In 1967, Shinchosha published a short story
Grave of the Fireflies by
Akiyuki Nosaka. 21 years later,
Grave of the Fireflies was turned into a
film by director
Isao Takahata, animated by
Studio Ghibli and co-distributed by
Bandai Visual under their Emotion label and
Toho. In turn, Shinchosha produced that film as
Shinchosha 1988. The film was released in Japanese theaters on April 16, 1988. It was then licensed and released in
North America as a subtitled
VHS by
Central Park Media on June 2, 1993, and later a 2-disc
DVD by the same company in the same region, with the 1st disc featuring an English dub produced by Skypilot Entertainment and the original Japanese with English subtitles. The 2nd disc contained a retrospective on the author of the original book, an interview with the director, and an interview with critic
Roger Ebert, who had expressed his admiration for the film on several occasions and ranked the film as one of the greatest of all time. Following the April 27, 2009, bankruptcy and liquidation of Central Park Media,
ADV Films acquired the North American rights and re-released it on DVD on July 7, 2009, followed by former CPM titles such as
MD Geist,
Now and Then, Here and There and
The World of Narue. Following the September 1, 2009, shutdown and rebranding of ADV Films, their successor,
Sentai Filmworks, rescued the film and re-released it as a remastered DVD on March 6, 2012, and plan on releasing the film on digital outlets. A
Blu-ray edition was released on November 20, 2012, featuring an all-new English dub produced by
Seraphim Digital.
StudioCanal released a Blu-ray in the
United Kingdom on July 1, 2013, followed by a ''
Kiki's Delivery Service'' release on that same format. with
Madman Entertainment releasing the film in
Australia and
New Zealand.
Grave of the Fireflies is the first Studio Ghibli film that
Disney never had distribution rights to in North America, since the film was not produced by then-parent company
Tokuma Shoten (Disney formerly handled the North American distribution of all Tokuma Shoten-produced Studio Ghibli films before
GKids picked up the distribution rights.) but by Shinchosha, the publisher of the original short story (as mentioned; although
Disney has the Asian (including Japanese, China and Taiwan) distribution rights themselves). ==
Shincho 45 suspension==