The Boy and the Heron, EXPLAINED At least from my own personal interpretation. Obviously, this video will have spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the movie
yet, this is your warning to click away. Before I start, I do want to say that I have
already watched this movie twice, and I have bought and read the book that inspired it, and I
am extremely familiar with every single movie in the Studio Ghibli catalog. So I do want to think
I am well equipped to give a movie explanation. But even if not, I do want to do
this, just for my own personal sake. Also I just want to say that this isn’t going
to be an hour long research video like my usual videos. It’s more so a very initial reaction
kind of analysis, and so a lot of things might be rough, but maybe in the future I’ll do
a super in-depth research video when I can. But with that being said, let’s
jump into the explanation. The first thing I want to say is,
the most important thing to know going into this movie is that…this
is Hayao Miyazaki’s last movie. Yes he’s “retired” multiple times before, with
Princess Mononoke and The Wind Rises. But even so, I think it would be just as fair to interpret
both of those as his “last movies” as well. Because the sentiments with which a movie is made
never change, even if circumstances do afterwards. So, even if Miyazaki does
make another movie again, I think it’s completely fair to assume “The Boy
and the Heron” will be his last film, as of now. And I really do think there is an air of finality
deeply baked into this one. If you’ve seen some of the few public appearances Miyazaki has
made today…the man looks OLD. He is balding, he lost his beard, and the man is 82
years old. And it took over ten years since “The Wind Rises” and a pandemic
to make this movie. Keep in mind, this movie was originally announced as going
to coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But it kept on getting delayed and delayed,
because Miyazaki is getting older and can’t work as hard as he used to. And so it is
quite frankly almost a miracle that this movie finally got made. And so as much
as I would love for Miyazaki to cook up another masterpiece, I think it’s safe
to say that this might be the last one. So right away, I just want to get the
biggest plot point out of the way: The great grand-uncle in “The Boy
and the Heron” is Hayao Miyazaki. This uncle character has spent many
years developing this beautiful, magical world…and it’s soon going to
crumble away, unless he finds a successor. And so this is my personal interpretation…but I
believe that this beautiful, magical world with herons and parakeets…this is a metaphor for the
entire filmography Miyazaki has developed with Studio Ghibli. And the world crumbling away,
and not being able to find a successor…this is Miyazaki making peace with the fact that his
time of making movies is coming to an end. When Hayao Miyazaki retired in 2013,
Studio Ghibli halted all production in 2014. Because no suitable successor
to Miyazaki could be found. And Studio Ghibli only came back into business in 2017
because Miyazaki came out of retirement. And so I believe The Boy and the Heron
is about Miyazaki coming to peace with and letting go of the wondrous world he has
created, and that we have enjoyed for so many years. When the magical world crumbles and
is destroyed, it’s all of us saying goodbye. Another supporting fact for the uncle character
being based on Hayao Miyazaki is that, in The Boy and the Heron, the uncle character is said
to have disappeared from the real world because he became “obsessed” with the tower and this
magical world he was creating. And in real life, Miyazaki was definitely obsessed with only wanting
to spend endless hours working on his films, refusing to stay in retirement, and
this obsession sadly most likely came at the expense of him being able
to spend time with his family, just like how the uncle character disappeared
from his family in The Boy and the Heron. And so a question that might come up
is…was building this world worth it? This magical world with so many obscure,
intriguing rules and mysterious, fascinating creatures that simultaneously tickle our fantasies and fill us with
dread…was it worth making in the end? What exactly is this world? One of the reasons I loved this movie and why I
think it works so well as a final Ghibli movie is that…in ways, it feels like a celebration
of Miyazaki’s entire filmography up until this point. It felt like a one last huzzah containing
many references and callbacks to previous films, and this was a new aspect for a “last film”
that I felt that, say, “The Wind Rises” lacked. The fire animation of Himi unleashing fireworks
against the pelicans felt like it was using animation techniques straight out of boy and
the stars scene from Howl’s Moving Castle. The glowing rocks felt reminiscent of the
glowing Aetherium deposits in the mines of Castle in the Sky. The abandoned tower
gave vibes of the abandoned amusement park in Spirited Away. The animation of various
water scenes felt like they came from Ponyo or Porco Rosso. Himi’s house reminded me
a lot of Kiki’s parent’s house in Kiki’s Delivery Service. The warawara reminded
me of the kodama from Princess Mononoke. And the flotilla of ghost ships in the
background felt reminiscent of the sea of planes of passed on fighter pilots used
in both Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises. And the autobiographical nature and World War II
setting also felt reminiscent of The Wind Rises. And lastly the parakeets in this
movie…every time I saw them I kept on thinking…these are “The Evil Totoros” Because the parakeets all had the
signature three marks on their chest, just like Totoro did. And also the same
beady eyes. In fact the heron himself also bore these same Totoro-like markings on his
