Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen)

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Alternative Titles

English: Barefoot Gen

Synonyms: Gen of Hiroshima

Japanese: はだしのゲン

Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jul 21, 1983

Producers: RCC Chugoku Broadcasting

Licensors: Discotek Media, Geneon Entertainment USA

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Historical

Duration: 1 hr. 23 min.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.85¹ (scored by 10,717 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score. Please note that 'Not yet aired' titles are excluded.

Ranked: #806²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2533

Members: 27,325

Favorites: 86

7.85

Ranked #806Popularity #2533Members 27,325

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Synopsis

It's the summer of 1945. 3 years have elapsed since the war between Japan and USA began. Gen is a young boy living a struggling yet satisfying life in the city of Hiroshima, that has been strangely spared by the bombing taken in almost every other Japanese City. Food is scarce, and Gen's family is suffering from severe malnutrition, which endangers his pregnant mother. There isn't much spare time as Gen and his little brother Shinji help their father and mother at work and try to make sure their family survives the tough times. Little do they know, what the Americans have in store for the city of Hiroshima and as of the 6th of August 1945, their lives are about to change dramatically.

(Source: ANN)

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Background

Winner of the Oufuji Noburou Award at the Mainichi Film Awards in 1983.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Hadashi no Gen
Sequel:	Hadashi no Gen 2

More characters
Characters & Voice Actors

Nakaoka, Gen

Main

Miyazaki, Issei
Japanese

Kondou, Ryuuta

Main

Nakaoka, Kimie

Main

Nakaoka, Daikichi

Supporting

Nakaoka, Shinji

Supporting

Nakaoka, Eiko

Supporting

Nakano, Seiko
Japanese

More staff
Staff

Macek, Carl

Producer, ADR Director

Masaki, Mori

Director, Theme Song Lyrics

Nakazawa, Keiji

Script, Original Creator

HARRY

Theme Song Performance

Edit Opening Theme

"Ima Sugu Ai ga Hoshii (今すぐ愛がほしい)" by HARRY

Edit Ending Theme

"Doko kara Kite Doko e Iku no Ka (どこから来てどこへ行くのか)" by HARRY

More reviewsReviews

Jul 22, 2008

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Archaeon (All reviews)

248 people found this review helpful

"I dug my father, sister and brother out of the ruins. Their skulls and other bones were intact. I thought humans became like that when they were burnt. When my mother's body was cremated however, there were very few bones. It made me shake with anger that the atomic bomb radiation deprived my mother, who had survived for 21 years, of even her bones. I vowed never to endure wars or atomic bombs"

(Taken from an interview with Nakazawa Keiji by Jonathan Clements.)

On Moday, August 6th, 1945, the US bomber Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb known as "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. read more

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Feb 23, 2019

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Optigisa (All reviews)

23 people found this review helpful

This movie talks about, shows and documents to the viewer the harsh reality of the Japanese people living in Hiroshima during the year of 1945. Now where have I seen this concept done before? That's right. This movie was so influential to the point where it influenced Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. When you influence a studio as illustrious as Ghibli, you must be doing something right at the very least. Barefoot Gen did many things right to say the least.

The movie opens up on a bright note, beginning with a father and his two boys, Gen, the protagonist of the movie, and Shinji, his younger brother. The opening of this movie is so positive to the point where I was bobbing my head to the catchy opening song, and thinking "Yup, this is definitely going downhill from here."

It begins off by showing us just how loyal some of the Japanese are to their country, they scream and shout "Banzai" before sending their fellow comrades off to fight the enemy, and then singing what is supposed to be the national anthem. It shows us how loyal the Japanese were to their country, to the point where they just aimlessly take orders, shouting and screaming, and then going off to face a bigger enemy where they could die at any given moment.

Gen and his little brother, like the children that they are, start singing the anthem as well when they hear it, hoping to also be heroes and contribute to their country too. Just like how typical children would act, not knowing of the dangers that await them beyond the horizon of their imaginations. They then become hungry after five seconds of singing and complain about how their bellies are void of delicious sweet potatoes. This shows us how kids have dreams and aspirations they want to fulfill, yet are too weak and immature to understand the hardships that come with life, and how heavy the weight of those aspirations really is.
We see how war brings so many struggles with it, the lack of water and food being a major one. It shows us how two strangers will hurt each other for a bowl of soup, and how even blood related brothers like Gen and Shinji wouldn't mind doing the same as well, just to shut their hunger up for a while.

