by Noah Shin
Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, after a 10-year hiatus, released The Boy and the Heron (2023), which earned him his 2nd Oscar for Best Animated Feature film at the 96th Academy Awards. The movie tells the story of Mahito, a child grieving the loss of his mother during the bombing of Tokyo in WWII, as he encounters a mystical heron and travels to a different world through a mysterious tower that has a connection to his family's history.
The Boy and the Heron is consistent with Miyazaki’s filmography, which explores themes of loss, coming of age, and decisions on how one should live one’s life. However, The Boy and the Heron has a semi-autobiographical element, similar to The Wind Rises (2013), his previous ‘final’ film. The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s revisitation of themes raised in The Wind Rises on the dilemma of choosing between art and creation, or love and relationships, but comes to a more hopeful conclusion.
Choosing between art and relationships is an issue Miyazaki has dealt with in his own life, which he addresses in The Wind Rises. In this film, the protagonist Jiro devotes himself to his designs rather than spending time with his wife who is dying from tuberculosis. He succeeds in creating a ‘masterpiece’ but it comes at a significant personal cost as he misses the passing of his wife. The Wind Rises, Miyazaki’s first semi-autobiographical and most historically grounded film, reflects a parallel in Miyazaki’s life with his strained relationship with his eldest son, Goro. As described in the documentary series, 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019):
"The veteran filmmaker, devoted to his work, was an absentee dad. Goro’s exposure to his father growing up was mainly by watching his father’s films" (“Ponyo is Here” 32:18).
In his life, he prioritized his art over his family, but The Wind Rises could be interpreted as Miyazaki’s retrospective reflection on what was thought to be the end of an illustrious career, where he questions whether his artistic legacy was worth the personal sacrifice.
The Boy and the Heron likewise reflects Miyazaki’s continued wrestling with the inevitable end of his career and the question of his legacy. In many ways, Miyazaki himself is represented by Mahito’s granduncle atop the mystical tower. We learn that the granduncle is responsible for building the fantastical world Mahito is transported into, but faces a dilemma: he must find a successor to keep the world alive after he is gone. This is why he calls Mahito into his world, as he must pass the torch to someone who he believes should be someone from his own lineage, both literally in a biological sense and metaphorically in an artistic sense; the successor must uphold an integrity of vision. The granduncle was said to have spent his life building the tower and creating his world by arranging and balancing a set of otherworldly stones. He is looking for a successor who will continue to maintain the world after he is gone. His hope for the successor is not that they conform to the shape of his own world, but rather that they establish their own vision in creating the next one. Likewise, Miyazaki has spent his life co-founding and building Studio Ghibli and creating his own fantastical worlds through film. As the granduncle in the film, he has searched for possible successors, including his eldest son Goro, to carry on the creative legacy. New York Times reports: “He has tried multiple times, without success, to pass the creative torch. ... All of which raises some huge questions for Studio Ghibli — questions so deep they are practically theological. What will happen to the company when the great Miyazaki is gone?” (Anderson). This question of succession is closely tied to the decision to preserve his artistic legacy.
The Boy and the Heron is consistent with Miyazaki’s filmography, which explores themes of loss, coming of age, and decisions on how one should live one’s life. However, The Boy and the Heron has a semi-autobiographical element, similar to The Wind Rises (2013), his previous ‘final’ film. The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s revisitation of themes raised in The Wind Rises on the dilemma of choosing between art and creation, or love and relationships, but comes to a more hopeful conclusion.
Choosing between art and relationships is an issue Miyazaki has dealt with in his own life, which he addresses in The Wind Rises. In this film, the protagonist Jiro devotes himself to his designs rather than spending time with his wife who is dying from tuberculosis. He succeeds in creating a ‘masterpiece’ but it comes at a significant personal cost as he misses the passing of his wife. The Wind Rises, Miyazaki’s first semi-autobiographical and most historically grounded film, reflects a parallel in Miyazaki’s life with his strained relationship with his eldest son, Goro. As described in the documentary series, 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019):
"The veteran filmmaker, devoted to his work, was an absentee dad. Goro’s exposure to his father growing up was mainly by watching his father’s films" (“Ponyo is Here” 32:18).
