How Effective Are Animations Based On Real Life Events

Animated Documentary - Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen is a Japanese animated movie (anime) that aired in 1983 and was created by Keiji Nakazawa. The movie follows the struggle of a family during the near end of the 2nd world war when the Americans dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

The animation touches on a very sensitive moment of Japanese history and it does a very good job of using different animation techniques to emotionally touch the audience by meeting the atmosphere that describes the total devastation of this disaster.

The beginning of the scene shows American pilots giving each other orders to accurately drop the bomb over the city from their plane and when they do the camera watches the bomb fall from a birds eye view all the way down until it hits the floor. The suspense and build up makes viewers feel uneasy because they know what is going to happen but that feeling is there for a long time however long the bomb falls. The next scene is also a very slow paced build up which Im guessing signifies the bombs energy moving out until the explosion happens to suck everything back in and it does this by slowly fading out the sound until silence and during that the colour fades out so it is black and white. All of a sudden without a beat its all fast paced the colour comes back but with warm colours, pink, orange, yellow and it shows people, citizens burn and decinerate with massive detail and close ups which is the climax to impact the audience especially because it equally shows the same thing happen to children and babies. From there it shows the other civilians who aren't close enough to the blast to be incinerated being crushed by falling buildings and hit by flying debris. 

This scene as an animation is enough to emotionally touch any person who watches it and it is because of the techniques used which are designed to exaggerate real life so I think this is just as effective than the disaster in real life.