Animation, as a visual art form, can detach itself from reality in the purest sense, those colorful, fanciful artifacts are able to escape any spatio-temporal, anthropocentric boundaries, therefore they are mostly apt for escapism, often designated to family fares. However, here are two exceptions, French cartoonist Aurel’s César Award winning feature debut JOSEP and Studio Ghibli’s enshrined classic GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, both associate themselves with the dreadful WWII and its harsh reality,

JOSEP’s title refers to Spanish painter/writer Josep Bartolí (1910-1995), and it centers on his harrowing experiences in a French internment camp as a refugee after fought in the Spanish civil war, the point in time is early 1939, months before the commencement of that blamed war, where he is befriended by a convivial gendarme Serge, camaraderie blossoms between them under the noxious conditions. Josep is subjected to taunts, humiliations and abuse from other mean-spirited, racist, anti-communist gendarmes, one of his fellow Spanish émigrés is beaten to death for defiance. To add injury to insult, Serge finds out Josep’s pregnant fiancée is severely injured, childless and in a disfigured, catatonic state.

Not shying away from the horrendous acts, scenarist Jean-Louis Milesi also tries to squeeze levity and sensuousness into this tale of woe, even conjures up Frida Kahlo into Josep’s fantasy, to whom he will be romantically linked years later in Mexico. But told in dribs and drabs, the narrative doesn’t amp up appreciable emotional impact, Bartolí is chummy, but no character for us to empathize with. And mingled with a frame story where an old Serge, on his deathbed, inculcates his modern-day grandson to carry on with his memory, JOSEP consciously wears its heart on its sleeve, but what is remarkable about it?

Fairly speaking, JOSEP possesses a distinctively western painting style, it looks primitive à la bande-dessinée, and unfurls in a frame-by-frame rigidity which dispenses with the function of cinematography, which renders the viewing experience rather different from most of its kind, it is retro, but not in a completely alluring way, you might be astounded by Aurel’s artistic flair, but for assimilation of what is presented on the screen, it could be a very different matter, even if you are compulsively ensorcelled by Sílvia Pérez Cruz’s exotic incidental music. A blue-ribbon artisan doesn’t necessarily make for a top-line filmmaker, which Japan’s Studio Ghibli knows absolutely the best.

Directed by the studio’s co-founder Isao Takahata, GRAVES OF THE FIREFLIES earns its prestige as a sure-fire tear-jerker for decades, and just when you fully gird yourself for the stimuli of your tear gland, bam! it shakes you up roundly in the off, a strategy pays dividends because by giving away the ending, it diminishes anxiety and prepares you to the inevitability with some semblance of resignation, it is not an artisanal decision, but from the mastermind of a competent filmmaker and astute storyteller.

The story takes place is the dog-end of WWII, Kobe is beset with air raids, two young siblings, Seita, a school-kid and his four-year-old sister Setsuko, have to live off their limited means after their mother perished (while their father is a navy officer in the line of duty) and a stint of staying with their aunt turns sour. Here the underbelly of realism sneaks in (the story is adapted from Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-biographical novel), a majority of the adults aren’t sympathetic figures who, you might take it for granted, will show partiality towards parentless kids, no, not for those who husband their sustenance in a war-ridden city, where they are benumbed and desensitized by hardship and casualty. Warfare always brings out the worst of humanity, that is a given.

If the plot is a poverty porn of the highest water, viz. young kids suffer and wither in privation, Takahata magnificently tones down the tragedy with episodes of poetry and reminiscences, even happiness (however fleeting it is), using firefly as a metaphor for evanescent lives, the whole film suffuses with exceptionally tender moments and picturesque illustrations that have been scarcely rivaled ever since. That is the simplicity and beauty of cel animation, I would even prefer this to Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, released in the same year, not because of its technique, but of how Takahata leavens a lachrymose text with adroit considerations, especially those concerning Setsuko, her declining process is depicted with such insuperable felicity (a fruit drop can leave you feel pulverized), everything can be tactlessly fell into mawkishness or ickiness, but GRAVES OF THE FIREFLIES lends its feet victoriously in the end.

Smart, if over-smart, is Takahata’s stance on the warfare, by skipping a larger context, he evades a straight answer which may divide his audience, so you can read it as either anti-war or an anti-defeat, that doesn’t particularly of Takahata’s concern, his point seems to be, if I many conjecture, a country must always value and prioritize its citizen’s life above everything else, otherwise, war or no war, the failure is on all of us.

referential entries: Yoshifumi Kondô’s WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995, 8.2/10); Sylvain Chomet’s THE ILLUSIONIST (2010, 7.1/10); Hayao Miyazaki’s MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988, 8.0/10).Title: JosepYear: 2020Country: France, Spain, BelgiumLanguage: French, Spanish, Catalan, EnglishGenre: Animation, Biography, DramaDirector: AurelScreenwriter: Jean-Louis MilesiMusic: Sílvia Pérez CruzEditing: Thomas BelairVoice Cast:Sergi LópezBruno SoloFrançois MorelGérard HernandezDavid MarsaisValérie LemercierAlain CauchiSílvia Pérez CruzRating: 6.8/10

English Title: Grave of the FirefliesOriginal Title: Hotaru no hakaYear: 1988Country: Japan, USALanguage: JapaneseGenre: Animation, War, DramaDirector/Screenwriter: Isao Takahatabased on the novel by Akiyuki Nosaka Music: Michio MamiyaCinematography: Nobuo KoyamaEditing: Takeshi SeyamaVoice Cast:Tsutomu TatsumiAyano ShiraishiAkemi TamaguchiRating: 8.4/10