The saddest and most harrowing movie Studio Ghibli has ever made is coming to Netflix, making it widely available to traumatize an entirely new generation of people. Directed by Isao Takahata, the other half of Ghibli’s creative genius, “Grave of the Fireflies” is based on the 1967 short story of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka and follows two siblings and war orphans in their struggle to survive in the final months of WWII.
“Grave of the Fireflies” is widely considered to be a masterpiece. It’s one of only two perfect war movies and just four perfect anime movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also one of those movies everyone should watch once, but only once (much like “The Deer Hunter”) because of how sad it is. Now, you can show it to kids when it joins Netflix on September 16, 2024.
Part of the appeal of “Grave of the Fireflies” is that it is part of Ghibli’s own Barbenheimer, as the movie was released the same day as “My Neighbor Totoro,” as a double feature. It simply makes sense — you have a harrowing movie about the horrors of war, and then a whimsical adventure with a cute beast that loves the rain.Â
However, as great as it is that Netflix viewers will be able to see this movie, especially international subscribers who now have access to all of Studio Ghibli’s films, it’s also a major blow for the current U.S. holder of Ghibli streaming rights: Max.
Where can you stream Studio Ghibli’s films?
Studio Ghibli films, much like The Beatles albums, were long unavailable digitally. It wasn’t until 2019 that GKIDS made the Ghibli catalog available to purchase digitally, and until 2020 that the movies became available to stream in the United States when HBO Max signed an exclusive deal for the catalog’s streaming rights. The only movie missing from the catalog was “Grave of the Fireflies,” a movie whose licensing rights were held by Sentai Filmworks despite the film being made by Studio Ghibli.
Still, it was a big deal for HBO Max, allowing it to join the anime front of the streaming wars. While every other major streamer has exclusive seasonal titles (Netflix, Hulu/Disney+, and even Prime Video), HBO Max had the entire Ghibli library (almost) as well as titles from its partnership with Crunchyroll, including the first season of “Jujutsu Kaisen.” Unfortunately that partnership ended when AT&T sold Crunchyroll and those titles were removed from the treamer. Given how the David Zaslav-led Warner Bros. Discovery has not prioritized animation but actively hurt the studio’s long history with the medium, it’s not a surprise that Netflix got the rights to this Ghibli classic.
Though the Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron” is streaming on Max, will the streamer renew the licensing deal? Or will things go the way so many other animation titles at Warner Bros. have gone in recent years? Netflix is already making deals with both Crunchyroll and GKIDS (they’re streaming both “Suzume” and “The First Slam Dunk”), so how long until they swoop up the U.S. streaming rights for the rest of the Ghibli catalog? Would Max even care?
Anyway, to reiterate: “Grave of the Fireflies” will debut on Netflix on September 16, 2024.
