Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン Hadashi no Gen?) is a Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins 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.
Barefoot Gen is a war drama anime based on the Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Directed by Mori Masaki and released in 1983, it depicts World War II in Japan from a child's point of view revolving around the events surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and the main character's first hand experience of the bomb.
Barefoot Gen 2 is a 1986 Japanese action drama anime film following the 1983 Barefoot Gen animated movie, loosely based on the Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa.
Three years after the Hiroshima bombing, Gen and his adopted brother, Ryuta, befriend a group of orphans. A fierce typhoon hits the city, leaving the orphans' home flooded and beyond repair. Gen helps them build a new home on an abandoned piece of property, and brings love and encouragement to one of the children whose face has been badly scarred by radiation. Gen's mother, though, has only four more months to live...
In the filmic adaptation of Nakazawa Keiji's manga Barefoot Gen, the film director Mamoru Shinzaki used a variety of visual strategies to convey the unimaginable power of the atomic explosion that pulverized Hiroshima. Here I identify, describe, and analyze some of these strategies.
The first visual strategy that was used was how the people were going about their day to day activities. Like Gen going off to school and meeting up to talk to a friend, how Gen’s little brother was sitting and playing with his new boat, and how there was an image of some people waiting for a train. Everyone was doing their normal routines and going about their everyday life when it just hit. No warning, the siren didn’t even go off. It went from normal to terror. This shows viewers how something so terrible can just happen without knowing. These people weren’t in the military, they were civilians.
The sound was an efficient way to convey atmosphere. The normality of life happening and then an instant of silence which slowly comes back to the sounds of distress and panic. The gradual return of sound after the silence is similar to what is described during shell shock.
The use of the black and white dominating the frames in-place of the color that was used normally throughout the movie gave a dramatic contrast to the people and the environments. Adding a surreal feeling to the confusion and shock of the characters in the film. The blinding, intense light coming from the explosion would have distorted the environments and the visual sense that the people would experience would also have had a surreal feeling.
On the same note of light, it bathed the large buildings and other structures in white blinding light that was intensified at the edges of the objects. This was to created the visual effect of the objects becoming smaller and smaller as they eventually dissolve into nothing. Disintegrating all of the buildings in the ground zero area. This gave an idea of how powerful the physical blast of the bomb was.
The slow motion of the events during the moments when the bomb first detonated to the few seconds after was very dramatic. Because everything happened so quickly in reality, slowing down the film to catch all of the details of what happened during those first few seconds was very insightful to the horrors.
Most of all, the extremely graphic images of the people at ground zero melting and disintegrating in a matter of an instant, emphasized by the slow motion movements of the people. The skin of the people turning red, their bodies melting, including their eyeballs melting and dripping from their sockets. These images may be the strongest visual strategy to show the horrific effects of the bomb. Also after the first part of the aftermath, Gen goes towards his home and sees people coming away from the direction of the bomb. The people resemble what our society would see as zombie-esque creatures. The people are melting, their skin dripping off of their bodies, again, eyeballs dripping from their skulls, shards of glass sticking out of them, and other manners of grotesque deformities walking forward. Some with their arms stretched outward, walking haphazardly and almost lifelike away from the worst of the damage.
On another line of thought, the portray of the American’s flying the Enola Gay over Hiroshima right before the bomb was dropped was very unique. The animation of the Americans was in a completely different style of drawing. The image was obscure, less detailed, less color, and with more contrast. They were given a foreboding mysterious atmosphere within the short time that they were shown in the film.
Nakazawa Keiji's creation of the manga, and the director of the film, Mamoru Shinzaki not only used many types of “visual strategies to convey the unimaginable power of the atomic explosion” but also used many strategies throughout the film to convey what happened in the overall situation of the bombing and the afterward. This subject is very difficult because of its nature and emotional effects. In attempt to portray such an event, Nakazawa Keiji and Mamoru Shinzaki used the following to deliver this story.
Much of the content in the film is from a child’s perspective, Gen. Children are not able to understand the entirety of the situation. Certain social norms are not always observed, such as attempting to take or rather steal the carp for their malnourished pregnant mother, or after the bomb had detonated, when Gen says something along the lines of “why doesn’t everyone be quite so I can sleep.” Also adding the lightheartedness of playing with siblings or making jokes, comic relief.
The film centers around one particular family. Specifically how they were affected and how they coped with various trials created by this event. This helps to cut down on the overwhelming about of tragic events that are happening to everyone due to the main event of the bomb. This also connects the viewer to these people, who then become more that just those people, but this family that was affected. With a closer connection, it is more difficult for the viewer to distance themself from the event. The viewer still sees a general overlook of what is happening to others, like when Gen transports the radiation sick man to the hospital and the viewers see the calamities of what the doctors are trying to deal with. However, the specific events like when Gen’s little sister dies because she didn’t get enough milk, these are important events to the family, and effects of the war that has brought famine.
There was a parable in the beginning of the film about wheat. Gen’s Father says “Look at it boys, its life begins in the coldest season of the year. The rain pounds it, the wind blows it, its crushed beneath peoples feet, but still the wheat spreads its roots and grows. It survives. ” Later after the bombing and towards the end of the film, Gen’s “adopted” little brother comes across some wheat growing in a field and this reminds Gen of what his father had said. This then gives hope to Gen and creates a comparison between the nature of the wheat and of the Japanese people.
The narrator was an important way to convey information. He gave factual information about what was going on in the war that the main characters did not know. Such as the dates and times surrounding the bomb, the name of the plane, Enola Gay, and the number of Japanese that perished during the event.
Barefoot Gen, though animated, gave a very unique and detailed account for the bombing of Hiroshima and the afterward devastation. The perspective was unique and important in understanding the issues and tragedies of the event.
Barefoot Gen DVD Cover:
Barefoot Gen 2 DVD Cover:
Barefoot Gen Full Film Dubbed:
Barefoot Gen 2 Full Film Subbed:
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