Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen, known in Japan as Hadashi no Gen (はだしのゲン) is a manga novel written and illustrated by Keiji Nakazawa. It takes place in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by atomic bombing, Gen and other survivors are left to deal with the aftermath. The story is loosely based on Nakazawa's own experience as a Hiroshima survivor.

Hadashi no Gen was originally serialized beginning in 1973 in the mass-market manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump (Shukan Shonen Jampu), which had earlier published Nakazawa's autobiographical Hiroshima story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"). It was cancelled after a year and a half, and moved to three other less widely distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyoron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyoiku Hyoron (Educational Criticism). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975. A volunteer organization, Project Gen, formed in 1976 to produce English translations, which were released in four volumes.

There have been several film adaptations:

• In 1976 Tengo Yamada directed a live-action version.
• Two animated films were based on the manga, Barefoot Gen (1982) and Barefoot Gen 2 (1983), both directed by Mori Masaki for a production company that Nakazawa founded.

The Anime

Barefoot Gen

Plot Summary

The story begins with the everyday life of Gen and his younger brother Senji during the second World War. It shows the struggle to find food and points out that Hiroshima has not been bombed unlike the other cities. When the bomb drops there is a long sequence of the immediate horrors of the bomb and the death of all of Gens family apart from him an his mother. The film then focuses on the struggle to find food for Gen's mother who has given birth and milk for the baby. They eventually rebuild a version of their house and adopt a boy similar to Gen's brother. The baby dies later from malnutrition. The film ends with plants growing inspite predictions that there would be no food for sixty years.

Style

Despite the serious subject matter of this anime, the animation style is very childish in comparison to other films. Often action, dialogue and the images are almost impressionistic to add to the impact of the film. The falling of the bomb is shown first from the american point of veiw which is very orderly and impassive. Then, when the bomb explodes, the veiw is from the japanese showing powerful images of people being vapourised, buildings exploing and multi-color explosions.

Influences

This film influenced the anime "Grave of the Fireflies" which is also about survival during World War II but differs from this film considerably in style.

Barefoot Gen 2

Plot Summary

Set three years after the the bomb fell, this film focuses on the continuing survival of Gen and orphans in Hiroshima.