chest. And this helps corroborate my theory that these birds all together symbolize
the artistic works of Hayao Miyazaki, because a likening to Totoro is as
close to a personal branding as it gets. But yeah, speaking of parakeets, a big
question one might ask is…why the birds? What’s up with these parakeets,
herons, and pelicans in the movie? Well, simply put, I think
birds are the most natural candidate to be Miyazaki’s artistic spirit animal. Because Miyazaki has always had
a passion for flight. The Wind Rises and Porco Rosso are entire movies
dedicated to showing airplanes and flight sequences. Studio Ghibli’s first movies
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Castle in the Sky made sure to highlight
Miyazaki’s love of many flying machines. And this is because Miyazaki’s father was a
manufacturer of planes during World War II. When you hear that, you might think…that’s
exactly like Jiro from The Wind Rises! Or you might think this is exactly like the
father character in The Boy and the Heron, who is also a manufacturer of planes. In fact, just like how the main character’s
mother died in The Boy and the Heron, while Miyazaki’s mother did not pass away when Miyazaki
was a child, she was sickly with tuberculosis for most of his childhood, and Miyazaki also feared
constantly that she would pass away when he was a child. This is why tuberculosis is the disease
Jiro’s wife Nahoko succumbs to in The Wind Rises. So just as much as Miyazaki inserted parts of
himself into the uncle character in The Boy and the Heron, he also inserted semi-autobiographical
elements of himself into Mahito. But I do personally think he identifies
more with the uncle character in this movie. I feel like The Wind Rises worked
wonderfully as a “last movie” in Miyazaki’s filmography because that film was very
much a near-autobiographical mirror of Miyazaki’s own life, because Miyazaki
was very much Jiro in that movie. But with The Boy and the Heron, I like how
this movie takes a completely different approach that is equally valid for a “last
movie”, because this movie feels more like Miyazaki is taking a step back, mostly watching
from the sidelines as this uncle character, while Mahito is meant to serve more as a
stand-in for us the audience ourselves. In The Wind Rises, we were
observing Miyazaki in Jiro. In The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki
is observing us in Mahito. So what do I mean by that? This is where I want to bring in the original
Japanese title of this movie: How Do You Live? The movie was renamed to The Boy and the
Heron in the states, but its original title was How Do You Live? because it was
named after this book by Genzaburo Yoshino. Now, having watched both the
movie and read this book, I can confidently say they…have very
little to do with each other. But while this movie was not based on this
book, it was very much inspired by it. The main character of How Do You Live? is
an upper class WW2-era Japanese schoolboy whose father passed away. Much like how
Mahito in The Boy and the Heron is an upper class WW2-era Japanese schoolboy whose
mother passed away. And much like how Hayao Miyazaki was an upper class WW2-era Japanese
schoolboy whose mother almost passed away. The plot of How Do You Live? is
mostly a correspondence between a schoolboy and his uncle. And the plot
of The Boy and the Heron is also kind of a correspondence between Mahito and
his loosely-defined uncle relation. But the plots of the book and the movie actually
do have very little to do with each other. How Do You Live? Is basically a series
of anecdotes or moral scenarios that a schoolboy faces, that is intended to be
like a series of ethics lessons on how to be a good young boy. Like, what to do
when your classmate is getting bullied, or the importance of appreciating good art. And The Boy and the Heron has…very
little to do with any of that. What is important to know is that Hayao Miyazaki
himself read How Do You Live? when he was a child in the 1940s. And just like how that book
imparted lessons onto him back then, The Boy and the Heron feels like Hayao Miyazaki is trying
to relay his own wisdom onto…the new generations. Because Hayao Miyazaki has stated
in past interviews that he wanted to make The Boy and the Heron as a movie
for his grandson. More specifically a movie that would say “grandpa
isn’t going to be around forever”. Mahito in The Boy and the Heron is supposed
to be a stand-in for Miyazaki’s grandson, or by extension his lineage,
or by even further extension, all the young people of today. And in The
Boy and the Heron, the uncle character is looking for a successor from his own blood
who might overtake the world he has created. And this is where I want to highlight the most important similarity shared between How
Do You Live? and The Boy and the Heron. And it’s in the title. How do you live? Or more importantly…how do YOU live? Because the most important lesson of the book
How Do You Live? is one of…self-determination. Despite all the moral lessons it tries
to teach, the most important lesson the book tries to teach is that…one must choose what
they think is meaningful and important in life, and walk along this path accordingly. We have
to decide what we want to do with our lives. And so when the uncle character
gives Mahito the option of taking on the mantle of watching over his
magical world…Mahito says no. Mahito returns to the real world because Mahito
chose how he wanted to live his life. Earlier in this video I asked if the world
Miyazaki and the uncle created was worth it. And I think what this movie wants
to say is that…because Miyazaki and the uncle chose to create this
world, because it was their decision on how to live their lives…their
