Grave of the Fireflies

Coming up to christmas so I have been adding to my collection of full length Studio Ghibi anime movies.

This, possibly the bleakest anime Studio Ghibi have put out is based on an semi-autobiographical novel by Akyluki Nosaka tells the story of two Japanese children Seita aged 14 and his four year old sister Setsuko struggling to survive in war torn Japan with daily American bombing raids and napalm being dropped.
Their mother was killed on a raid on air raid shelter while their father, enrolled in the Japanese Navy remains unknown, they are left to fend for themselves as best they can and even a brief period being looked after by an elderly aunt who is very cold and distant proves no salvation, they set up home in an abandoned air raid shelter.
For a period this brings a sense of peace and solitude as they enjoy watching the fireflies keeping them company, the increasingly worsening situation with its food rationing , Seita finds it an increasing struggle to feed himself and Setsuko to keep them both alive.