The Boy and The Heron Can Feel New and Refreshing

How many times has Hayao Miyazaki come out of retirement now? I’ve lost count. But I am sure glad he did. I went to see the new Ghibli movie The Boy and the Heron this past weekend here in Japan. Do you remember your first Ghibli film? Mine was Kiki’s Delivery Service back in third grade. I don’t remember much about how I much liked it, but it remained with me for years until I rediscovered it and the rest of the Ghibli catalog in high school. As my first Ghibli movie, it remained high on my list of favorite movies from the studio, and now there’s a new addition with The Boy and the Heron.

Editor’s Note: There will be no spoilers for The Boy and the Heron below.

While The Boy and the Heron isn’t scheduled to release in the West until December 2023, I can’t wait for you all to get to see it. It feels like previous movies from Miyazaki, while bringing new energy as well. At just over two hours long, it introduces an uncharacteristically large cast of characters. Naturally, the protagonists are, well… the boy and the heron. The movie shares many themes and ideas from previous Miyazaki films, but spins them in a new and refreshing way.

Ghibli movies often dealt with the hardships and adventure of making sense of the world as a child. Miyazaki seems to have made it his life’s work to keep children dreaming and imagining a world both different and so similar to ours. The Boy and the Heron deals with these same themes, but in different ways than before, and I believe achieves that quite well. It perfectly captures the feeling of being a child in a world you feel helpless to change or understand.

Image via Studio Ghibli and GKids

The move is also, in ways I can’t quite explain without going into spoilers, a request for the viewers (specifically children) who might watch it. The Japanese version of the movie has the title “How Do You Live,” which is shared with a book by Yoshino Genzaburo. While the stories don’t seem to have too much overlap, the themes and ideas they want to express seem to be similar. So, if you’re finding it hard to wait for the English release, the book may give you at least a little taste of what the movie is about.

The visuals in The Boy and The Heron are also exactly what you expect from a Studio Ghibli film. The characters are all extremely believable in their facial expressions and all the backgrounds are beautiful and could be paintings hanging in an art museum themselves. While most of the movie is typical (and not ina bad way) Ghibli, the opening sequence is something else entirely. It was something I wasn’t expecting, but absolutely blew me away.

It’s hard for me to give a full review with absolutely no spoilers, but suffice to say that The Boy and The Heron is a movie worth seeing in theaters when it releases and has rocketed to a high place on my list of favorite Ghibli movies. Make sure and set aside a date in your calendar to catch this one in theaters in December! It’s so good!

The Boy and The Heron is set to release in theaters outside Japan on December 8, 2023. It is airing in Japan now as How Do You Live.