Fantasy grows from family history
The tower, Himi, Natsuko, and the great-granduncle make every strange realm part of Mahito's inheritance.
The Boy and the Heron follows grieving teenager Mahito Maki into a mysterious tower after a gray heron claims his dead mother is alive and his pregnant stepmother Natsuko disappears.
At a Glance
Full titleThe Boy and the Heron
CountryJP
LanguageJapanese
Release date2023-07-14
GenreAnimation · Fantasy · Drama
Runtime124 min
Why The Boy and the Heron is worth your time
The film makes grief structurally complex: every new creature and world offers Mahito another way to avoid, reinterpret, or finally live beside loss.
Mahito's wound is both emotional and visible. He carries guilt, anger, and self-inflicted harm into a world that promises answers but never makes grief simple.
The tower connects generations of his family, including a mother he can meet only before she becomes the person he knew. Time inside it is intimate rather than linear.
Birds take sharply different roles: the deceptive heron becomes a companion, pelicans struggle within a broken ecology, and parakeets turn social order into absurd militarism.
The great-granduncle's offer gives the ending its moral weight. Mahito could escape into authorship and control, but he chooses relationships in a world where pain and malice cannot be edited away.
Mahito rejects a flawless world because accepting imperfect people is more honest than arranging reality into a painless inheritance.
The heron changes roles
He begins as manipulator and nuisance, then becomes an unreliable but necessary companion.
Imperfection is the central choice
The balanced stones promise control, while Mahito chooses a reality he knows contains harm.
Miyazaki resists one explanation
Dream logic, war memory, grief, creation, and autobiography overlap without reducing the world to a single code.
Story
Miyazaki's late fantasy turns a tower of inherited worlds into Mahito's path through grief, asking whether life should be rebuilt without pain or accepted with imperfection.
01
Mahito loses his mother
The hospital fire remains vivid in Mahito's dreams, shaping his silence, anger, and inability to accept Natsuko's new role in the family.
02
The heron promises the impossible
A gray heron speaks with a human voice and claims Mahito's mother still lives, using grief to lure him toward the forbidden tower.
03
Natsuko enters the tower
After his pregnant stepmother disappears, Mahito chooses to search for her despite his conflicted feelings and crosses the boundary with Kiriko.
04
Himi and the warawara
A young woman with fire powers protects small spirits preparing to be born, and her connection to Mahito becomes clearer as they travel together.
05
The parakeet kingdom
Militarized parakeets seek control of the unstable realm, while their king believes decisive force can preserve what the great-granduncle created.
06
Mahito refuses a perfect inheritance
The great-granduncle asks Mahito to arrange the stones and build a peaceful world, but Mahito recognizes his own capacity for malice and chooses reality.
Cast
Main characters and performers
Behind the Scenes
Theatrical runtime: 124 minutes.
Released Jul 2023.
Genres: Animation, Fantasy, Drama.
Studios / networks: Studio Ghibli.
TMDB user score: 7.4/10.
Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 96%.
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FAQ
What is The Boy and the Heron about?
A grieving boy follows a talking heron into a fantasy world to find his missing stepmother and confront the loss of his mother.
Who is Himi?
Himi is a younger version of Mahito's mother, Hisako, encountered inside the tower's world.
Is the movie based on the novel How Do You Live?
The film takes its Japanese title from Genzaburo Yoshino's novel, which appears in the story, but its fantasy plot is original rather than a direct adaptation.
Who directed The Boy and the Heron?
Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed the Studio Ghibli film.
How long is The Boy and the Heron?
The listed runtime is 124 minutes.
Where can I watch The Boy and the Heron?
Availability varies by country. Use MovieLinks to compare current legal streaming options, dubs, and subtitles.
