A passionate plea for intercultural appreciation in times of war and just as relevant now as it was ten years ago.

Several anime films are about Japan during World War II. Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is almost required viewing on the subject, as is Mori Masaki's Barefoot Gen (1983). While those films deal with the aftermath of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, Giovanni's Island (2014) deals with the occupation of Japan by Allied forces at the end of the war. Two young brothers, Junpei and Kanta, grow up on the island of Shikotan, in the far northeast of Japan. When the island is invaded by the Soviets at the end of the war, the boys are confronted with outsiders for the first time and must also deal with the loss of the war. When Junpei befriends Tanya, the daughter of the Russian commander, a new alliance is formed.

Although the film is set in the real world, Giovanni's Island also makes frequent references to Kenji Miyazawa's classic fantasy novel Night on the Galactic Railroad (1934): fantasy and reality merge in the boys' minds.