This movie has a wonderful cast, and some heart warming scenes. A pregnant woman hugging her two kids, showing us how family is the best thing to have when a person is struggling during very hard times. Things start to go dark after the first alarm in the movie goes off though, as the movie starts to show us how everyone is equal in the eyes of the enemy. From small children to the elderly, nobody is safe from a bullet or two. The scene of a little girl dying serves to show two things: The first being how cruel war can be, even killing an innocent little girl who didn't do anything wrong. The second being to show the contrast between Gen and the others like his mother, and how immature Gen is compared to the rest of his elder family members. Here is where we start to see Gen's influence on the main character of Grave of the Fireflies, as Gen suggests to his mother that the enemy is just playing jokes on them, while the mother scolds him for such an ignorant statement, mentioning the little girl's death to show him how war is everything but a joke. Gen is very naive and does not want to be serious for once, he prefers to think lightly of his situation while everyone else is working hard. Though he actually does learn a lesson or two a couple scenes later, and he actually helps for once by bringing his mother some food, he is still naive, but he's helpful and willing to go to great lengths for his sick mother.

We get a scene showing us the father's perspective on why he hates the government. He hates them due to them being madmen and not stopping the war, and honestly I would not blame him, a guy who has children to feed, working all day to provide for them, I feel sad for him because he just wants what is right for his kids and other families that are suffering as well. After that scene, we see a plane start showing itself over the top of the city. When Gen sees the plane, he starts to joke about it, saying how it is a spy plane and is nothing to worry about. Oh boy was he wrong!!! We finally arrive at what I would say is one of the best scenes ever put to animation. How good was this scene... my God. How good it was at showing us how truly disturbing the Hiroshima bombing was. After the plane drops the nuclear bomb, we see some of the most bloody scenes ever put to animation, it's all the more terrifying when you realize this actually happened and was a real event that went down in history.

It's mind blowing how five seconds before this we had a happy family, where the sun was shining over normal looking, healthy people, and then we immediately turn 180 degrees. The family is no more, most of the citizens suffered extreme burns all over the body and died, and everything burned down to ashes. Literally the only positive thing was Gen's change in personality from a naive and immature boy to a man. He's amazing. The war does not affect him mentally like it did his mother and some other people. He is truly amazing. After seeing his beacon of hope die in front of his eyes, Gen finally realizes that he has to do everything in his power to fill his father's shoes.

We get to see Gen make relationships after the war, helping other people to earn some money for his mother and his new siblings. Listen, when I say every character gets development, I mean every one of them gets development, even a maggot infested brat does. The thing that kept me happy during all of this depressing movie was Gen's determination and strong will to help those around him, and how he matures throughout the movie.

This movie is an underrated masterpiece. After comparing this with Grave of the Fireflies, this wins in almost every category. The depiction of war in Barefoot Gen is much better and more terrifying than that of Grave of the Fireflies. The characters are all around way, way better than any of the characters in Grave of the Fireflies could imagine to be, an example being Gen getting much more development than the main character of Grave of the Fireflies. It ends on a good note even though it was very depressing, delivers not just one good message, but many (Never give up even when a nuclear bomb destroys your whole city, think about others who are also in need instead of just selfishly thinking about yourself, question the higher ups and don't aimlessly follow everything they say, never look back and always keep moving forward etc.)

It did everything right, it impressed me and exceeded my expectations by a long shot.

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Feb 13, 2015

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

literaturenerd (All reviews)

47 people found this review helpful

Overview:

Barefoot Gen is in my opinion one of the most underrated anime on this site. In the West, it is completely overshadowed by Grave of the Firefly, which is unfortunate because in many ways Gen is actually the superior film! In this review I will be not only looking at Gen, but comparing it to its much more famous and critically lauded brother Grave of the Firefly (Hotaru no Haka).

SPOILERS!

Pacing and characters:

Barefoot Gen opens by showing the main character, a little boy named Gen, along with his family. Gen has a little brother named Shinji, an elder sister Eiko, a father, and a mother who is currently in the late stages of pregnancy. Barefoot Gen shows the family trying to keep their chins up and appreciate the small joys left in life despite the food shortages and the looming danger of air raids. By spending more time showing happiness and cheerful character interactions than Firefly, it makes the impact of the tragedy even greater when it inevitably occurs. Barefoot Gen is roughly the same length as Firefly, but it feels much shorter, even though it is far more brutal in its portrayal of war. Even people that prefer Firefly over Gen would have to concede that Gen is a better paced film. It is long enough to feel for the characters and connect with them so that the tragedy is painful and horrible, but not so long that it overextends its narrative and drags.

