Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies is a little weird for me. I had seen it before, and I agree that it is extremely sad and depressing, but every time I watch it I have a little bit of a problem with Seita, the main character. I can't help but feel like there is a little grain of truth in all the mean things the aunt is saying to him. He IS old enough to get a job and help. He IS old enough to fight the fires. It always feels to me like he wants to live in this dream world with his sister. Now I understand he pays some very adult prices for things, such as when he gets caught stealing, but even then he is let off the hook. Not to mention he resorted to stealing before getting a job. Now, maybe we were supposed to assume that jobs weren't available, but his aunt seemed to think so, and they didn't make any references to unemployment problems.

When I looked up the movie on Wikipedia, which is of course infallible, it says that the movie is based on a semi-autobiographical novel by a man named Akiyuki Nosaka. Interestingly, he claims he wrote the novel as an apology to his sister, who died of malnutrition in post-World War II Japan. It seems to me that if he felt like he had to apologize, he felt like he didn't handle the situation like he should have, but on the other hand there would doubtless be guilt no matter how the situation was handled, so I guess that doesn't mean much. Regardless, there are my feelings on the movie, I hope everyone doesn't think I'm completely callous and heartless. I still think it's a moving movie, I've just always had some nagging problems with it that kept me from identifying completely with the characters.