Grave of the Fireflies

Grave of the Fireflies (火垂るの墓 Hotaru no Haka) is a 1988 Japanese animated drama film written and directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Studio Ghibli. It is based on the 1967 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka. It is commonly considered an anti-war film, but this interpretation has been challenged by some critics and by the director.

Grave of the Fireflies received positive reviews from film critics. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times considered it to be one of the best and most powerful war films and, in 2000, included it on his "Great Movies" list. Two live-action remakes of Grave of the Fireflies were made, one in 2005 and one in 2008.

Synopsis

On the final days of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his four-year-old sister Setsuko are orphaned after their mother is killed during an air raid by American forces in Kobe, Japan. After having a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency funds and rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko must struggle to survive their hardships as well as those of their country, which is on the losing end of the war.

Dubbing History[]

Grave of the Fireflies is the only theatrical Studio Ghibli feature film prior to From Up on Poppy Hill which Disney never had North American distribution rights, since it was not produced by Ghibli for parent company Tokuma Shoten but for Shinchosha, the publisher of the original short story.

The film was first dubbed by Skypilot Entertainment for Central Park Media and released on VHS and DVD on October 7, 1998. They later released a two-disc DVD set which included the uncut film in both an English dub and the original Japanese with English subtitles as well as the film's storyboards. The second disc contains a retrospective on the author of the original book, an interview with the director, and an interview with critic Roger Ebert, who has expressed his admiration for the film on several occasions, and ranked the film as one of the greatest of all time.

Following the May 2009 bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media, ADV Films acquired the rights and re-released it on DVD on 7 July 2009. Following the 1 September 2009 shutdown and re-branding of ADV, their successor, Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and released a remastered DVD on 6 March 2012. A Blu-ray edition was released on November 20, 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced by Seraphim Digital. The new dub was produced due to the original sound elements for the original dub being lost and impossible to remix into 5.1 surround. The original dub was still included as a bonus feature for its historical significance, and the UK and Australian Blu-rays contain only the original dub.

The film would start streaming on Netflix around September 2024 but would be sub-only. However, despite only having the Japanese audio, it included credits for multiple language dubs which were added on January 7, 2025, including an English dub produced and commissioned to Dubbing Brothers.

This is also the only English dub in where the main characters were voiced by an actual teenager and child just like in the Japanese version. The new English dub produced by Dubbing Brothers was released on Netflix on February 6, 2025. The third English dub will not be included in the 2025 Shout Factory! Blu-Ray release, possibly due to licensing reasons, and will instead only contain the Central Park Media and Sentai Filmworks dubs.

Cast[]

Character	Seiyū	Central Park Media Dub	Sentai Dub	Dubbing Brothers Dub
Seita	Tsutomu Tatsumi	J. Robert Spencer	Adam Gibbs	Lucas Jaye
Setsuko	Ayano Shiraishi	Corinne Orr	Emily Neves	Luna Hamilton
Mother	Yoshiko Shinohara	Veronica Taylor	Shelley Calene-Black	¿?
Aunt	Akemi Yamaguchi	Amy Jones	Marcy Bannor	Ren Hanami
Doctor	Hiroshi Kawaguchi	Crispin Freeman	David Wald	¿?

Additional Voices[]

Central Park Media Dub

Shannon Conley
Crispin Freeman
Dan Green
George Leaver
Nick Sullivan
John Sharian

Sentai Dub

Dubbing Brothers Dub

Jennifer Sun Bell
Zander Chin
Susannah Corrington
Bobby Foley
Andrew Grace
Keisuke Hoashi - Ohbayashi
Andrew Kishino
Kana Koinuma
Clyde Kusatsu
Courtney Lin
Chacha Shen
Ping Wu - Gosaku
Anne Yatco - Neighbor

Notes[]

This is the only Studio Ghibli film to be recorded in Houston, and also the only Ghibli film that was never redubbed by Disney.
- It is also the only Studio Ghibli film to have been fully recorded in New York, whereas Princess Mononoke had additional recording take place there.
The Netflix dub of the film is the first Netflix anime production to be recorded at Dubbing Brothers.
This is Lucas Jaye, Luna Hamilton, Chacha Shen, Kana Koinuma, Susannah Corrington, and Zander Chin's debut anime role.

Video Releases[]

Year	Dub	Region	Country
1998	Central Park Media	NTSC	United States
1998		1 NTSC
2002		1 NTSC
2004		2 PAL	United Kingdom
2004		1 NTSC	United States
2007		2 PAL	United Kingdom
2009		1 NTSC	United States
2012		1 NTSC
2012	Central Park Media / Sentai	A DVB-T
2013	Central Park Media	B DVB-T	United Kingdom
2020	Central Park Media / Sentai	A DVB-T	United States
2025	Central Park Media / Sentai	A DVB-T	United States