Barefoot Gen takes place in Hiroshima, as we see Gen and Shinji live with his family and working their very best to help them in a time of need, since the bombings destroyed half of Japan's cities in the war. Gen and their family lived the good life until that fateful day when the bomb, created by American WWII scientists, was dropped in Hiroshima and everyone got burned through radiation in their bodies, due to the power of the atomic bomb and therefore, Gen's family get killed in the blast, leaving Gen and her mother as the only survivors. Gen must now find a way to protect her mother by any means necessary to survive.
At first, Barefoot Gen starts like a cutesy anime in the first few minutes with the happy tone and music, but when the bombing begins in Hiroshima, all happy thoughts are thrown into the floor like melted ice cream. Dead bodies everywhere, people moaning while dying from radiation, even babies die in front of you and you got yourself a terrifying experience that will scar you and will make you think of the consequences that we've done in WWII. It also boasts one of the most haunting scenes in film history: The scene of Hiroshima being destroyed by the bomb. Yeah, it is that scary and I feel sorry for them that they had to die. I understand that Japan started this with Pearl Harbor and that the Japanese soldiers were ruthless killers during WW2, but America just went too far with this bomb and If I rewatch this movie again, my anger will just burst to extreme levels. Also, Gen is a strong character throughout the entire film as we sympathize on his journey to bring hope to human life after the bombing and will never give up on himself, even if his family is gone after the incident. There are more emotional teary moments in this film, but I will not spoil the movie even further, cause I might piss off some anime fans that never watched or heard of this film.
The animation by Madhouse, while dated, still holds up and I'll never forget the haunting animation scene of the bombing in my life and the music is serviceable, but nothing groundbreaking. The Japanese voice-acting is great and while they yell a lot in this movie, you will get used to it pretty well, except the English dub, in which they make Gen sound like Popeye's testicles that dropped in the morning and the english voices ruins the emotional moments of the film. So skip the dub and wath the Japanese version instead.
Barefoot Gen is well made film like Grave Of The Fireflies and it must be seen to be believed, if you have the guts to see it.
