Wow, It's So Delicious

Wow, it's so delicious 😺😅

Not to be a killjoy (though it is what I do best) but the unsafe and rough handling of a baby Pygmy hippo in a pretty substandard Thai zoo being meme-ed into something funny and cute really shows just how much groupthink plays into public perception of animal welfare.

Moo Deng shows avoidance, threat displays and stress around her keepers that are constantly man-handling her, blasting her with a hose and harassing her. The enclosure is mostly concrete, which is horrible for her soft feet. There looks to be some substrate but there doesn’t seem to be any areas for wallowing or deep water wading.

There’s also very easy access of this hippo to the public with no places to hide. I’d love if someone could shed more light on the enclosures but from what I’ve seen it’s not great.

Also the free contact and forcing into tubs that the keepers do is only going to create an avoidant and potentially aggressive and dangerous Pygmy hippo.

But the public happily overlook that because she’s cute. It’s a similar attitude with seals too.

Stop rewarding bad husbandry with clout. Baby animals deserve agency and respect and to grow up without getting harassed and feeling the need to defend themselves constantly.

Part 2 of Ghibli studio movies I watched recently.

2. Grave of the fireflies.

Movies about individuals suffering through war always make my spirit wrench. With its great animation and plot Grave of the Fireflies takes a journey which almost made me cry and gets so much worse when you find out that the author who based it on his own life wrote the book as an apology to his sister.

You know how it ends from the first scene, knowing from the first scene didn't make it less impactful the death of Setsuko just took my heart and stomped it but the struggle they live throughout the movie and the hope they develop for each small victory is devastating.

ಥ_ಥ

I've read that the movie is commonly seen as an anti-war film, but that both the director nor the author of the book on which it is based did not aim at that.

On the director's intent:

Director Takahata repeatedly denied that the film was an anti-war anime. In his own words, "[The film] is not at all an anti-war anime and contains absolutely no such message."

The message seems to be that Seita had his romanticized image of him and his sister vs the world which was unrealistic. He needed to see that caring for Setsuko and providing what was best for her meant spending time finding work and helping around his aunt's house, not spending all of his time with Setsuko and being her personal hero. But because he didn't do this he was being selfish by resigning himself in his boundless love for his sister and withdrawing from the world. When his sister dies from malnutrition it is because he refused to see that he couldn't provide her enough food even when he was reduced to stealing. It seems implied that if he'd returned to his aunt, apologized, and just started doing whatever work around the house or out of it he could find, they would have been taken care of and Setsuko would have survived.

But another way of seeing this is Seita is a 12-year-old boy who made a bad decision while in a situation that no 12-year-old boy should ever be in. He was placed in that crisis because of the war. He was trying to survive the way he knew how, and psychologically he must have been so traumatized.

While Grave of the Fireflies is punishing, it is not relentless. There are short, beautiful interludes in this film, serving to remind us that even in life’s most dire moments, we are still capable of experiencing joy and wonder. But these bursts are fleeting, and as the story heads towards its emotionally shattering conclusion, they only make what is to come even more unbearable.

Among the strongest statements that Grave of the Fireflies has to offer is that optimism is often a luxury. Life will have its way with us one way or another, whether we deserve it or not. What makes the film such an influential piece of work is the sense of foreboding that hangs over Seita and Setsuko at all times. The human spirit can be boundless, but it can also only take so much.

The firefly became a haunting symbol of the film as it represents both the deadly fire bombs that wrecked the children's city but as well as an icon of hope and perseverance.

This film will always be a reminder to the post-war generation about the atrocities of war even if it wasn't meant to. The innocence of Setsuko was crushed by the cruelty of war. I love this film with its carnage and small moments of beauty, which makes the carnage all the more heartbreaking and will always have a place in my heart.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

grave of the fireflies (1988)

This masterpiece of a film was absolutely devastating to watch for the first time, and it was no less devastating watching it again. The animation is absolutely amazing, and I feel like it is the most realistic style that is seen from Studio Ghibli, especially because it is unusually not set in fantasy.

Grave of the Fireflies can be read as anti-war, but it seems to use the war as a backdrop. The film focuses on how innocent lives were affected by the war, especially as it focuses on two kids. Seita's pride seemed to be his downfall in the end, as he does not come back to his aunt. His aunt's abuses were not easy to bear, and her words held the bleakness of his and Setsuko's life. It seemed like he refused to see how much they were suffering, just like how Japan overlooked the suffering of thousands of its people. He lived off scraps and in the cave, barely sustaining himself and Setsuko and resorting to thievery to keep them afloat. It is this that solidified my understanding that Seita represents Imperial Japan. Giving up and turning back was NEVER an option to Seita, and despite the multiple opportunities he had to save himself and Setsuko, he never took them and it led to the unthinkable happening.

Visuals that I will never forget is the way the bombs that floated from the distant planes resembled the fireflies that were throughout the film. Fireflies are a big motif in the film, as the beauty of them is tragic because it is so short lived. It reminds us of Setsuko's death.

Moreover, the ending scenes of the movie are just brilliant. When we cut to a scene of teenage girls coming back home after Japan's surrender, and then we are shown how Setsuko bides her time alone without her brother, we see a life that would've awaited Setsuko had she lived. We watched Setsuko like the fireflies, admiring the beauty in her innocence and mourning how brief her life was. It's gut wrenching to watch her all alone. The very end seems to speak to the audience directly, as we view Seita and Setsuko in the afterlife and he lets her sleep, looking at the camera with an almost accusatory expression. His face seemed to say: "look what you've done."

As we get a shot of modern Japan in front of the siblings, we are reminded of how Japan viewed the senseless deaths of the war: a sacrifice for the reconstruction of their nation.