User reviews

Barefoot Gen is the autobiographical story of manga artist, Keiji Nakazawa and his experience during the times of the Hiroshima bombings in 1942. What ensues is something so unbelievable, so gritty, so real, it will change your life forever.

The film is adapted as an anime from Keiji's short manga series depicting all that he experienced just at the age of six when the bombings hit. His story truly is one of the most amazing things you will ever hear. Nothing else in film has ever captured the effects of the bombings in such a real and emotional way. It shows the viewers what really did happen and what we were never told. It shows us how real the bombings really were as we follow Gen through his struggle for survival during Japan's darkest hours.

If you haven't seen this film, you are missing out. While the film does not hold back on the gritty details, and what happens to the people of Japan throughout the whole of the film is very horrifying, you cannot miss this film due to these aspects. It's these things that make it so real and it would be a tragedy to ignore this film. It opened my eyes to what really went down in Hiroshima and I almost felt personally affected. During my whole time watching this film, I kept finding myself in disbelief that something like this actually occurred in our history, and recently at that. I mean, a whole society was rebuilt on the effects of the bombings and once again shows us how very, very wrong war is. One of the best films I have ever seen.

9.5/10 Hamish Kearvell A.K.A Screaming Japan Productions - www.myspace.com/screamingjapanproductions

If you haven't seen this film, make it a top priority to track it down.

Barefoot Gen, the animated version of the autobiographical manga by Keiji Nakazawa, is an unflinching first-hand look at the result of dropping an atomic bomb on a civilian target. Comparisons to Grave of the Fireflies will abound, but for me personally Barefoot Gen was the more moving of the two. Though it centers on the effects of the atom bomb, the fact is this could be about any war, and any people. It is a story for all of humanity.

Barefoot Gen is filled with its fair share of caricatured mannerisms, but calling it a dramedy is pushing it. There isn't much to laugh at and even when the characters act a little over-the-top, the overall effect hits its mark (strongly). What makes the story even more powerful is knowing it comes from a survivor of the attack, and the honesty with which the film doles out darker and darker shades of life in the aftermath of the bombing (including subtle things one might not think about).

I think this along with Grave of the Fireflies belongs in every collection, even if you will only watch it once or twice, if only to show it to future generations. Its one thing to see a big explosion relating to the a-bomb in almost every other anime, but its another thing entirely to see the reality of it, and its aftermath.

At the risk of sounding incredibly pretentious, it made me want to burn flags. Not just from one country, but from all countries... to put it another way, I wish we could be united by our common humanity.

This is the sort of movie that I would rate up there with Schindler's list. Its haunting and powerful. This is also the sort of movie that I feel that every history teacher who teaches American History should show their students at some point in time. While some of the scenes do get a bit annoying, it still brings home the horrors of what occurred at the end of World War II. The other thing is the point of view, which was not "anti American" and doesn't try and place blame, which makes this all the more powerful.

Seeing this one at 7 was something to remember. The picture, the sound, the message, the dialogues, the actions. The atomic bombing looked so frightening on a big screen: the people were burning, their flesh – melting, and finally only bones remained.

Some Russian people still recall memories of this cartoon, though, it still has not been officially released in good quality. It must mean something. The animation film was shown decades ago in our theatres and since then has been erased from any means of media - but we still remember it and respect it. "Finding Nemo" is good. "Spirited Away" is better. But this one is a masterpiece that has real history as a background.

Judging by the number of votes, not so many IMDb visitors are aware of this gem. Alas, before making atomic quarrels one should watch this film. You cannot watch it and pass by ignorant.

My mark is a definite 10. Thank you for attention.

I have to admit it. I cried, I cried a lot while watching this masterpiece of animation. The horror of the war and the apocalypse of the atomic bomb, engulfed my eyes and my soul so deep inside. It always should be remembered: the first casualty of war is innocence. Hadashi no Gen is a masterpiece, a legacy for the whole humanity. I have read many stories and talked to some survivors from the atomic bombs and I have to say that this movie is the first one that get so poignantly close to what happened on that August, 1945. The only thing I wanted to say at the end of the movie was:"I am sorry, I am sorry that I am human and that I can be so limited...I am sorry..."

The story is excellent, the animation effective, but the lack of in-between frames is intrusive in spots. For the full story, read the graphic novels. They provide an even more effective tale.

