Barefoot Gen 2 Review

Hello everyone! This past Tuesday, I’ve reviewed Barefoot Gen, a classic film in anime. Today’s review looks at a companion piece, so let’s not waste anymore time and review Barefoot Gen 2.

Story/Setup
Taken from the Wikipedia Page:

“Barefoot Gen 2 takes place in 1948, approximately three years after the end of the original movie, as Gen, his mother, and his adopted brother Ryuta try to survive as Hiroshima, like the rest of Japan, struggles to rebuild following the catastrophic devastation of the Second World War.

While the first movie focused on the immediate effect of the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the second film focuses on the long-term problems that faced the survivors, including the devastated economy and infrastructure, food shortages, unemployment, lack of housing, and the lingering effects of the atomic bomb's radioactive fallout.

Three years after the war, most of Hiroshima is still in ruins. Gen and Ryuta's school is housed a building half-wrecked by bomb damage, where a teacher is seen explaining the principles of Japan's new constitution. Still under American military occupation (which Gen clearly resents), Japan's economy is beginning to recover, but many of its people still cannot afford even basic necessities of life. Gen and his family struggle to survive, and while his mother gets a job at a brick-building factory, it is barely enough to support their basic needs. There are also several gangs of orphaned children squatting in the ruins instead of going to school. At first, contact with them is adversarial, but Gen soon realizes that they have nowhere else to go and are as desperate as he is, striking up a friendship with them. During a lighter moment in the film, Gen and the children stumble upon an old military firing range where ammunition was dumped at the end of the war. The gang leader realizes they can sell the old bullets for scrap metal, and the entire group starts filling wheelbarrows with spent shell casings, singing as they work.

The other major plotline in the movie follows the long-term effects of the use of the atomic bomb: even years later, many people are suffering lingering medical effects from the radiation. One of the orphans is a girl who had half of her face badly burned in the bombing, and is ostracized by the rest of the group for her condition, though Gen accepts her. Gen's own mother is gradually dying of cancer throughout the movie, due to exposure to radiation the atomic blast (compounded by years of malnutrition). They both know that she is dying, though Gen struggles to comprehend how he will survive without her.”

Like the last movie, this story is filled tragedy, comedy, hope, and despair. Also like the last movie, the story is good as well.

Setting
As with the last movie, Barefoot Gen 2 takes place in the bombed-out ruins of Hiroshima. Unlike the first movie, Hiroshima seems to be faring a little better. It’s still in shambles, as there are ruined buildings still standing, but a sense of life is coming back into the city. The people are more active & hopeful, but they’re still struggling to recover from the damage caused by the atomic bomb & it’s after-effects, and dead bodies can still be found from time to time.

Characters
Characters are going to be tricky to discern this time around. It not because of a lack of emotions, because everybody has some, and it’s not because of personality, cause everyone has one. It’s because this movie is in Japanese, and didn’t have a subtitle track (More on this in a bit). With that said, let’s look at some of the characters (My apologies if things look like I pulled stuff from out of my ass or got something screwed up).

Let’s start off with the main male, Gen. Gen’s grown a little bit since the events of the first movie: he’s still childish from time to time, but he’s a little more mature, still loyal to his friends & family, and he’s actually a little bitter toward’s America’s involvement. These factors make him more complex as a character (Maybe even more so when compared to the first movie), and thus you feel more attached to him.

Ryuta is much the same, in that’s he’s changed as well. He doesn’t quite seem so childish this time around due to his time with the Yakuza. He still doesn’t have much hair, but that just adds to his gruffer personality. At times he has a knife with him, adding a hint of menace to him. Despite that, he’s still a young boy, and thus is still prove to things that a young boy would do.

We still have Gen’s mom along for the ride. She’s the only original character that’s changed the least: she’s still Gen & Ryuta’s guiding light in the world, but due to her malnutrition & cancer that she suffers from over the course of the movie, she’s become physically weaker, and thus relies more on Gen & his friends.

There’s also a group of kids that Gen & Ryuta meet towards the middle of the movie. If there was a dub (Or at the very least, some subtitles.), I’d be able to tell you who they were & how they think/act, but I can’t.

Animation
The animation quality of Barefoot Gen 2 is definitely a step up from the original film. It doesn’t look as cartooney as the original movie did, as it attempts to be a little more realistic. The people look more realistic, the settings (Both the background & foreground) look more vibrant (As vibrant as a bombed-out city can get, anyways) than before, and overall everything looks like there was more work put into the film.

Voice Acting
My downloaded copy was in Japanese....and didn’t have subtitles! If this movie was dubbed, please send me a link!

Episodes & Episode Length
Like the first movie, Barefoot Gen 2 is a feature-length film. Coming in at 85 minutes, this movie is perfect to watch in the afternoon. Be sure to have some tissues to wipe away the tears you’ll eventually create, and have a friend’s shoulder nearby so you can cry on it.

Availability & Pricing
Barefoot Gen 2 is even harder to find than the original movie! As far as I know, the only way to find this movie is with the Barefoot Gen 1 & 2 collection that was released by Geneon a few years back. Like I said in my Barefoot Gen review, there’s 10 new & used copies of this collection, starting at 29 dollars in pricing. If you want to watch the second movie, find this collection, or find a file online to download.

Extras/Other
Since I downloaded this, I don’t know what the extras are.

General Impression & Rating
Barefoot Gen 2 is a little better than the original film. You’ve still got a great story like the original film, but there’s better animation (That ties into the improved setting), a slightly lengthened run time, and the characters are more fleshed out than they were in the original movie. My only serious complaint is that it’s almost impossible to find, being found only on a DVD collection that’s been out of print for a while. Despite that bump in the road, this movie should be watched, as it carries a legacy as big as Barefoot Gen!

Barefoot Gen 2 gets a 8.2 out of 10.

See you all next week, when we’ll be looking at more sci-fi/cyberpunk movies. Until then, stay Otaku!