, which by and large throughout the film excluding the more emotional parts of the film(s). To summarise, this easily, in my opinion at the very least, goes down in history when you coalesce parts one and two together as one of the best war, and anti-war films – or dare I say propaganda films- ever made. A must see animated classic that deserves place in all DVD collections.

siderite I rate this high mainly because of the subject. The animation itself is not what one would expect from '83 animes, but the story is sound. The plot is less emotional than Grave of the Fireflies, but mainly because it is not as dramatic and the message is actually a positive one. The scenes of the nuclear explosion in the city are horrendous.There is also an 1986 movie called Hadashi no Gen 2, and I will see it as soon as possible to comment on it.Bottom line: if you've seen Grave of the Fireflies, you will find this mildly entertaining; if you haven't, I suggest you see this one first and then definitely see Grave of the Fireflies.On a personal note: if you're American, you should see this at least to understand what things were done in the name of freedom and pursuit of happiness.