As with Nosaka's "Grave of the Fireflies," Gen deals with a Japanese youth in the waning days of WW II. The first 30 minutes shows him to be typical for his stage of life, swinging between a self-centered boy and an adult. He is suddenly thrust into the position of head of the family after the Hiroshima bomb kills his father, brother, and sister, and destroys the city. The remainder of the movie deals with his transformation into an adult, with adult sensibilities and adult responsibilities.

Gen is clearly a Japanese story - the author, Nakazawa, lived through the event as a child. But the story could have taken place in Dresden or London just as easily. Although the atomic bomb is the event the movie revolves around, the story is really about the people - the children - and the effect the event has on their lives.

It's too bad that so much of the books had to be sacrificed to the time limits of a film. The novels delve much more deeply into the cruel society that Japan was in the 1940s. For example, much more was made of the neighbor's Korean background in the book; in the movie, you wouldn't realize the ethnicity if you didn't think about the name.

As a conventional film, Gen would probably be too honest to find real appeal in the U.S. Worse, the animation format will probably dissuade those who would otherwise see and appreciate it. Like most Japanese anime, this is not a "cartoon." It is a serious film in an unconventional - for the U.S. - medium.

The DVD transfer is excellent and belongs in your collection. This is a movie that continues to educate and enlighten with each viewing.

This film depicts the horrors of war, but fails to really impress me. The characters are unrealistic and the film is too preachy, which detracts from its greatness: Grave of the Fireflies, a movie with a similar theme, is a million times superior to this film and having watched it before I saw this, made me think this film was pathetic, though that's because anything looks pathetic compared to Grave of the Fireflies.

Why is this film deeply flawed? Because of the lack of humanity in the characters: they really do not appear to take the horrors of war seriously enough and the film lacks subtlety, which is a very important element of a great film, such as Grave of the Fireflies.

Still, despite its flaws I still found this film to be remarkably powerful in several senses. I recommend it, but it is not as remotely as great as Grave of the Fireflies.

You'll be surprised, this is testimony to the power of 'old style' animation, you need more than Computer Generated images to make a great film. Even with it's basic arrangements barefoot gen managed to shock me by its ability to capture all the horror, confusion and devastation delivered by the atomic bomb.

I found this movie informative but disturbing. I have heard it being described as a tragicomedy. I think this is a fitting description but just be prepared because it really does make giant leaps from the genuinely tragic and sad to light heartedness. You won't know whether to laugh or cry. Actually, you will. A little cry would be totally justified so have a hanky at the ready and don't watch it with your mates from down the pub.

I watched this after borrowing the 10 book set from the library. The film captures the main points and characters, and the bombing particularly is handled very effectively, but overall I was disappointed.

In the books there are important themes that are either just glided over or dropped altogether in the film such as the society's anti-Korean sentiments, pro-war fervor, and fear of bombing victims (I was particularly impressed how critical the author was of the Japanese war government as much as he was of the American decision to bomb). As a characters reacted to these it gave them depth and humanness and set the stage for later difficulties, making the overall story great (I was moved to tears several times in reading). The movie's characters by contrast are pretty shallow and reactive and the more important sub-stories in the book become feel-good niceties, such as Gen's caring for the artist. At the end of the movie, you'll remember the big events, but not the characters.

Since the story is so important the movie is still worth catching, but books are much better.

I've basically pasted this from wikipedia, but since the autobiographical element to this story wasn't mentioned I thought I should post it. There is an interesting article with the artist here http://www.tcj.com/256/i_nakazawa.html (中沢 啓治, Keiji Nakazawa, born 1939) is a Japanese manga artist and writer.

He was born in Hiroshima, and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother, and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing.

In 1961, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a full-time cartoonist, and produced short pieces for manga anthologies such as Shonen Gaho, Shonen King, and Bokura.

In 1966, following the death of his mother, Nakazawa returned to his memories of the destruction of Hiroshima and began to express them in his stories. Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain), the first of a series of five books, was a fictional story of Hiroshima survivors involved in the postwar black market. In 1972, Nakazawa chose to portray his own experience directly in the story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"), published in Monthly Shonen Jump (In 1982, the story was translated into English and published as a one-shot comic book by Educomics as "I Saw It").

Immediately after finishing "I Saw It", Nakazawa began his major work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen). This series, which eventually filled ten volumes (six volumes in English translation), was based on the same events as "I Saw It" but fictionalized, with the young Gen as a stand-in for the author. Barefoot Gen depicted the bombing and its aftermath in graphic detail, but also turned a critical eye on the militarization of Japanese society in the World War II years, and on the sometimes abusive dynamics of the traditional family. Barefoot Gen was made into an animated film, released in 1983. It was followed three years later by a sequel.

