Japan Grave of the Fireflies sits in the top 2% of Japan films on this catalog — ranked #110 of 4,579 by TMDB audience score.
Synopsis
火垂るの墓
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #110 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (98th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.6 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Animation productions specifically: #86 of 2,532 (top 3%).
Audience Engagement
4,861 audience reviews — more than 100% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (100th percentile) outruns trending popularity (0th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Grave of the Fireflies. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Studio Ghibli
Animation + Drama in Japan
730 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Animation and Drama genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Grave of the Fireflies itself).
The 1987–1989 Japan Window
Among 104 Japan films we catalog from this window, Grave of the Fireflies places #3 — near the top of its class.
The 1980s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1980s in Japan, 280 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when Grave of the Fireflies premiered alongside 32 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 1h 29m runtime, production spent $42K per minute on screen and earned $6K per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 32 other Japan films in 1988.
The 739th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Grave of the Fireflies, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- anti war · 5
- children in wartime · 5
- orphan siblings · 3
- hunger · 2
- shelter · 2
- wartime · 1
- anime · 711
- adult animation · 101
- world war ii · 55
- sibling relationship · 38
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| Original Language | Japanese |
| Production Companies | Studio Ghibli |
| Runtime | 1h 29m |
| Release Date | April 16, 1988 |
| IMDb | tt0095327 |