Grave Of Fireflies: [portable]

Watch it once, in Japanese with subtitles (the voice acting for Setsuko is legendary). Do watch it as a double feature with My Neighbor Totoro . Have tissues ready. After finishing, the best coping mechanism is to read about the real-life author’s guilt (he lost his sister to starvation, just like Seita) to understand why he wrote it as a "ghost story."

The fireflies in the film aren’t just beautiful summer lights. They’re symbols — of fleeting life, of innocence burning out too fast. When Setsuko digs a grave for the dead fireflies she so lovingly collected, she asks, “Why do fireflies have to die so soon?” We feel the crushing irony: she might as well be asking about herself. Grave of fireflies