Similar to Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen takes us to horrors of Japan in WW2. Although it didn't affected me as much as GotF did, I still found myself looking in devasted and in despair at those events. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the whole story and it was too short for me to really dive deep into it and I didn't experience catharsis at the end. I wish the film explored more of it's political themes rather than just mentioning it here and there. Overall, I enjoyed it and the animation looks very good but just didn't find myseld emotionally connected to the characters.

Worse precursor to Grave of the Fireflies is how I would describe it. The voice acting was good but the actual characters are somewhat lacking. Emotion is there but it seems over or under done at times. The gore is unnecessary and the plot is realistic enough that it is better served as an educational film of the bombings rather than an actual movie watched for any sort of meaningful story or lesson.

Many compare Grave of the Fireflies with Hadashi no Gen/Barefoot Gen. While there are certainly similarities, such as the timeline taking place near the end of the war with Japan, the main difference is that Grave deals mostly with the inhumanity of the Japanese people toward their own kind, while Gen revolves less on this than it does the overall horrors of the after-effects of the nuclear blast at Hiroshima. The hooks used in the respective animes are thus, quite different. While Grave makes one shake their head and wonder about how humanity is sacrificed on the altar of survival and self-centeredness, Gen rests heavily on the outright horror that the dropping of Fat Man unleashed on an entire population.

Animation styles are vastly different also. Grave was made in conjunction with Miyazaki of studio Ghibli (Totoro), and thus was very polished in appearance. Gen, on the other hand, has a mostly "old-fashioned" anime feeling, reminiscent of the "Golden Age of Anime" in the 80's, using devices that are very manga; overblown representations of runny noses and buckets of tears from characters, for example.

In the end, Hadashi no Gen should be on the shelf of every anime collector. When someone says to them that anime is "just for kids", pop this in the VCR and show them just how in-depth, heart wrenching and thought provoking simple pen and ink cells can become. You will have to watch it twice; it's hard to get all the nuances while wiping tears from your eyes.

I just watched this film for the first time yesterday. I signed up for a free 1 month trial DVD delivery, and filled my queue with Anime. There is so much more than Robots and Vampires. Robots and Vampires have their place and in Anime they can often have deep meaningful stories.

This film is definitely one I will add to my collection. The subject is very important. We usually Hiroshima from an American point of view. It is important to see it from a Japanese view. the movie actually doesn't seem to make a point to say that the US was bad. I don't think an American film would be so non-judgemental.

Watch this film for it's real (and sometimes over the top) emotions.

The home life of the family and the interactions between the parents and children reminded me so much of parts of my life in South Korea for the past 12 years. though differences exist between Japan and Korea, some basics are similar. Nowadays the common life shown in the film is fading. I think it will be a good reminder of how things were.

Watch this and 'Barefoot Gen 2'.

I watched this movie as I enjoy Japanese culture and it got a high score. I was not prepared for the onslaught that was Bareroot gen. It portrays war time life in a very plain no holds bar way. Characters just died left right and centre. The depiction of the effects of the bomb were spot on. I would recommend this for mature teens but not children. It made me genuinely sad but in a constructive way. It wasn't anti-american just anti-war.

It's rare for me to cry, feel heartbreak or to feel genuine emotion toward an anime film let alone find a dram in the anime category. This film is one of the best but unfortunately forgotten anime gems, but truest me once you see the film you'll never forget it.

One of the things I love about this film is it's documentary style, the cinematography and presentation. even though some aspects of the animation mainly in some gestures of the human characters seem a little dated it doesn't delude anything and after a while you do get use to it. But beside that the animation style I feel is great, from the way the humans are animated but most of all it's the backgrounds. The Detals of the buildings, vehicles, you name it it's there.

I'll admit something to you this film has one of the most horrifying, upsetting and unnerving scenes I've ever see in animation, when we see in graphic detail the bombing and all of the people it is destroying in it's wake. As well as the aftermath it left from people that are burned badly with flesh hanging in places looking like zombies (that wasn't a joke, it's a true fact) walking dying a slow death to the charred burned ruins of a city that was once flourishing and beautiful.

The facts of the history presented in the narration also make the emotional weight heavier and made me feel sicker because it's true. As my dad said more stupid things happen in war than smart things, when someone tells someone to go one way, even though logically they should go another.

