It seems like society has reached the general consensus that war is bad and modern media has moved along with it. Movies like American Sniper and the post-iraq patriotic feel-good mindset are out and critical portrayals of soldiers and citizens are what the public wants. No more glorifications of soldiers but the harsh reality that the scarred people, involved in war, are left with.

Cocoon is no exception to this but it gives a different view on a topic that has become somewhat stale. Serving as the basis for the story are the Himeyuri students (also called “Lily Girls”) - A group of 240 women and girls that were led into battle under the false pretense that the Japanese army would easily defeat the American invasion. They enthusiastically packed their school supplies thinking they would be safe from any danger and able to prepare for the coming school year. Instead they were positioned in an underground cave hospital that was constantly being bombed and under gunfire.

The central conflict of Cocoon lies not only in the ongoing war but in the relationship between the protagonist Mayu and her best friend San. Stationed in a forest with the rest of their class and a teacher they gather resources and information to help the army. When Mayu spots the shadow of an aircraft in the sky she is hesitant to tell the lookout and only shares her intuition with San, who informs the lookout. It turns out that her instinct was right and the girls quickly evacuate and manage to evade the enemy's bombs. This conflict between Mayu’s reserved nature and San’s outgoing one becomes the central theme of the adaptation and ultimately serves as a way to express its pacifist message.

War changes people and it does not care if those people are innocent highschool girls. After having to move to an underground cave hospital, where they nurture wounded soldiers, the situation becomes increasingly more gruesome. One of their friends is burned alive by a bomb and slowly the girl’s numbers decrease. Yukimitsu Ina depicts this in a great way by simply not depicting it at all. These girls are no longer citizens but cannon fodder. Their death is not acknowledged, not because it isn’t meaningful, but because the country that they are fighting for has reduced them into something that may as well be called lesser of a human.

Alongside the army’s deteriorating situation are Mayu and San’s own mental state. Mayu is torn between the cruelty of the war and the “owed” responsibility to their country. Around them their classmates are dying or getting assaulted by traumatized soldiers and still they have to keep on going. After notice of dissolution reaches them it all takes a turn for the worse. They are left alone in the middle of war and the only way to a safer place goes through the middle of the enemy's territory.

The ending might seem disappointing for anyone that has read the original and without spoiling it I will say that it is necessary considering the plot and story changes.

Regarding the animation and general art direction Cocoon is nothing short of perfect. It’s the first feature film of Studio Sasayuri which was founded by Ghibli-Alumni like Hitomi Tateno (In-Between Animation Inspection) or Yoichi Watanabe (Art Director) and the resemblance is almost uncanny. From the way a sulking girl walks away to how an angry character's head comes into frame; it looks just like any modern Ghibli movie.

Where Cocoon fails is at adapting Machiko’s feminist perspective on war. The original manga places a much bigger focus not only at the girls deteriorating mental health but also at the brutality of the war. Girls are shown with burned backs or straight up dying in a pool of blood. Furthermore the soldiers are faceless white creatures representing nothing other than their uniformity and stripped identities. Men are the central group responsible for the war and San even directly says that she hates men.

“Depicting the soldiers as white shadows came from thoughts I had when I was a girl where, taking the idea of purity to its furthest conclusion, I pretended as if men didn’t exist at all ultimately.” (Kyou Machiko)

Another aspect that is changed is the symbolism of the Cocoon and San’s general development. Whereas the adaptation uses it as a way to show San overcoming the cruelty of war and how it changes people for the worse, Machiko frames the Cocoon as San’s coping mechanism to escape the war. She doesn’t suddenly turn pacifist and sway’s the girl's opinions by giving some big speech. All she is is powerless and her only way of escaping it is her imagination.