CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Irishchatter As this anime was set in the "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Who's left behind?" era, this actually gives us a more extreme and a realistic approach of how an atomic bomb could just rip bodies into pieces within seconds. I honestly was pretty much speechless and felt I could just scream with horror coming out of my mouth. AIlthough i dont think people around me would appreciate it lol! Seriously though, I can only imagine what the screams sounded like and the cries of survivors searching for their loved ones. Ill tell ya, war is the worst decision that man has ever done and like there were no winners here.All I can say folks about this anime, that it is very hard to watch like i don't know how I go through it all but I guess, we have to remember what happened during that time and reflect how this kind of thing shouldn't have happened in the first case. May those who have perished during that time, rest in peace. You will not be forgotten <3

lpgal9000 I will admit that I did not like the style of animation that was going on, but the characters were so charming that I wanted to see what happened next. I knew already that this movie was about the Hiroshima bombing, but when they showed the bombing in action, it was so tragic, I teared up and felt so sad for the women, the men, and especially the children and babies that had to endure such suffering. It is quite detailed, it shocked me as to how detailed it was considering the animation. The deaths of the father, daughter, and youngest son was also very tragic and shocking. You'd think "they're not going to die, they're going to live and somehow find a way to survive all this" - but sadly this was not the case. The mother's reaction to their deaths seemed quite realistic and disturbing, but she was able to snap out of it for her son's sake. The birth of the daughter was sweet and brought back a smile on my face, making me think "there it is, the hope we all want to see" but her death too was very sad and tragic. The movie isn't too long, but the amount of time spent with Gen makes you like him more and more throughout the film.This movie is very much recommended for those who are interested in the Hiroshima bombing and the aftermath. This is not a kids film.

Hamish Kearvell Barefoot Gen is the autobiographical story of manga artist, Keiji Nakazawa and his experience during the times of the Hiroshima bombings in 1942. What ensues is something so unbelievable, so gritty, so real, it will change your life forever.The film is adapted as an anime from Keiji's short manga series depicting all that he experienced just at the age of six when the bombings hit. His story truly is one of the most amazing things you will ever hear. Nothing else in film has ever captured the effects of the bombings in such a real and emotional way. It shows the viewers what really did happen and what we were never told. It shows us how real the bombings really were as we follow Gen through his struggle for survival during Japan's darkest hours.If you haven't seen this film, you are missing out. While the film does not hold back on the gritty details, and what happens to the people of Japan throughout the whole of the film is very horrifying, you cannot miss this film due to these aspects. It's these things that make it so real and it would be a tragedy to ignore this film. It opened my eyes to what really went down in Hiroshima and I almost felt personally affected. During my whole time watching this film, I kept finding myself in disbelief that something like this actually occurred in our history, and recently at that. I mean, a whole society was rebuilt on the effects of the bombings and once again shows us how very, very wrong war is. One of the best films I have ever seen.9.5/10 Hamish Kearvell A.K.A Screaming Japan Productions - www.myspace.com/screamingjapanproductions

iamnotazombie Sequels are always billed to be inferior to their predecessors and animé is no different - animé can potentially knock out endless sequels each one worse than the next, because of this my expectations were that this film was only going to be a shadow compared to the excellence of its prequel. I believed that once the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima not a great deal could happen in this film, thankfully I was wrong. Barefoot Gen was centred around the suffering caused by the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima, and the immediate after affects caused by the disease caused by the nuclear fallout (Pika), that was emotionally ravaging enough, but this sequel builds further upon the effects of the bomb drop, its expands its critical claw further to how people are affected in the long term. Issues such as: the brutality, bullying and negligence of occupying forces; the long term affects and the slow death that Pika brings; children being orphaned and hated by the community for the deaths of their parents. All are done well and it could be argued to be one of the great contemporary anti-war films - along with grave of the fireflies. These films, whether left as Sequel and Original or if they are converged into a singular entity they are both incredibly emotionally harrowing as was intended when Keiji Nakazawa wrote that Manga which this was adapted from. Regardless of the strength of the sequel, the original is probably more horrifying and emotionally crippling, one scene in particular is the moment when Gen goes back to his house to see his younger brother, whom the director and indeed writer (Nakazawa) has masterfully created a beautiful relationship between the two, is trapped inside the house, not yet dead but in his last moment, that scene is amongst the most beautiful and heart wrenching I have ever seen in my 22 years that I've been around for. It's also amazing how a film which evokes sadness through the characters on screen merely crying can be so upsetting, again I can't emphasise the excellence of both the story and the direction (in this sense). I'll make no bones of it, this film is grim; the story is a thing that I could never forgot due to the horrifying nature of the power that the American military holds and the horrific nature of the very event the film is depicting in itself. Yet the beauty of this film is that it shows people in the most extreme conditions not being beaten down by their conditions, it shows the power of human nature: their city has been all but turned to dust, the survivors were beyond lucky to survive but regardless of that they are slowly being picked off by 'Pika' but the protagonists are always laughing and smiling, trying not to let their circumstances get the better of them, which by and large throughout the film excluding the more emotional parts of the film(s). To summarise, this easily, in my opinion at the very least, goes down in history when you coalesce parts one and two together as one of the best war, and anti-war films – or dare I say propaganda films- ever made. A must see animated classic that deserves place in all DVD collections.