An air raid leaves fourteen-year-old Seita and his younger sister Setsuko without their mother in wartime Japan. After shelter with a relative breaks down, he tries to provide for them both. Food, safety and small moments of comfort become urgent daily concerns.
Seita is still a child when he takes responsibility for a four-year-old. An abandoned shelter can offer a place to stay without supplying what they need to live. Isao Takahata's adaptation of Akiyuki Nosaka's story keeps that unequal burden of care at the centre of the siblings' situation.
The burning street gives Seita's responsibility a physical weight. He carries Setsuko on his back while flames rise from the buildings behind them; neither child occupies the protected distance of an observer. The city around the pair is already changing the immediate choices of where to go and what can be carried.