In Studio Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies, Seita’s family home is near Kobe.
The film begins during the bombing of Kobe in 1945, near the end of the Second World War. Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are separated from their mother and later struggle to survive as wartime conditions worsen.
Kobe is a major port city in Japan’s Hyōgo Prefecture. The film’s locations include bomb shelters and rural surroundings in the Kobe area, while the story later moves to other places as the siblings seek food and shelter.
Grave of the Fireflies was directed by Isao Takahata and released in Japan in 1988. It is based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s semi-autobiographical 1967 short story, but the movie is an animated drama rather than a documentary record.