Barefoot Gen Review

Hello everyone! This week’s duo of reviews are two iconic films, filled with drama, emotion, action, and some much needed doses of comedy. These two movies are some of the most serious films I’ve ever watched, and my eyes were about ready to unleash a torrent of tears. Let’s not waste anymore time, and dive into a review of Barefoot Gen.

Story/Setup
Taken from the Wikipedia page:

“The story begins in Hiroshima during the final months of World War II. Six-year old Gen Nakaoka and his family live in poverty and struggle to make ends meet, but Gen's father Daikichi urges them to "live like wheat", which always grows strong, despite being trod on. Daikichi is critical of the war, and when he shows up drunk to a mandatory combat drill and backtalks to his instructor, the Nakaokas are branded as traitors and subject to harassment and discrimination by their neighbors. To restore his family's honour, Gen's older bother Koji joins the Navy against Daikichi's wishes, where he is subjected to a brutal training regime by his commanding officer. On August 6, the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Gen's father and siblings perish in the fires, but Gen and his mother manage to escape. The shock causes her to give premature birth; Gen's new sister is named Tomoko.

In the days following the attack, Gen and his mother witness the horrors wrought by the bomb. Hiroshima lies in ruins, and the city is full of people dead and dying from severe burns and radiation sickness. Gen meets a girl named Natsue, whose face has been severely burned; she attempts to commit suicide, but Gen convinces her to continue living. Gen and his mother adopt an orphan named Ryuta, who by sheer coincidence looks identical to Gen's deceased younger brother Shinji. After Gen returns to their burnt-out home and retrieves the remains of his father and siblings, he and his family go to live with Kime's friend Kiyo. However, Kiyo's crotchety Mother-In-Law conspires with her grandchildren to drive the Nakaokas out.

Gen looks for work to pay the family's rent. A man hires Gen to look after his brother Seiji, who has been burnt from head to toe and lives in squalor. Though Seiji is recalcitrant at first, he warms up to Gen over time, and the boy learns Seiji is an artist who has lost the will to live because his burns have left him unable to hold a brush. With Gen's help, Seiji learns to paint with his teeth, but eventually, he dies of his wounds. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender over the radio, ending the war.

Following Japan's unconditional surrender, American occupation forces arrive to help the nation rebuild. Gen and Ryuta, fearing rumours they've heard about the Americans, arm themselves with a pistol they find in an abandoned weapons cache. They learn the Americans aren't as bad as they'd thought when they're given free candy, but they also witness a group of American soldiers harvesting organs from corpses for medical research. Kiyo's mother-in-law evicts the Nakaokas after Gen gets into a fight with her grandchildren, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Gen and Ryuta attempt to earn money to feed Tomoko, getting involved with the local Yakuza, but after the Yakuza betray them, Ryuta kills one of them with the pistol they found, and becomes a fugitive. Later, Gen learns that Tomoko has been kidnapped. He manages to find her with the help of a classmate, only to learn that she's become ill. Tomoko dies soon after.

In December 1946, Gen is reuinted with Ryuta, who has become a juvenile delinquent, doing odd jobs for the Yakuza. He also meets Katsuko, a girl scarred by burns from the bomb. As an orphan and a hibakusha, she is subject to discrimination and cannot go to school, but Gen loans her his books and teaches her himself.”

This is a very deep story, filled with both good emotions & bad. It’s also a very epic story that is sure to play with your beliefs of humanity, and makes you question as to why we would go this far to stop war.

Setting
There’s been plenty of shows that depict Japan in the 40s and earlier, but Barefoot Gen has the balls to show the viewer Hiroshima after the atomic bomb went off, creating one of the most horrific environments ever seen by anime fans. The entire city becomes a crater of devastation: buildings are in shambles, fires are rampant, and the bodies of the people of Hiroshima can be seen strewn in various parts of the city. There’s such a heavy sense of death & despair within the ruins, your shocked that anyone, much less a 6-year old boy, could survive in this city!

This will be about as close to the devastation of the atomic bombings of Japan as any Otaku will ever get.

Characters
For the purpose of this review, I will be focusing on just three of the characters. Mainly the ones that seem to carry the most weight (In my opinion, at least). With that said, let’s begin.

For starters, there’s the character that in the movie’s title, Gen. At the beginning of the movie, he behaves like a standard 6-year old boy: sprightly, jumpy, a little bit bratty, yet can be quite nice. When trouble begins to occur for his family, his innocence begins to fade away as he tries to grow up, but he still knows how to act like a kid. When the atom bomb goes off, he seems to become a bipolar child. Half the time he’s a quasi-adult: he takes responsibility for his mother, sister, and young friend, and is quite strong in terms of his emotions. The other half of the time he reverts back to his child self. Despite being so you, Gen has some complexity to him, making him a rather interesting character to cheer for.

Gen’s mother, on the other hand, is a little more basic. She’s basically Gen’s guiding light after the bomb goes off, and provides him and Ryuta moral support. She’s not a bad character, but I find that she’s a weaker character, if only because she doesn’t seem to bring as much oopmh to the table, despite having some conviction to her personality.

We finally come to Ryuta, who almost seems like Gen’s opposite. He’s much more spunky, willing to take risks, and at the end, a tad punky. Despite those differences, he’s just a youthful as Gen, and will help out other if needed.

Animation
The best word to describe Barefoot Gen’s animation is.....basic. It’s not ugly by any stretch, as the people look alright, and the setting looks simplistic but realistic. What I’m trying to say is that the movie has just enough looks to not look hideous, but would probably have felt far, far, far more visceral if it had some higher animation quality.

Voice Acting
The voice acting in this movie is adequate. It’s not that no one’s trying, because everybody is. My main problem is that while everyone seems to be putting in their time, some characters sound underwhelming despite the work put into them. Gen is a big example: I am convinced (For the most part, at least) that the voice actor in question makes a convincing 6-year old boy. At the same time, he sound underwhelming. Even when he goes through some important changes in his life, he doesn’t sound like he’s growing as a person. He still continues to sounds like a 6-year old boy, despite growing up metaphorically.

Episodes & Episode Length
Barefoot Gen is a feature-length film. At 83 minutes in length, 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 is a difficult movie to find. Although I downloaded it, I was able to find a couple copies over on Amazon in two forms: the original film by itself, and a release by the now defunct Geneon company that contained both movies (I’ll talk about this in the next review). The original release is expensive as hell, starting in at 87 dollars new (At the time of this writing, there are only 5 new copies available), and 43 dollars used (At the time of this writing, there are only 4 used copies available). The Geneon copies are fairly cheaper: both new & used copies start at 29 dollars (There are 10 copies of both editions as I write this). I highly suggest you go for the Geneon copy, and only go for the original if you’re a die-hard collector.

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

General Impression & Rating
Barefoot Gen is a movie that everybody should watch. Whether you’re a light-hearted Otaku looking for something serious to watch (Perhaps as an alternative to Grave of the Fireflies), or a fan of serious animated movies looking for something classic, I highly recommend this. My only serious gripe is that it’s incredibly difficult to find, making Barefoot Gen a hard-to-find classic as well as a incredible classic. Find this movie people!!

Barefoot Gen gets a 8 out of 10.

See you all later this week, when we’ll look at the followup to Barefoot Gen. Until then, stay Otaku!