Barefoot Gen 2 (はだしのゲン2) is a 1986 Japanese adult animated drama film and the sequel to the 1983 animated war film Barefoot Gen, loosely based on the Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa.[1] Directed by Toshio Hirata, the film stars Issei Miyazaki, Masaki Kōda, Yoshie Shimamura, and Taeko Nakanishi, who reprise their roles from the first film, while Kei Nakamura and Takami Aoyama join the cast. In the film, Gen and Ryuta Nakaoka join a gang of orphan scavengers and attempt to save their mother Kimie from radiation sickness, a consequence of her survival of the Hiroshima atomic bombing.[2]
Plot
Three years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Gen Nakaoka, his mother Kimie, and his adopted brother Ryuta are scavenging for food and scrap metal to sell in the black market as Hiroshima, like the rest of Japan, struggles to rebuild following World War II.
While Kimie starts working at a geta factory, Gen and Ryuta attend school in a ruined building, in which they meet a gang of orphaned children and their leader Masa in a hostile first encounter. Gen and Ryuta start a shoe-shining business that Masa's gang disrupts, drawing the attention of policemen who attempt to place them in an orphanage.