Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Boy and the Heron.
The Big Picture
Hayao Miyazaki has achieved another cinematic spectacle with his latest animated feature, The Boy and the Heron. Miyazaki and the esteemed animators at Studio Ghibli have crafted a bittersweet, heartwarming, whimsical, and fantastical adventure. The coming-of-age story follows a young boy, Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki), who is struck by tragedy during World War II when his mother dies at a hospital in the firebombing of Tokyo. Mahito and his father, Shoichi Maki (Takuya Kimura), relocate to the countryside so Shoichi can remarry his late wife’s younger sister, Natusko (Yoshino Kimura). While Mahito struggles to adjust to his new life, he soon embarks on a magical, introspective journey.
At first, Mahito is unhappy after moving to his new countryside home, and there’s a cold distance between Mahito and his new stepmother, Natsuko, who is also pregnant with Shoichi’s child. After arriving at the countryside estate, Mahito is frequently followed and pestered by a curious Grey Heron (Masaki Suda). Neighboring the home is a mysterious, abandoned building that was built by the family’s enigmatic patriarch, Mahito’s Great Uncle (Shōhei Hino). The Great Uncle, previously a famous architect, mysteriously disappeared many years ago. Later on, Natsuko disappears into the tower, and Mahito is drawn there by the Grey Heron, who can speak, telling Mahito that his biological mother, Hisako, is still alive. The derelict tower that Mahito’s Great Uncle built houses an alternate, magical world that separates the natural world from another eerie, magical, and unnatural realm. Mahito confronts the Grey Heron, and the two form an unwitting alliance and go on a quest to the alternate world to rescue Natsuko. But how does Mahito’s journey end?
A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
Release Date December 8, 2023
Cast Soma Santoki , Masaki Suda , Takuya Kimura , Aimyon
Rating PG-13
Runtime 124 minutes
Mahito and the Grey Heron Brave a Fantastical World
When he enters the derelict tower, Mahito quarrels with the Grey Heron and shoots the bird through his beak with a makeshift arrow. The mysterious Great Uncle bids the Grey Heron to act as Mahito’s guide during their quest. The group is then morphed into a magical world where Mahito and the Grey Heron, who can assume a human-like hybrid form, encounter many strange creatures and phenomena. They encounter a younger Kiriko (Kou Shibasaki), one of the maids who works for Natsuko in the natural world. The elderly version of Kiriko had initially joined Mahito in the quest, but she transformed into a wooden doll figure after transferring to the alternate realm. The younger version of Kiriko, who is an experienced sailor on a fishing vessel in the alternate world, grants Mahito and Grey Heron some shelter and provides instructions about the world before they continue their journey. Despite a lack of trust in one another, Mahito and the Grey Heron agree to work together on their quest.
Eventually, the group encounters some nefarious, carnivorous, anthropomorphic parakeets who are ruled in the alternate realm by The Parakeet King (Jun Kunimura). During their journey, Mahito and the Grey Heron are assisted by a young woman, Himi (Aimyon), who is Mahito’s biological mother as a child and has pyrokinetic powers in the alternate realm. She reveals that Natsuko is her sister and has hidden away somewhere to give birth. Himi assists Mahito in sneaking into the Parakeet King’s citadel, where Natsuko is hiding. However, Mahito’s past resentment still appears to weigh heavily on Natsuko, as she rejects his presence from her magical hiding place. The commotion leads to Himi’s capture by the parakeets.
A World Where Time Stands Still
Back in the natural world, after Mahito and Natsuko go missing, one of Natsuko’s maids explains some of the abandoned tower’s secrets to the worried Shoichi. The Great Uncle built the tower where a strange meteorite hit the Earth. Some years earlier, a young Hisako went missing, and she was gone for an entire year. One year later, she amazingly returned, not looking older, and she was fine as if nothing had changed. This revelation explains how Mahito and the Grey Heron encounter the younger Hisako, or Himi, while they are on their quest in the strange magical realm.
Mahito and the Heron rescue Himi and go to visit the family’s patriarch, Great Uncle. Mahito’s Great Uncle summoned the boy to the world because he wants Mahito to inherit his role as the person to oversee the alternate realm, which appears powered by the interstellar meteor that crashed in the area where the tower was built. Mahito rejects his Great Uncle’s offer, wanting to return to the real world with Natsuko. Great Uncle says only someone of their family bloodline, without malice, can inherit the world and maintain the secrets of the tower, but Mahito correctly points out that he too is tainted by malice, pointing out that he struck and scarred himself with a rock after he was bullied by children at his new school. The Great Uncle believes the natural world is hopeless and doomed, but Mahito is willing to give life a try again and wants to return home. However, the Parakeet King intervenes, attempting and failing to balance Great Uncle’s magical building block artifacts. He slices the objects in anger, resulting in the tower and magical realm becoming unstable, and the world within the tower begins to collapse.
The Journey Home
Mahito, Himi, the Grey Heron, and Natsuko rush to escape the magical realm. After realizing that Himi is his mother, Mahito attempts to warn her about her death in a fire as they are about to depart the alternate realm through different doors that lead to the time periods from which they first entered the tower. Himi returns to the period before World War II, pointing out that she must return to that time to give birth to Mahito. She leaves without concern for her ultimate fate, telling her future son that she does not fear fire. Mahito, the Grey Heron, and Natsuko return to their own time, reuniting with Shoichi, who is overjoyed to reunite with his family. The elderly Kiriko is restored to her human body after Mahito takes her wooden doll out of his pocket. The parakeets are forced to evacuate their kingdom and return to the natural world, transforming back into normal, harmless parakeets. Having completed his journey, Mahito is now at peace in the natural world and accepts Natsuko as his new mother. An epilogue shows the family two years later, after the end of WWII. Shoichi, Natsuko, and their younger child wait at the door for Mahito, who is packing up to leave, as the family prepares to return to Tokyo.
The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful, dazzling, and emotional journey about letting go of despair and coming to grips with personal tragedy. During his quest, Mahito gains introspection about his feelings, admitting how he harmed himself after he was bullied by his new classmates. Despite the Great Uncle’s wish to groom Mahito as his replacement to take over the alternate realm, Mahito makes a mature choice, rejecting the magical realm in the tower to return to the natural world with a renewed sense of hope and optimism. Mahito brings the lessons and experience he gained from the magical realm back with him. The journey healed his heart, as he grew to love and accept his stepmother, Natsuko. Mahito’s biological mother Himi, despite knowing her dark fate, happily returns to her original time, confident with the notion she will one day give birth to Mahito.
The Boy and the Heron is now playing in theaters in the U.S.
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