The character Gen is based off the writer of the original Gen manga, who survived Hiroshima as a young boy. Some people criticize the realism of the characters because Gen stays so upbeat in the face of unimaginable tragedy, but that is exactly what he needed to do in order to survive. He wasn't able to stop and fully process the loss of his family when he was desperately looking for food to keep himself and his mother alive. This isn't unrealistic, but rather the human survival instinct kicking in. If Gen had pulled a Shinji Ikari, he wouldn't have lived to later tell this story to us! Gen's father is based loosely off the author's real father and is unique in that he dares to criticize the Japanese government for not surrendering when in 1945, it was clear Japan couldn't possibly win. The father character is strongly against the war, which reflects the attitude of both the author and his real life father. Later Gen meets another little boy named Ryota who I admit brings some tone jarring slapstick out of nowhere. The only area where haters of this film may have a point is that Barefoot Gen does suffer from some SERIOUS mood whiplash. It shows one of the most brutal sequences ever animated in one scene, but has Ryota and Gen roughhousing and laughing about 10 minutes later.

Art:

Animation is a visual medium of storytelling, so it is better to show than to tell. Barefoot Gen shows the horrors of nuclear war better than perhaps any other movie ever made be it animated or no. I'm serious! The horrible brutality of melting eyeballs, scorched flesh, maggot infested wounds, and all the stages of radiation poisoning are captured accurately and with an unflinching eye. Barefoot Gen is NOT a good movie to show little kids. The art style is curiously juvenile in order to create a sharp contrast between Gen's innocence and the horrors of war. Although I see what Barefoot Gen was trying to do, this art style choice may not work for everyone to portray such scenes of carnage. Grave of the Fireflies is a much more polished, larger budget, and better animated film. However, I give Gen the edge here for daring to show in full detail just why nuclear weapons are so horrible and morally unacceptable.

Themes and Politics:

Roger Ebert said that Grave of the Fireflies was one of the greatest anti-war films ever made, and since then American critics have viewed it in that light. However, the writer of Firefly explicitly stated it is NOT an anti-war film saying war in general is bad. He merely wished to show Japanese children the suffering and injustice that Americans did to Japan. He also wished Firefly to act as an Aesop's fable to tell the unruly Japanese youth of the 1980s to obey and tolerate adults. Japanese audiences were supposed to take away the message that if Seta had put up with his bitchy aunt, he and his sister would have lived. That was the main moral of the movie! Rather than an "anti war" masterpiece, Firefly is a preachy "Obey adults you little brats" film that is extremely anti-American and perpetuates the narrative that Japan was entirely a victim during WW2 to a new generation of Japanese youth. Barefoot Gen on the other hand actually IS an anti-war film that wishes to show that war is suffering, death, and evil. Barefoot Gen shows a balanced view of the war and shows both the innocence of Japanese civilians and the callous cruelty of the Japanese WW2 government, who is just as criticized in the film as the Americans. The reason Firefly lays all blame on the Americans and never says a word of condemnation for the WW2 Japan government is because the writer of Firefly had no qualms with the WW2 Japanese government, unlike the writer of Gen. In terms of themes and politics, it was GEN that deserved our praise all along, NOT Firefly!

Ending:

The last major difference between Gen and Firefly is how they choose to end. Firefly ends with soul crushing depression and all the characters dying. The beautiful Japanese Empire has been crushed and all good is gone from the world. The characters are all dead, so they don't have to learn how to move on and rebuild towards a better future. Gen despite the film's extreme brutality ends with a note of optimism. Wheat is shown growing even though American scientists predicted that nothing would grow in Hiroshima for 70 years. The character Gen must learn like all those who survived the war to deal with the extreme loss and tragedy, as well as build a better Japan from the ashes. Gen doesn't just lament the beauty that was lost, but asks for such carnage to not be repeated again while working to build a better world. The endings are different because the 2 films have VASTLY different messages, but I must say I strongly prefer Gen's ending.

Overall: 9/10

Gen may have a few minor flaws, such as a juvenile animation style that some may feel clashes with its explicit portrayal of brutality. Others may dislike the tone shift between the lighthearted scenes and tragic scenes that occur very shortly one after another. I however, think that Gen is an overlooked gem that deserves FAR more praise than it receives in the West. All the praise that was showered on Grave of the Firefly in my opinion should rightfully go to Gen, the superior film!

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Dec 2, 2011

1 of 1 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 10

Donwun (All reviews)

28 people found this review helpful

Note: In this review I will be talking about both Barefoot Gen (1983) & Barefoot Gen 2 (1986) in every respect even though there is a 3 year gap in production between the two movies I don’t really feel there is much of a difference with anything in particular. In many ways both films would have worked better a single release. This would have made more sense as the two movies address two different aspects of the given situation. Also considering the subject matter is quite difficult for many to digest I actually feel having the two films separate has hindered the second movie.

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Hadashi no Gen

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