The message/meaning within Gave of the Fireflies (WARNING - I expect spoilers, so if you haven't seen it, don't read it!)

Does anyone understand the message/meaning within Grave of the Fireflies? Because it just seemed so pointless and COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE!!!!! It had a few sad bits in it, sure, but the fact it was avoidable just takes away my sympathy for the main character, and I don't even remember his name! Definitely the worst Ghibli film I've seen so far. I'm not saying I have no sympathy for the death of the parents and the harsh wartime environment, but the end result was totally the main character's fault, and completely avoidable. Thoughts? Opinions? I'm also having trouble figuring out where it is, I don't recall hearing. I thought it was going to be Hiroshima, but it definitely wasn't, because all of the bombs dropped were incendiary, and just burned down the wooden buildings; the damage would have been far more severe if it had been one of the atomic bombs, and they would have dedicated a scene to the bomb if it had been one of those, right?

The film is meant to show the personal tragedy of war, how it affects the siblings. I think the film is meant to show how pointless their deaths were it was not supposed to have a happy ending. It is set in Kobe which was bombed by American forces with incendiaries.

Sub - I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending, but I was expecting more from it. I was expecting the war to have a continuing affect on their situation. It killed their mother, yes, and there were rations because of it, yes, but their deaths were separate. The war created the opportunity for this to happen, but it was completely and utterly avoidable. The older brother basically decided he was sick of his aunt nagging him and decided to leave. He wasn't forced out, she didn't send him away and tell him never to return. He could have gone back at any time. He didn't have to take his sister with him. A responsible older brother would think 'I have enough money to get by for a while, but then what? I can't take a kid with me without a plan to support her, therefore I'll leave her with our aunt. Sure, she might not be happy, but she'll get fed at least.' When his sister got sick why didn't he go to the doctor right away? He mentioned she wasn't well and stole some food for her, why didn't he go to the doctor then, when she could have been helped, rather than waiting until she passed out? His aunt had nagged him and took pot-shots about him not getting a job or going to school, but hell yeah, why not? Fine, he said his school had been taken out and the steel works he'd been working at were gone, but he did nothing. All he did was laze around the house and spend time with his sister (family time is important, but so it work and pulling your weight). He could have asked his cousin to get him work with her and her school, even if they are a few years older, or he could have gone to find out what other students at his school were doing, or even just offered to help around the house, going shopping, clearing wood or whatever in the streets, anything at all, but he did nothing! He said his mother had relatives in Tokyo but he didn't know how to contact them. Fine out! Talk to people at council offices, or police, or anyone who might have a clue! At least then he could say he's tried and failed to find them! When they were getting hungry, why didn't he appeal to local farmers to take him on as extra help in exchange for food? Perhaps one of them might have been willing if they'd seen he had a little sister to support. Maybe he tried this off screen, but we certainly didn't hear about it on screen. The farmer who originally sold them a little food directly told them to go back to their aunt's house. All he had to do to save his sister's life was to go home and apologise. At no point did his aunt tell him he couldn't go back. He was stealing from people's houses during bombings, how was he not stealing enough food? Surely he could have found enough to get a meal. It is almost 90% his fault, but the rest is on the adults. His aunt shouldn't have let them go without a solid idea of where they were going. At the very least she should have insisted the sister stay until the boy was on his feet somewhere. The police officer who spoke to that farmer should have taken details and found his relatives, probably the aunt, to let her know what was going on and have her take him back. Maybe he could even have looked into it and found out who those relatives in Tokyo were. The rations is a tricky one, because those two should have been able to go back to the rice shop like they did the first time to collect two rations of rice. Why did they not go back? Didn't everyone get ration tokens? If their tokens went to their aunt's house then he should have been going back and collecting them from her or something. They had money, and they got rations on their own the first time, so why didn't we see them do it again? The guy said the rice should last about two months, but I think the time frame shown was longer than that. It also probably didn't help that, because he was out stealing and food hunting all the time, his sister was completely alone, despite his promise that he wouldn't leave her alone. Left alone, she occupied herself by making food out of dirt, which probably contributed to making her sick, and is something he would definitely have noticed if he'd been around. If their plight had been unavoidable I might have been able to work it up to pity them, but as it is the whole situation was so unmistakeably the brother's fault that I was just left staring at the screen wondering what I had just watched. The only thing the film showed me was that the older brother was lazy and irresponsible. At no point did he try to do anything. He could have tried to get work, instead he turned to stealing, he could have agreed with his aunt and tried to get work, instead he went to live in a disused shelter - taking along a sibling he knew he couldn't support. If anyone else has watched this film and gained a different view point, then feel free to share it, but to me all of these points were blindingly obvious.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! . choo