Following the May 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media, ADV Films acquired the rights and re-released it on DVD on July 7, 2009. [14] Following the September 1, 2009 shutdown and re-branding of ADV, their successor, Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012, and plans on releasing the film on digital outlets. A Blu-ray edition was released on November 20, 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced by Seraphim Digital. [15]

Three years ago NHK aired a TV series and a movie based on the anime movie by Ghibli. It seems that the plot is quite different and people didn’t like it that much but you can also spot a Sakuma Drops box: The most tragic part in the film wasn’t Seita and Setsuko’s death, but watching how broken the system was. There was very little kindness from people during those difficult times. When Seita was on his last breath at the train station, no one stopped to help. Most people seem annoyed with his presence. There were other kids like Seita at the train station but, no one seemed to care about them. Takahata's film nevertheless remains very faithful to Nosaka's work. It suffices to compare a few lines to the images to understand the formidable work of adaptation of Takahata, who knew how to draw all the quintessence of words in images. [8] About the Title [ ] Isao Takahata respected this interpretation very scrupulously. Indeed, only the passages where Seita and his sister contemplate their past life as spirits has been freely adapted by Takahata. The glowing hue of the introduction, contrasting with the dominant cold tones in the rest of the film, will punctuate the story thereafter. The occasional shift of these dreamlike sequences in relation to the general realistic subject allows, in a very sober, uncluttered way, a certain dramatization of the story. Candy drops that served as a symbol of hope for war orphan Setsuko have been on sale for more than 100 years, but their end is near.

Suntory announces massive price spike for Japanese whisky, some types more than double in price 3 views In his words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message." Instead, Takahata had intended to convey an image of the brother and sister living a failed life due to isolation from society and invoke sympathy particularly in people in their teens and twenties, whom he felt needed to straighten up and respect their elders for the pain and suffering they had experienced during arguably the darkest point in Japan's history (Takahata, Isao) For Setsuko, Sakuma Drops offer some respite from the world around her. She has been plunged into the darkness of war, which has led to her mother’s death, the family home being destroyed and becoming unwanted by her relatives. Unsurprisingly, this is a lot for a child of four to both intellectually and mentally process. Whether Setsuko has a tantrum or is well-behaved, she is rewarded by Seita with one of the candies from her tin. While a sweet may not offer a solution to the desperate situation she is facing, it provides a moment of relief where she can savor something pure and innocent.

Quite interestingly though, even in the afterlife, Seita still played the loving brother, protecting his sister’s innocence. If examined closely, Setsuko was never shown to have seen Japan in a sense, even as a spirit. Whenever Setsuko’s spirit was shown, she was always clouded in the dark, only made visible by the substantially adequate illumination from the fireflies. This could represent Setsuko’s innocence to the realities of the world her previously living self was once in, which she never lived further on to understand for she died a young child. When she was still living, she was lied to, or at least kept in the dark, by the people around her – her brother, her aunt (although only at the start before she showed hostility), and that kind woman who helped them at the school. During the last scene, when she was seen playing in the dark as a spirit, illuminated only by the fireflies, she was laid to sleep before the scenery of present-day Japan was shown. Setsuko may have never completed, then, her transition from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to maturity, and maybe this was why they never had a clear destination while on the train in the first place, only making a stop and taking off at a desolate station. Having nowhere else to live, Setsuko and Seita go to live with their aunt at Nishinomiya, and write letters to their father. On the second day that they stay there, Seita goes out to get the left over supplies which he had buried in the ground to preserve them before the bombing which killed their mother. He gives all of it to his aunt, but hides a small tin of fruit drops.

This film is one of the most heartfelt, touching, and depressing stories ever written. An adaptation of a semi-autobiographical book based on Akiyuki Nosaka's experiences before, during, and after the firebombing of Kobe in 1945, he wrote it in memory of his sister and to help him accept the tragedy, as he blamed himself for her death.