The masterpiece "Grave of the Fireflies" (1988) by the late director Isao Takahata will be broadcast on Friday Road Show (Nippon TV, Friday 9pm) on August 15th. This will be the first time the film has been broadcast on terrestrial television in about seven years since April 2018, and it will be broadcast uncut on August 15th, the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
Friday Road Show will be broadcasting Studio Ghibli films for three consecutive weeks as part of a "Ghibli Week of Summer!!" program. In addition to "Grave of the Fireflies" on August 15, director Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea" (2008) will be broadcast on August 22, and "Princess Mononoke" (1997), also directed by Miyazaki, will be broadcast on August 29. All of the films will be shown uncut.
Grave of the Fireflies is based on the novel of the same name by the late Nosaka Akiyuki, who experienced the Kobe air raid, and depicts the story of 14-year-old Seita, whose mother died in an air raid while his father was away at war, and his four-year-old sister Setsuko, as they try to survive together. The voice actors were also chosen from the Kansai region, just like the stage play, with Tsutomu Tatsumi, who was 16 years old at the time of the film's release, playing Seita, and Ayano Shiraishi, who was five years old at the time, playing Setsuko.