In his life, he prioritized his art over his family, but The Wind Rises could be interpreted as Miyazaki’s retrospective reflection on what was thought to be the end of an illustrious career, where he questions whether his artistic legacy was worth the personal sacrifice.
The Boy and the Heron likewise reflects Miyazaki’s continued wrestling with the inevitable end of his career and the question of his legacy. In many ways, Miyazaki himself is represented by Mahito’s granduncle atop the mystical tower. We learn that the granduncle is responsible for building the fantastical world Mahito is transported into, but faces a dilemma: he must find a successor to keep the world alive after he is gone. This is why he calls Mahito into his world, as he must pass the torch to someone who he believes should be someone from his own lineage, both literally in a biological sense and metaphorically in an artistic sense; the successor must uphold an integrity of vision. The granduncle was said to have spent his life building the tower and creating his world by arranging and balancing a set of otherworldly stones. He is looking for a successor who will continue to maintain the world after he is gone. His hope for the successor is not that they conform to the shape of his own world, but rather that they establish their own vision in creating the next one. Likewise, Miyazaki has spent his life co-founding and building Studio Ghibli and creating his own fantastical worlds through film. As the granduncle in the film, he has searched for possible successors, including his eldest son Goro, to carry on the creative legacy. New York Times reports: “He has tried multiple times, without success, to pass the creative torch. ... All of which raises some huge questions for Studio Ghibli — questions so deep they are practically theological. What will happen to the company when the great Miyazaki is gone?” (Anderson). This question of succession is closely tied to the decision to preserve his artistic legacy.
However, there is an evolution in Miyazaki’s perspective from The Wind Rises to The Boy and Heron, reflecting a change in emphasis from legacy to love. In The Boy and the Heron, Mahito is given two choices. He is given the choice of inheriting his granduncle's world and becoming the new creator and shaping it as he sees fit, or he can return to his ordinary life in the real world with all of its flaws. Here, the film revisits the essential crossroads of The Wind Rises, choosing between devotion to art or devotion to one’s own life and family. Miyazaki chose to create art in his own life, becoming one of the greatest animation directors of all time. However, it seems he has regrets at the end of his career regarding some of the sacrifices he made and the impacts of these decisions on those around him. He has openly stated, in regards to his son Goro, “I owe that little boy an apology” because of his absence throughout Goro’s childhood (“Go Ahead - Threaten Me'' 22:28, 10 Years). The Wind Rises is his biopic about Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, but which also has semi-autobiographical elements that mirror his real life decision of prioritizing his artistic career. However, The Boy and the Heron has stronger fantastical elements which allows Miyazaki, as the character of Mahito, to vicariously explore and choose the other option of love and family that he did not choose in real life. What if he did not become one of the greatest animators but rather chose to be more present in his family and relationships? In The Boy and the Heron, Mahito returns to the real world to be with his family.
In The Boy and the Heron, in what may be a revisitation of Miyazaki’s dilemma of choosing between legacy and love, both Mahito and his granduncle represent two perspectives of Miyazaki. The granduncle represents a part of Miyazaki that wants his animation legacy to live on through a successor, who will not only maintain it, but also safeguard its integrity from competing commercial interests from within the kingdom who do not share his pure artistic vision. Interestingly, young Mahito also represents a changed, older Miyazaki. One that, in the fantastical The Boy and the Heron, made the decision to devote himself to his loved ones rather than his creative work. Mahito chose life over art, in a way that Jiro from The Wind Rises did not. This begs the original question Miyazaki poses, both to himself and the audience, in the original Japanese title of The Boy and the Heron, How Do You Live?
