Grave of the Fireflies/Trivia

Trivia

 * The film was originally intended as a sort of front act of another Ghibli movie, My Neighbor Totoro. Ghibli's parent company reasoned that Totoro's tie-in with a movie with more educational merit would guarantee its inclusion in the list of summer's recommended films for schoolchildren.
 * In commercial terms, the theatrical release was a failure. While the two films were marketed toward children and their parents, the extremely depressing nature of Grave of the Fireflies turned away most audiences.
 * Appropriately aged children were cast in the roles of Seita and Setsuko, however at first, producers felt the 5 year old girl portraying Setsuko was too young. Because of her age, instead of completing the animation first and recording her voice to run parallel with the animation as with other characters in the film, they recorded her dialogue first and completed the animation afterward. The animators were not used to this way of working, which is why her lips are hardly seen.