No director in anime history has earned the critical acclaim and international respect of Studio Ghibli's The Boy and the Heron my favorite Ghibli film of all time.

Released to intense praise in 2023, The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki's latest film. The movie follows a young boy named Mahito who lost his mother, Hisako, during the Tokyo firebombings at the height of World War II. After Mahito's father marries Hisako's sister and moves his family to the Japanese countryside, Mahito is lured into a fantasy world with the promise of his deceased mother's return. The Boy and the Heron earned Miyazaki his second Oscar and was met with acclaim upon release, but its rank among Ghibli's classics is still in doubt to many.

The Boy and the Heron is Great, But the Competition For Top Ghibli Film is Stiff

Classics Like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke Still Top Many Ghibli Best Lists

It might be weird to describe an Oscar-winning Miyazaki film as underrated, but that feels like the best word for The Boy and the Heron's place in the Ghibli canon. The movie currently sits at #6 in Rotten Tomatoes' Ghibli ranking (losing to The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Spirited Away, in that order). Vulture and IGN both have it at #8, and IMDB has it at #15.

Of course, none of these are bad rankings when considering the competition. Still, though, there's this sense that The Boy and the Heron never quite reaches the dizzying heights of Miyazaki's classics. From a historical perspective, this makes sense. Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro changed animation forever with their beautiful stories and jaw-dropping animation. Even Steven Spielberg praised Spirited Away as being better than anything produced by Disney.

So, given the tough pedigree, it's understandable why The Boy and the Heron isn't everyone's favorite Ghibli film. I might have agreed after just seeing it. The more I thought about it, though, the more I loved the film. Whether it was just recency bias or where I was at in my life, I couldn't shake the feeling that this one was different despite the film covering well-tread ground. The Boy and the Heron's themes and visuals kept bouncing around in my head as a sort of anomaly. Then I read Miyazaki's explanation for the film, and everything snapped into place.

The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki's Most Personal Film

And it's Not Particularly Close

In Viz Media's The Art of The Boy and the Heron (releasing on May 27th), a few letters from Miyazaki are included. There are more than a few great tidbits in these letters, such as Ghibli head revealing the real reason he writes so many strong women. What really caught my eye, beyond all the fun anecdotes and insights into the beloved creator, though, was his explanation of the film to Ghibli's staff in 2017.

In the explanation, Miyazaki talks a lot about How Do You Live? by Genaburo Yoshino, a popular 1937 novel that acts as a sort of guidebook for many young Japanese boys and men. Reading the book, Miyazaki reflected on his own life and specifically the loss of his mother.

Reading this book made me realize that I have lived all this time while carrying and hiding so much inside me...

I felt like I couldn't tackle what had been haunting me from the time I was born, so I never made a film addressing it. When I read this book, it hit me that I might end my life without ever saying something really important. This thought had been with me for a while, but I'd always thought I didn't truly need to say that thing. But now my thinking switched to, "Maybe I'll do it."

While, even by Miyazaki's own ission, The Boy and the Heron is hardly autobiographical, several details do line up with the director's own life. Much like Mahito, Miyazaki was forced to move into a summerhouse during the Tokyo firebombings and Miyazaki also based Mahito's father on his own. Additionally, though Miyazaki didn't lose his mother until her death in 1983 (when she was 72), she was sick with spinal tuberculosis, keeping her confined to hospitals for years.

Looking at these details next to Miyazaki's quote about saying something that matters made me appreciate the movie in a whole new light. This was Miyazaki's attempt to say something big, something important, and something wholly personal.

The Boy and the Heron Is Miyazaki's Critique of Escapism

The Film Shows That Reality Always Returns

Ultimately, it was these pieces that made me realize the true message of The Boy and the Heron. The bulk of the movie is spent in a fantasy world where Mahito gets to meet younger versions of a few key people in his life, including his late mother. As the movie goes on, it's revealed that the strange world Mahito finds himself in was actually crafted by his granduncle. Finally, at the climax, Granduncle asks Mahito to take over the world and do what he will with it.

This is where Miyazaki reveals the true heart of the movie. Feeling the scar on his head where he'd hit himself with a rock out of anger and frustration, Mahito rejects his granduncle's offer. Mahito realizes that any world he'd create or reshape would be tainted by the same negative emotions that drove him to retreat in the first place. It's difficult not to read this as Miyazaki reflecting on his own career and reckoning with the worlds he himself has created.

The real world might be tough for Mahito; it might be harsh and difficult, but it is also a place worth cherishing

Inevitably, Mahito can't run away from himself or the real world, and so, he chooses to return home. Though the young hero knows he'll miss his mother and the friends he made in the fantasy world, he also recognizes there's no future in it, no chance for growth or development. The real world might be tough for Mahito; it might be harsh and difficult, but it is also a place worth cherishing. Miyazaki seemingly confirms this reading in his explanation for the film.

I'm interested in how persuasively we can depict our protagonist slipping out of this trap, and how we can make it seem like there is value in living in this world after that escape. I believe that is our theme-no, our task.

It's funny how memes and internet culture have flattened Miyazaki into this one-dimensional grump who just so happens to make these life-affirming masterpieces. The truth, as confirmed by this quote, is more complicated than that. Miyazaki undoubtedly has his rough edges and moments of cynicism, but the philosophy of his movies is no accident. The Boy and the Heron became my favorite Ghibli movie because it has Hayao Miyazaki's most direct and vital message yet: the world we live in is good and worth fighting for.