NHK Educational TV's special program "ETV Special: Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata Isao, and Seven Notebooks," which focuses on the late director Takahata Isao's masterpiece "Grave of the Fireflies" (1988), will be broadcast at 11pm on August 2nd. Based on the seven notebooks found in Takahata's home that record the creative process, and testimonies from people involved, the program explores what Takahata was trying to convey with "Grave of the Fireflies" and the thoughts he put into the work.
Grave of the Fireflies is based on the original novel by Akiyuki Nosaka and tells the story of a 14-year-old boy, Seita, who loses his mother in an air raid and lives with his 4-year-old sister, Setsuko. According to seven notebooks that were found after Takahata's death that documented the creative process, while he tried to faithfully recreate the original novel based on his own experience of the air raid, he also deliberately created a character called "F Seita" that does not exist in the original novel.
Director Yoko Terakoshi, who produced the program, commented, "In 2011, I interviewed Takahata Isao when he was making his final work, ' The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.' From then on, until he passed away in 2018, I was sometimes scolded, but thankfully we became very close friends. I learned so much from him, such as his passionate view of his work and his touching words, but I hardly ever heard him say anything about 'Grave of the Fireflies.' Even now, 80 years after the end of the war, we live in a world where war has not yet disappeared. I continued my interview because I wanted to know for myself what kind of thoughts Takahata put into the film 'Grave of the Fireflies.' I believe that what emerged from his creative notes is a message for us in the present age."
