Plot - There is no story. This is just slice-of-life. Its mostly pointless filler with people doing things. The only thing to keep this movie together is the time period. Problem is, they do nothing interesting with it and this movie is just boring. Characters - As long as people think that putting their characters in time periods that the audience knows are sad qualifies character development, I will be annoyed. This movie is over reliant on making sad things happen to the characters to gain the audience's sympathy. If you are the kind of person who sees people in ww2 suffering and automatically feels for them, then you will probably need a box of tissues while watching this movie. However, if you are the kind of person who needs well-developed (or at least semi-interesting) characters to make a movie worth your time, then I'd recommend giving this movie a pass. Translation - I watched this movie with Japanese audio and English subtitles. Its not that great. The voice acting is pretty bad, and what they're saying for the most part isn't very interesting and doesn't feel like real dialogue. Animation - Whoever is staying that this film is unique in its art style clearly doesn't watch a lot of animation. The character designs are so generic that they are hard to tell apart at times. I'm not sure that the artists fully understood how to draw people. The proportions are all wrong, and no-one looks like the age they are supposed to be. The only times the animation is someone good is when it changes to look like the girl's drawings. That only takes up a total of like 30 seconds in this 2hour+ long film, so its not worth watching for that. There are so many other animated films that have more interesting art and stories that this one really isn't worth the watch. Overall, this movie is really boring and I wouldn't recommend it. The only reason it is set during ww2 is so that people will go "oh you don't like it because its sad" or to say that you're insensitive or whatever. Honestly this movie could've been great if they didn't go with the first draft.

Now as there are many japanese or non-japanese movies about the world war two, most of them are focused on the affected areas by the bombs. But this one was wasn't entirely focused on that. This movie talks about the story of a woman (Suzu) from Hiroshima, who gets married and then moves away. The story follows her as she lives her daily life in a corner of this world that is full of war and despair and how the things get worse day by day. It talks about the struggle that these people have to go through, and all the pain they are to endure. After watching this movie now i can say that i might understand a little bit more the feelings of the people and what they had to go through at that time. Of course, we can never know how much it hurt to live like that, but we could at least imagine. Imagine not being able to hold the hand of someone whom you love, imagine not being able to hear the one you love or see them again, or not being able to hug them even though you want to. After losing someone important to her and also losing her hand she had to go through much pain, she couldn't draw any longer and what for? Humans. Yes, because of some "humans" she had to let go of many things, and this is only one person, now imagine millions of people, each one of them losing at least one thing that cannot be compensated. That's harsh. And also unacceptable. This movie made me realize again how filthy we humans are. The most affectionate moment in the entire movie for me was when that little girl who lost her mother got happy when she saw Suzu, imagine that little child who had to go through something like that, it's not fair. But we can also see that Suzu losing her hand wasn't entirely meaningless. Sometimes some things happen that we might never know the good in them. And this was kind of one of those things. The little girl might have never approached Suzu if she hadn't lost her arm and reminded her of her mother and she would probably die out there. But she got saved and it was like god has sent them back the little girl that they had lost. It was a very good movie in general and that art was also nice and I really loved it, i also don't mind watching it again.

Suzu is a young girl living in a peaceful seaside Japanese city. It's revealed to be pre-war Hiroshima. Her family farms seaweed. At 18, she receives a marriage proposal from a relative stranger, a young earnest man from Kure who fell in love with her at first sight. She marries and moves in with his family. Kure is a Navy town and everybody works at the base. As food gets rationed, she finds ways to adapt. She continues to draw and is beloved by her adoring niece Harumi. The winds of war blow harsh as life grows ever more difficult.The animation is simply beautiful which contrast nicely with the fear of impending doom. I really liked not naming Hiroshima at first. I'm sure everybody in Japan noticed the building right away but outside Japan, the audience may not catch on. It would be more compelling to stay silent on the city name longer. I actually expected more of a love triangle especially with that amazing sea rabbit drawing. It didn't turn out that way which is perfectly fine. I grew to like Shusaku which is exactly what Suzu does. There are some devastating drama but it also leave some heart-warming turns for the audience. Hiroshima is handled with class. It's Fireflies without the unrelenting depression.

Another typical Japanese anime movie that subjects the viewer into every tiny, boring aspects of the country's everyday life and culture, as is the case with virtually every other animated movie that leaves it's borders. However this is heavily overshadowed by the huge dose of stomach turning sentimentality of the stereo-typical separated lovers story. Waste a couple of hours watching paint dry instead, it's about as interesting and original as this one!