Its initial theatrical release was accompanied by Hayao Miyazaki's much more lighthearted My Neighbor Totoro as a double feature.Wow. Having a hard time wrapping my head around that one. For an American audience it would be like pairing Schindler's List with Heidi, or Apocalypse Now with Annie. This is too weird.
UPDATE: ah I see. Here's the reasoning and aftermath of the decision to pair the movies, via Wikipedia:
- The movie was originally intended as a sort of front act of another Ghibli movie, My Neighbor Totoro. Ghibli's parent company reasoned that Totoro's tie-in with a movie with more educational merit would guarantee its inclusion in the list of summer's recommended movies for school children.
- In commercial terms, the theatrical release was a failure. While the two movies were marketed toward children and their parents, the extremely depressing nature of Grave of the Fireflies made most parents stay away from watching the film with their children. Subsequently, Totoro dolls became a phenomenal hit in Japan and this has covered the loss sustained by the theatrical release.
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