The story for the first half of the movie is just a slice-of-life glimpse into the everyday of a normal Japanese family. It gets more suspenseful as you know what's bound to happen any day and that their peace will be interrupted. This is when you really get to bond with the family members. Then it slowly starts to get darker and darker. History unfolds. It never gets too graphic. I think this movie would be safe to watch with a child.
The art is wonderful. I wasn't able to watch it in a very high resolution, but I think that suited it just fine and didn't distract too much from the beautiful backgrounds and character animation.
I didn't notice much music during most of the movie but when you do hear it it's beautiful. Especially the song that plays during the end credits.
The characters really shine in this movie. It's very entertaining to just watch this family live their lives together. You develop a connection with each of them. That's what makes the sad moments of this movie really hit. When the characters remember the times when life used to be normal, you remember too, and you wish with them that they could go back. I definitely had to hold back tears while watching this.
Overall, I liked this movie a lot. I think it's atypical even among anime war films, because of how much time is dedicated to the normal, instead of jumping right into the war. I would say it's under recognized for sure, and can hold its own very well against other great anime war films such as Grave of the Fireflies and Hadashi no Gen (two others I also greatly enjoyed and reccommend).
This is a movie you won't forget and you won't regret.
