is a 1983 Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

loosely based on the Japanese manga series of the same name by

Keiji Nakazawa was a Japanese manga artist and writer. Biography Nakazawa was born March 14, 1939 Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in August 1945. Most of his family members who had not evacuated died as a ...

. Directed by Mori Masaki and starring Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kōda and Tatsuya Jo, it depicts

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in Japan from a child's point of view revolving around the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and the main character's first hand experience of the bomb. ''Barefoot Gen'' was dubbed by Streamline Pictures in 1995, despite the fact that it was released in the United States on June 13, 1992 and on July 3, 1992 in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

. A sequel, ''

Barefoot Gen 2 is a 1986 Japanese animated action drama film and the sequel to the 1983 animated war film ''Barefoot Gen'', loosely based on the Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Directed by Toshio Hirata, the film stars Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kōda, Y ...

'', was released on June 14, 1986.

Plot

Gen Nakaoka and his family live in

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

during the final days of

. The family struggles through food shortages and constant air raid warnings. Gen's mother, Kimie, is pregnant and suffering from malnutrition, and his sister Eiko helps Kimie in her housework. Gen and his brother Shinji help their father, Daikichi, in the family's wheat field and try to find food for Kimie. Daikichi and Kimie realize the war is not going well, though they wonder why Hiroshima has been spared from the air raids which devastated other Japanese cities. One day, Gen and a friend arrive at school just as a lone B-29 aircraft flies overhead. It releases an atomic bomb which destroys almost the entire city. Gen's friend is killed in the blast while he is buried under rubble by the resulting shockwave. Gen finds Kimie in the ruined city and they try to rescue their family, who are buried alive under their burning collapsed house. However, they are unsuccessful and Daikichi urges his son to take care of Kimie and the baby. Daikichi, Eiko and Shinji burn to death as Gen and his mother watch helplessly. Kimie briefly suffers a mental breakdown, commenting that her family is burning like a campfire. With help from a neighbor, the two find a safe location where Kimie goes into labor. Kimie gives birth to a baby girl, Tomoko. " Black rain" soon falls on the ruined city, the result of the bomb that sent radioactive material and debris into the atmosphere. Gen spends the next few days searching for food for his family. He discovers that soldiers are distributing rice, but arrives to find them collecting corpses before burning them in mass graves. He meets a soldier who is shivering from being cold, despite the heat and he defecates and vomits blood. Gen takes him to a make-shift hospital where the soldier then dies. The doctor has no clue what caused the soldier's death. He later finds a ration storehouse containing rice, most of which has already been seared by the blast. He finds a few bags of intact rice and takes them to his mother to eat along with some fresh vegetables. Kimie points out a few bald spots on her son's head, who recollects the memory of the soldier dying from the unknown illness. In a voice over, the narrator mentions that the US government gave Japan an ultimatum: surrender or another bomb will be dropped. When Japan refuses to surrender, the United States detonates the second atomic bomb over the city of

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

, which suffers the same outcome as Hiroshima. On August 16, Gen and Kimie dig up the remains of their family members from their former home. They learn from a nearby family that Japan has

surrendered Surrender, in military terms, is the relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power. A surrender may be accomplished peacefully or it may be the result of defeat in battle. A sove ...

to the Allies, ending the war, but their prayers of peace came too late. They later take refuge in a makeshift shack where they try to live on what little rice they have. A small boy, Ryuta, tries to steal their rice, but Gen catches him and is shocked at Ryuta's resemblance to Shinji. Gen and Kimie take Ryuta in after learning that Ryuta was orphaned by the bomb. The next day, Gen and Ryuta look for food as Tomoko is suffering from malnutrition. A man gives them a job tending to his ill-tempered brother Seiji, another bomb survivor, for 10 yen a day, but the boys grow tired of the mistreatment, slap Seiji several times, and quit. Seiji begs them to come back, explaining to them that he is grateful that the boys treated him like more than a rotting corpse. Gen tells Ryuta to tell his mother where they are, and he spends the night with the man, which inspires him to paint once again. The man's brother pays them 100 yen and the boys head out to find milk for Tomoko. When they return home, they find that Tomoko is already dead. A few weeks later, Gen and Ryuta see wheat beginning to grow despite having heard that grass would not grow. With renewed optimism, Gen, his mother, and Ryuta set a paper boat lantern down the river. They then watch and pray as the boat gently sails into the sunset.

Cast

Release

''Barefoot Gen'' was released in Japan on 21 July 1983 where it was distributed by Herald Enterprises. It was released in the United States on 13 June 1992, and dubbed by Streamline Pictures in 1995. The ''Barefoot Gen'' anime made ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' magazine's list of top five anime DVDs. The film review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 75% approval rating based on 8 reviews with an average rating of 7,25/10.

References

Footnotes

Sources

External links

* * * {{Ōfuji Noburō Award 1980s war drama films 1983 anime films 1983 drama films 1983 films Film controversies Anime and manga controversies Anime films based on manga

Anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

Discotek Media Drama anime and manga Films about nuclear war and weapons Films about suicide Films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Films scored by Kentarō Haneda Films set in 1945 Films set in Hiroshima Geneon USA Historical anime and manga Japanese World War II films Japanese war drama films 1980s Japanese-language films Madhouse (company) Works about children in war ja:はだしのゲン#アニメ映画