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[ a parent's guide to anime ]

[ rated pg ] Barefoot Gen

A Parent's Guide to Anime
Rated: PG
Parental Guidance Advised

Review by Sean Kemp:

Barefoot Gen is the story of a young boy who lives through the dropping of the bomb at Hiroshima. It introduces all Americans to that historical bombing from the view of the people it had the most effect on--the ones who lived through it. Parents may want to watch this film before allowing younger children to watch it due to the graphical nature of the bomb exploding as well as the after effects. When the bomb explodes, the effects of the heat blast are shown in vivid detail. People walk around afterward with flesh hanging limply off them. Even though these scenes are extremely graphic, it actually shows more of what living through the bombing at Hiroshima was like. I highly suggest that everone should at sometime see this movie, as a reminder of how terrible that incident was and to warn us not to let it happen again.


Follow-up review by Jesse Rowley:

Barefoot Gen is a movie based on a Manga written by Keiji Nakazawa who was a child who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima. It takes place around the bombing of Hiroshima (August 6th, 1945). Barefoot Gen tells the story of a young boy named Gen, who is 6 at the time. Gen lives at home with his father, mother, older sister, and younger brother in mid-1940's Japan. His family doesn't have much food to eat since in Japan at the time, farmers gave their food to the Japanese army and would later be paid back by the government after the war was over. All the food they do get though, they must give to their mother because she is pregnant.

While Gen is just arriving at school the bomb is dropped. Probably the most graphic scenes of the movie occur at this time. It shows how people's bodies were burnt and disintegrated from the heat blast. It even shows people's eyeballs falling out from the heat. When Gen arrives back at his house he finds his mother trying to lift a beam from on top of his dad, brother, and sister. His dad, brother, and sister are killed when the fire spreads over them. After that Gen and his mother are left to fend for themselves with a baby on the way. While Gen travels he finds many bloody corpses laying on the ground. There is also some nudity in the movie while women are breastfeeding their babies and Gen's little brother, Shinji, often runs around with his behind showing. There are also a few cursewords. This is a very sad movie but also has some happy and comedic parts in it. It is also very informational and historically accurate. It tells the date that Japanese cities were bombed and tells the date and time that Hiroshima was bombed. Anyone interested in Japanese animation should definitely check out this movie and everyone should see it. It is one of the best animes I have ever seen.

P.S. The only place I've found that you can buy this movie at is rightstuf.com


Parent's Guide Rating:

yellow (parental guidance advised)

Scenes with extremely graphic violence, some nudity, some minor cuss words. At least 10 and up. If 10-12, eyes should be covered for some parts of the movie. Definitely watch it before your children do.



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