The Movie: Grave of the Fireflies is a Japanese animated film set near the end of World War II, and it is more a "war film" than it is your typical "anime" flick. There are no space ships, no epic battles between rivals, and no blue hair. This is a story that could have just as well have been done as a live action movie.

That being said, it's a very depressing story, about the hardships that people endure during times of war -- not of the soldiers (which is usually the focus of war movies), but of the people back home living in their war torn towns. It follows a brother and young sister who were basically orphaned by the war and their struggles to find food and shelter and to survive. This is one of those movies that start out depressing, gets more depressing, and then when things can't get any more depressing they already are, the movie ends. If you're a fan of that kind of movie, you might also want to check out Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which is even more effective at that.

Some people have hailed this movie as the best war film of all time. I will only say that it was just OK. Did it make me feel sad and depressed? Yes, it did. But I just felt like there was no reward. It was lacking that ray of hope throughout the film that at least would have added a bit of drama to keep me interested in seeing what happens next... if things will improve or not. But really, there was nothing that drew me in to really want to see what happens next.

Now on this DVD you have a choice between the original Japanese audio (with English subtitles) or an English dubbed version. I'm not one of those people who are going to say you should listen to the Japanese audio because you "lose" some detail by listening to the dubbed version. That you lose the nuances of the tone of voice of the original actors.

I think that's a load of crap. First of all, if you're losing anything by watching a subtitled version, you're losing about 30% of the full detail of the text. I usually prefer dubbed versions of films because the text is usually more detailed than what they can fit on the screen in subtitles. I don't really see what the point of having the detail of vocal nuances, when you don't even really know what they are saying, since the subtitles don't even give you the whole story.

And of course, if the film is visually rich, reading subtitles takes away greatly from being able to enjoy that. Maybe some people just feel cooler watching a foreign film in a language they don't understand with subtitles that don't tell the whole story, but for me, I'd rather get the whole story and enjoy the visuals.

All that being said -- there is a special case (which as I am told, happens frequently with anime) where the voice characterizations on the dubbed version are really bad. And this is one of those cases. Well, it wasn't really bad, but it just wasn't done very well, to the point where I really noticed it and felt it was taking away from my enjoyment of this film. The sound mixing on the English version was also poor, with crisp, clear, new dubbed voices clashing with the aged sound effects from a 15 year old film.

So on this one, I may just have to recommend the original audio. Not because I think the voice acting is better (for all I know, it sounds terrible to a Japanese speaker), but because the English version is poor enough to detract from the film.

If you're into anime for the sake of anime, you'll probably like this film. If you're into stories of wartime hardship (like Schindler's List), you'll probably like this film. And if you're into really depressing stories, you'll definitely like this film. Just a word of caution, there are some graphic depictions of victims of war, this film is in my opinion, too disturbing for children.

The DVD: This is a two disc special edition DVD set that replaces a previous (and from what I've heard, horrible) single disc release. The video is in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, though I've seen some things that suggest that the original intended aspect ratio is 1.66:1 -- so the framing may or not be completely right. Though the transfer was not as sharp as it could have been, clean as it could have been or bright as it could have been, there was no shortage of gritty, hand-drawn detail, and it looks about like what you'd expect a 15 year old, hand drawn animated feature to look like.

The audio on the Japanese audio track, as I alluded to before, sounds like a 15 year old movie. Not as crisp and clean as modern digital recording techniques allowed, but not any worse than the original sound, I'm sure. The English track however, has a clash of old and new. The English version was recorded much later, and well, the voices sound much "newer" than the old background sounds and music, creating a disconcerting clash of sound, that when combined with the less than stellar voice acting, add up to the English version not being worth listening to.

As far as special features go, on the main disc, you get the film, plus complete storyboards for the film (as an alternate angle), and some trailers for other DVDs. The second disc includes some additional storyboards from uncompleted scenes, some interviews with some people, and a documentary on the video restoration.

Overall, not too bad a package for not too bad a film.