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A rare Studio Ghibli classic is headed to Netflix, but Max still has an ongoing deal for the US
Produced in 1988, Grave of the Fireflies will be available to Netflix subscribers September 16
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If you live in the US, one downside of not having a Max subscription is not being able to stream the Studio Ghibli films. Very soon, however, you'll be able to watch at least one of those titles with a Netflix subscription; thanks to Deadline, we now know that the rare classic Grave of the Fireflies is headed to the streamer on September 16.
Grave of the Fireflies is the heartbreaking tale of of a family trying to survive the firebombing of Kobe in March of 1945. The 1988 movie, based on a semi-autobiographical book of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, was praised for its brutally honest depiction of the civilian cost of war, leading none other than Roger Ebert himself to place it on his 100 best War Films ever made. As with any Ghibli film, the movie was also praised for its animation, but with the caveat that the tone is noticeably darker than other entries.
For our purposes, Grave of the Fireflies is a special exception to the catalogue because, as we mentioned, the movie will not stream on Max. As you can see with a US Max subscription, the Warner Bros. Discovery streamer has an extensive catalogue of the studio's films, one that will only grow with the September 6 streaming debut of the Oscar-winning Boy and the Heron. Though we can't confirm this theory, we wonder if Grave of the Fireflies's status as a "legacy" film excluded it from the Max deal, allowing it to stream on Netflix.
Whatever the reason for its presence on the streaming service, we're just happy to know that the groundbreaking film will reach a larger audience.
Grave of the Fireflies begins streaming on Netflix September 16.
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