Grave Of The Fireflies review

Studio Ghibli's tragic and harrowing WW2 movie

GamesRadar Editor's Choice

Why you can trust 12DOVE Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

First released on a double bill with My Neighbour Totoro in Japan (and showing as such in selected UK venues in an HD restoration), this 1988 wartime drama is Totoro’s dark, adult flipside.

Death haunts every frame as a brother and sister escape from the American firebombing of Kobe that kills their mother.

Charting their journey through the ruined landscape, Isao Takahata’s powerful anti-war movie is all the more harrowing for the care we invest in its beautifully drawn children.

Like post-nuclear worrier When The Wind Blows (1986), it’s a cartoon with the power to chill you.

Latest in Biography Movies
The Wolf of Wall Street
The 32 greatest Leonardo DiCaprio movies
Billy Zane as Marlon Brando in Waltzing with Brando
Upcoming Marlon Brando biopic gets its first look and fans cannot get over how uncanny Billy Zane looks: "I honestly thought this was Brando"
Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya, and Brandon Perea in Nope
Don't call Jordan Peele the best horror director - he'll tell you it's John Carpenter
James Cameron announces Avatar 2 has finished filming, Avatar 3 "95% done"
The Avatar sequels have a reported budget of $1 billion
New Avatar 2 set photos show James Cameron filming with underwater technology
Latest in Reviews
Photographs of the Agricola board game in play
Agricola review: "Accurate representation of the highly competitive and often unstable world of agriculture"
Photos taken by writer Rosalie Newcombe of the Shure MV7i microphone, within a pink and white themed room.
Shure MV7i review - convenience and excellence rolled into one superb sounding package
Key art for Atomfall showing a character in the English countryside looking at a nuclear plant some distance away
Atomfall review: "This isn't British Fallout – it's something much better than that"
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% gaming keyboard with purple RGB lighting on a desk setup
Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro 75% review: "a niche luxury"
A woman chasing a shining butterfly with a leaping cat on her shoulder in InZOI
inZOI review: "Currently feels like a soulless imitation of the worst parts of The Sims"
White Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K gaming mouse standing up against a green-lit setup
Razer Basilisk V3 Pro 35K review: "hampered by its predecessor"