The in class showing was the first time that I had ever even heard of Barefoot Gen. I was intrigued by the story but didn't fully understand what I was watching until about half-way through. I enjoyed the pairing of this film with Maus by Art Spiegelman. It was really fascinating to compare to pieces of graphic narrative that were not only about the same time period but were also biographical/autobiographical. Though not exactly about the same event, they were about atrocities against humans by other humans.
The film starts us off by meeting Gen and his family. They are in an uncertain situation; food is an extreme issue because of rationing and because his mother is pregnant with a fourth child. Though there is some issues for the family, for the most part they are happy and all seems right with the world. Until one night when a plane flies over and they must get into a bomb shelter. At that point I would begin to understand the situation and what would happen.
HOWEVER, I was not prepared when the bomb was dropped. The visual style was fairly light hearted until that happened. When it was dropped, not only did the tone of the story change but the depictions of what happens to a person in a nuclear blast were extremely factual and detailed. I was caught way off guard especially in the morning class! This amount of realism brought me back to the truth of what happened to these people. It was really interesting to see the transitions between the life of Gen and then the horrors of the fallout/war.
This was a great follow up to Maus to show how comics/cartoons/anime can talk about legitimate issues in a genuine and meaningful way. I look forward to eventually watching Grave of the Fireflies to also compare with these two pieces.
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