Amazon.com
Keiji Nakazawa attracted widespread attention in 1973, when he published the first installment of his semiautobiographical manga (comics), Barefoot Gen. Nakazawa was 6 years old in August 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Most of his family was killed in the blast, and the artist survived through sheer luck. Nakazawa's continuing story now fills seven volumes (nearly 2,000 pages). In addition to two animated features (also written by Nakazawa), three live-action films and an opera have been based on Gen.
Nakazawa's alter ego, Gen Nakaoka is on his way to school when the bomb detonates. He makes his way back to his home through hellish scenes of ruined buildings, corpses, and hideously mutilated survivors. Although his family is still alive, Gen and his pregnant mother are unable to free his father, sister, and brother from the rubble of their house and must leave them to burn to death. His mother goes into labor during their flight and his new sister is born amid the devastation. Holding the infant, Gen tells her to remember the horrors, so that they never occur again.
Barefoot Gen is completely unlike the musical fairy tales and slapstick comedies Americans associate with animation, but its powerful antiwar message has won admiration around the world. Barefoot Gen II follows the character through the early days of the postwar era. --Charles Solomon
Description
Gen is a cheerful elementary school student living in Japan during World War II. After years of living with difficult wartime rationing and impoverished conditions, Gen and his family have managed to maintain a relatively normal and happy life. All that is about to change when an atomic bomb destroys their city in an instant. While Gen and his mother manage to survive the attack, the rest of their family is not so lucky. In the face of adversity, Gen manages to maintain his cheerful spirit and never loses hope that things will get better for him, and for the entire nation of Japan. Selected as one of the five best Japanese animation movies - Time Magazine
Customer Reviews:
war is hell...on children and other living things.......2007-07-04
i have read all four volumes of "barefoot gen",and i must say, i was moved
to tears.in my own life i have experienced war(vietnam 4/67-1068)and seen with my own eyes the havoc it can wreck on human beings.i was changed by the war in vietnam...i was set on the path to healing by "barefoot gen".i
highly reccomend the books as opposed to the anime.i found the dvd version
to be not nearly as hard hitting.as much as i looked forward to seeing the
animated "barefoot gen",i was in the end a little disappointed to say the
least.however,it has its good points!it is a good way to introduce the idea of nuclear war and holocaust to very young children.if it was as graphic as the books it would undoubtedly give them "nuclear nightmares".
those are not just words,i began having nightmares of nuclear war as a child in the early fifties after viewing a film simulation of the Hiroshima bombing.and they continue to this day."barefoot gen" is one of the most powerful anti war stories ever told.make no mistake about that.
read for yourself and you will see what i mean.thank you for this opportunity to express myself.arigato.
Japanese Anime.......2007-03-29
Excellent movie to show kids from middle school to high school. The anime is graphic but poignant. Gives the other sides view on a awesome event in history.
Barefoot Gen.......2006-05-03
very good movie based on keiji nakazawa'a experience of the A-bomb on hiroshima and he wrote this,I read three of the four graphic novels I didn't read the fourth until way after I saw the movie,I wondered why Koji and Akira weren't in the movie.I liked the characters Gen,shinji and ryuta
Painful Masterpiece.......2005-07-08
A powerful and haunting movie showing animation can go where other artforms fear to tread.
an educational anime.......2005-06-12
I expected to see some deamons, naked girls, blood, hear profanity but Barefoot Gen has none of those things. It deals with a 6 year old kid back in World War 2 when a big bomb hit japan killing most of his family. Gen was on his way back from school one day and saw ruining building from the blast. That's about all I will give away.
Amazon.com
Keiji Nakazawa attracted widespread attention in 1973, when he published the first installment of his semiautobiographical manga (comics), Barefoot Gen. Nakazawa was 6 years old in August 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Most of his family was killed in the blast, and the artist survived through sheer luck. Nakazawa's continuing story now fills seven volumes (nearly 2,000 pages). In addition to two animated features (also written by Nakazawa), three live-action films and an opera have been based on Gen.
Nakazawa's alter ego, Gen Nakaoka is on his way to school when the bomb detonates. He makes his way back to his home through hellish scenes of ruined buildings, corpses, and hideously mutilated survivors. Although his family is still alive, Gen and his pregnant mother are unable to free his father, sister, and brother from the rubble of their house and must leave them to burn to death. His mother goes into labor during their flight and his new sister is born amid the devastation. Holding the infant, Gen tells her to remember the horrors, so that they never occur again.
Barefoot Gen is completely unlike the musical fairy tales and slapstick comedies Americans associate with animation, but its powerful antiwar message has won admiration around the world. Barefoot Gen II follows the character through the early days of the postwar era. --Charles Solomon
Description
Drawn from writer Keiji Nakazawa's true life experiences in the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, Barefoot Gen tells the story of one family's struggle to survive against overwhelming odds. Six-year-old Gen has lived practically his entire life in the shadow of war. Yet he is not prepared for the horrors which follow the bombing of Hiroshima. Contains scenes of extreme violence; reccomended for mature audiences.
Customer Reviews:
war is hell...on children and other living things.......2007-07-04
i have read all four volumes of "barefoot gen",and i must say, i was moved
to tears.in my own life i have experienced war(vietnam 4/67-1068)and seen with my own eyes the havoc it can wreck on human beings.i was changed by the war in vietnam...i was set on the path to healing by "barefoot gen".i
highly reccomend the books as opposed to the anime.i found the dvd version
to be not nearly as hard hitting.as much as i looked forward to seeing the
animated "barefoot gen",i was in the end a little disappointed to say the
least.however,it has its good points!it is a good way to introduce the idea of nuclear war and holocaust to very young children.if it was as graphic as the books it would undoubtedly give them "nuclear nightmares".
those are not just words,i began having nightmares of nuclear war as a child in the early fifties after viewing a film simulation of the Hiroshima bombing.and they continue to this day."barefoot gen" is one of the most powerful anti war stories ever told.make no mistake about that.
read for yourself and you will see what i mean.thank you for this opportunity to express myself.arigato.
Japanese Anime.......2007-03-29
Excellent movie to show kids from middle school to high school. The anime is graphic but poignant. Gives the other sides view on a awesome event in history.
Barefoot Gen.......2006-05-03
very good movie based on keiji nakazawa'a experience of the A-bomb on hiroshima and he wrote this,I read three of the four graphic novels I didn't read the fourth until way after I saw the movie,I wondered why Koji and Akira weren't in the movie.I liked the characters Gen,shinji and ryuta
Painful Masterpiece.......2005-07-08
A powerful and haunting movie showing animation can go where other artforms fear to tread.
an educational anime.......2005-06-12
I expected to see some deamons, naked girls, blood, hear profanity but Barefoot Gen has none of those things. It deals with a 6 year old kid back in World War 2 when a big bomb hit japan killing most of his family. Gen was on his way back from school one day and saw ruining building from the blast. That's about all I will give away.
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DVD
DVD
Geneon
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Barefoot Gen Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima
Grave of the Fireflies
Barefoot Gen Volume Two: The Day After
Barefoot Gen Volume Three: Life After the Bomb
Barefoot Gen Volume Four: Out of the Ashes