actions were worth it in the end. And similarly, when Mahito lets the world
crumble, and when the uncle still gives Mahito his blessing…this is Miyazaki
saying to his descendants, to all of us, that if Studio Ghibli ends with him, it’s
okay. He wants us to go on and live our lives, and he wants us to live them
however we decide we want to. One of the most beautiful lines of the
movie occurs near the end when Lady Himi, who is revealed to be Mahito’s
mother, returns to her timeline. Despite knowing that she
will die in a hospital fire, she says “Fire doesn’t scare me. I’ll be
lucky to have you.” (you meaning Mahito). Mahito’s mother willingly chooses to live the life
she leads, despite knowing its end. She weaponizes the means of her destruction, fearlessly
utilizing flames in the movie as a means of reclaiming her fate. And she has no regrets in her
decision, in living her life the way she chooses. How do you live? How will YOU live? I guess it’s also worth mentioning
that the book is mentioned briefly in the movie as a gift from Mahito’s
mother. And when Mahito reads the book, it is meant to be a pivotal moment of the
movie, even if it’s not explained through words. The main theme of the movie by Joe Hisaishi is
the one that, I don’t even know if it has a track name yet, but it’s the one with the piano chords
that goes…duhn…duhn! And it plays first during the title card of the movie, and then it plays a
second time while Mahito reads How Do You Live? And so it is through the use of this important
motif of music that we assume that Mahito reading this book is when he starts to
go through this coming-of-age process, when he begins to adopt the important life
lesson of choosing how he wants to live. And this piano chords motif is
also used a third time whenever we visit the uncle in the paradise world,
because this theme, whatever it’s called, is used to highlight the most
important scenes of the movie. The last aspect I want to talk
about about this movie is some of the words the uncle character uses to
describe the magical world he had built. Multiple times throughout the movie he
characterizes the world he built as one of malice. And so why would Miyazaki say the
world he created is one of malice? Well, this is an idea Miyazaki
has actually visited many times before. For those who have closely
studied Hayao Miyazaki’s works, it’s no secret that the man has always been a
near textbook case of a classic misanthrope. He’s a curmudgeonly, grumpy old man. When
drawing manga, if he ever had to portray himself, Hayao Miyazaki would always draw himself
as a pig. This would become most famously related in Porco Rosso, another movie
with a semi-autobiographical nature, where the main character is
a jaded, world-hating pig. But really, if you look at all his movies, many
if not all of them have elements of criticism or disdain for humanity. As mentioned, Porco
Rosso is critical of World War I. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke
are both highly critical of human’s destruction of nature. Howl’s Moving Castle also shows
a frustration with the effects of war. And Ponyo is also guilty of a sobering cynicism
when it comes to pollution of the ocean. Hayao Miyazaki hates humans…and he’s almost sometimes saying that the earth would
be better off if humans didn’t exist! Which is why the pelicans eat the warawara. In The Boy and the Heron, the warawara
are described as these funny little creatures that eat sea monsters and as
a result gain the ability to fly where they eventually get born in the real
world. Which is…fairly straightforward. But then, the pelicans, the
creatures that Hayao Miyazaki and the uncle have brought into
this world…they eat the warawara! And this prevents them from being born in the real world! To me this is symbolic of Miyazaki’s pessimism
and cynicism, of the malice he mentions so often in the movie, of basically thinking
humans shouldn’t be born in the first place. Which is a really dark thought. But…I don’t think Miyazaki is
entirely cynical about the future. At the very end of The Boy and the Heron, the
uncle character says that after many years, he has finally found 13 blocks free of malice with
which to build a new world order. Hayao Miyazaki and the uncle never wanted to stop trying to look
for a world free of malice. They never lost hope. And it says a lot that they wanted Mahito
to use these blocks to build a new world. But it’s also interesting that
Hayao Miyazaki ever viewed the world he created as one of
malice in the first place. The Wind Rises also followed this
sentiment, where Jiro lamented that the planes he created wrought destruction
in war. And perhaps Miyazaki has felt an inner conflict in his own heart that maybe
his films have brought more harm than good. But really the only thing that mattered in The
Wind Rises was that Jiro built beautiful planes. And, just as pretty much anyone else who has
seen any of Hayao Miyazaki’s movies would also say…it is amazing that these films were made.
The magic, the malice, the mystery, and the wonder…it is all an incredible blessing that we
got to experience all of it in our lifetimes. Also, despite all the talk of the
pelicans and parakeets supposedly eating people throughout the entire movie…they never actually hurt anybody at all! They
didn’t seem particularly malicious to me! But anyways, to conclude this movie explanation,
just like Lady Himi’s last words to her great uncle as the magical world he created began
to crumble and disappear, I want to say: “Thank you, Hayao Miyazaki, for creating
these magical worlds filled with so many fascinating elements and memorable
characters, thank you for imparting both your beauty and your malice…and thank
you for living your life the way you chose. You have lived your life well.” And now it is time for us to go live ours.