The music is also good it has an end theme song that is one of the most beautiful if saddest songs I've ever heard. Other than that the true strength of the film is in it's character drama. Gen and his family are people that I can actually love, may'be due to the sense of familiarity they carry. Gen is a character that actually reminds me a little of myself when I was his age, whom was mischievous, borderline selfless and selfish, in his spirits, funny, and slightly mature for his age. The life style, activities they all do that basically is what the first 30 mins are composed of just regular things you would do and say in any peaceful neighborhood you live in. It was when it was all taken away and part of Gen's family died I appreciated those things as well as the same things I have a lot more because once their gone their gone forever.

We see Gen just struggling to keep his family composed of his mom and baby. Even though he may seem like his usual self, when things get hard we do see some emotional cracks from some of the powerlessness he suffers due to the bleak non fruitful conditions as well as dealing with the recent loss of his family.

However the film isn't all dark, things do get better due to Gen's unbreakable sense of hope. It's like with Andy from "The Shawshand Redemptions" it was the one thing that was keeping him, his family , and the people he's helped along the way alive, without it I doubt they would of made it. But despite all that there was one scene near the end that is one of the most heartbreaking scenes ever which broke my heart into a million pieces and made me cry.

Gen, his family and everyone else in that tragedy will live in my heart forever. Life always goes on even in the darkness of tragedy.

Rating: 4 stars

Oh, wow! From the movie poster one would never think 'Barefoot Gen' is one of the most disturbing animated movies ever made! Not since I saw 'Grave of the Fireflies' have I seen an animated film that touched me so emotionally.

The film follows a young Japanese boy named Gen and his family living in Hiroshima. They are a poor family but they are happy. At the head of the family is the hard-working father Daikichi. His wife Kimie is pregnant, and their children are brothers Gen and Shinji, and daughter Eiko.

Due to food shortage, Kimie is suffering from malnutrition, and Gen and Shinji is only too eager to go out to look for food. Even though they themselves are hungry, they are willing to give the last food to their mother for the sake of the unborn baby.

In the blink of an eye, everything would change. If you know the fate of Hiroshima, the sight of the Enola Gay bomber will send shivers down your spine the moment it appears on screen. People were going about their everyday chores, and were lucky that they've been spared from air raids. Until that day...

The animation might not hold up by today's standards, but the hard-hitting story will never be dated. 'Barefoot Gen' is an emotionally charged, heart-wrenching film that deserves to be seen. Note, this film is definitely not for kids!

Sequels are always billed to be inferior to their predecessors and animé is no different - animé can potentially knock out endless sequels each one worse than the next, because of this my expectations were that this film was only going to be a shadow compared to the excellence of its prequel. I believed that once the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima not a great deal could happen in this film, thankfully I was wrong. Barefoot Gen was centred around the suffering caused by the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the immediate after affects caused by the disease caused by the nuclear fallout (Pika), that was emotionally ravaging enough, but this sequel builds further upon the effects of the bomb drop, its expands its critical claw further to how people are affected in the long term. Issues such as: the brutality, bullying and negligence of occupying forces; the long term affects and the slow death that Pika brings; children being orphaned and hated by the community for the deaths of their parents. All are done well and it could be argued to be one of the great contemporary anti-war films - along with grave of the fireflies. These films, whether left as Sequel and Original or if they are converged into a singular entity they are both incredibly emotionally harrowing as was intended when Keiji Nakazawa wrote that Manga which this was adapted from. Regardless of the strength of the sequel, the original is probably more horrifying and emotionally crippling, one scene in particular is the moment when Gen goes back to his house to see his younger brother, whom the director and indeed writer (Nakazawa) has masterfully created a beautiful relationship between the two, is trapped inside the house, not yet dead but in his last moment, that scene is amongst the most beautiful and heart wrenching I have ever seen in my 22 years that I've been around for. It's also amazing how a film which evokes sadness through the characters on screen merely crying can be so upsetting, again I can't emphasise the excellence of both the story and the direction (in this sense). I'll make no bones of it, this film is grim; the story is a thing that I could never forgot due to the horrifying nature of the power that the American military holds and the horrific nature of the very event the film is depicting in itself. Yet the beauty of this film is that it shows people in the most extreme conditions not being beaten down by their conditions, it shows the power of human nature: their city has been all but turned to dust, the survivors were beyond lucky to survive but regardless of that they are slowly being picked off by 'Pika' but the protagonists are always laughing and smiling, trying not to let their circumstances get the better of them, which by and large throughout the film excluding the more emotional parts of the film(s). To summarise, this easily, in my opinion at the very least, goes down in history when you coalesce parts one and two together as one of the best war, and anti-war films – or dare I say propaganda films- ever made. A must see animated classic that deserves place in all DVD collections.