Setsuko Yokokawa

"Why do fireflies have to die so soon?
 * —Setsuko to her brother, Seita"

Setsuko Yokokawa was the four year old sister of Seita in the Studio Ghibli movie, Grave of the Fireflies. She was born in 1941 but later dies in 1945 towards the end of the film.

When a fleet of American B-29 Superfortress bombers are flying overhead, she and Seita are left to secure the house and their belongings, allowing their mother, who suffers from a heart condition, to reach a bomb shelter. Although they survive unscathed, their mother is caught in the air raid and is horribly burned. After she dies in a makeshift clinic in a school shortly afterwards, Setsuko leaves with Seita on their way to the home of a distant aunt, who later becomes increasingly resentful their food rations continue to shrink due to the war.

After Setsuko leaves with Seita again and moves in with him in an abandoned bomb shelter, they release fireflies into the shelter for light. However, the next day, Setsuko finds them all dead, and becomes horrified. She digs them a grave and buries them all, asking why they have to die, and why her mother had to die. What begins as a new lease on life grows grim as she and her brother run out of rice, and she is rushed to a doctor after becoming  increasingly ill from malnutrition. She is found dying and hallucinating as Seita returns to the shelter with large quantities of food. She then dies as he hurries to cook, and is cremated the next day, after a montage of past moments in her life set to "Home Sweet Home" performed by Amelita Galli-Curci (1882 – 1963).

Setsuko has served as an influence for many of the depressed but innocent-at-heart child characters in the works of independent filmmaker/producer Ms. CMZ, such as the sullen and depressed piglet P-chan in No Ranmavations (2008), Cream the Rabbit in Sonic X AMVs (2018), Milo's ailing kitten Carolina in Milo and Otis MVs (2018), and Lars in the minor 2019 CMZ film of the same name.

Gallery
See:Setsuko Yokokawa/Gallery