Film

The Boy and the Heron

Name: The Boy and the Heron
Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Drama
Released: 2023
Cast: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura

Portal fantasy
Strange

Hayao Miyazaki's first feature in a decade. A grieving boy in wartime Japan follows a mysterious gray heron into a surreal, luminous otherworld. It's visually staggering—hand-drawn animation at its most ambitious—but also inward and melancholic, dwelling on loss and the possibility of transformation. For anyone moved by beautiful, strange, deeply felt cinema.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love films that leave the logic open and let a grieving child's inner weather drive the story, with hand-drawn images that feel like dreams you half remember.

Skip it if you need plot to be steered firmly toward its destination, since this drifts through strange rooms and loose threads and some viewers will find its wandering frustrating.

What it asks of you: Two hours and four minutes of patience with symbols that resist explanation; stillness gets rewarded more than momentum, so settle in rather than hunting for neat answers.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Spirited Away2001

The gold standard of modern animation. A girl navigates a bathhouse of spirits with the same sense of wonder and dread Mahito feels in his new world. Miyazaki at his most inventive and emotionally precise.

But If you've seen it before, you know the shape of it. Some find the middle section repetitive, and the plot can feel secondary to atmosphere.

Howl's Moving Castle2004

Another Miyazaki masterpiece about characters caught between worlds—literal and emotional. Shares the same blend of whimsy, heartbreak, and jaw-dropping animation, with a gentler touch.

But The pacing is leisurely. If you need plot momentum, you may find it drifts. Some find the romance overshadows the stranger, sadder currents underneath.

A Silent Voice: The Movie2016

A Japanese animated film about grief, guilt, and the possibility of redemption. Stunningly drawn, emotionally devastating, and concerned with the interior life of a troubled young person working through trauma.

But It's heavy. The first half in particular can feel painful to watch, and the resolution won't satisfy anyone looking for catharsis rather than acceptance.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Boy and the Heron

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Barefoot Gen1983

Both films use animation to render the interior experience of grief-stricken children during Japan's darkest historical moments, but where Heron reaches toward transcendence and myth, this one stays rooted in the unbearable real.

An animated film about a boy's life before, during, and after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Like Heron, it's a Japanese animated film about a young person navigating loss and displacement during wartime, but it's documentary-like in its emotional immediacy. Where Heron dreams, this one witnesses.

But It's stark and unsparing. There's no fantasy refuge, no beautiful otherworld—just the weight of history on a child's shoulders. Some find it too bleak.

Pan's Labyrinth2006

A dark fairy tale set during the Spanish Civil War, where a girl's inner world offers escape from fascist horror. Like Heron, it braids myth and historical suffering, using fantasy to make grief and loss visible.

But It's brutal in ways that fantasy films usually aren't. The real-world violence is graphic, and the ending is ambiguous in a way that haunts rather than comforts.

Your Name.2016

A Japanese animated romance that moves between the mundane and the cosmic. Technically stunning, emotionally earnest, and proof that anime can achieve emotional depth on a massive scale.

But If you're not drawn to romantic storytelling, the emotional core may feel thin. It's also vastly more accessible and less challenging than Heron, which some find safer.

Grave of the Fireflies1988

Studio Ghibli's most harrowing film: two orphaned siblings during the firebombing of Japan. It shares Heron's setting and its refusal to soften historical tragedy. Unforgettable and necessary.

But It's almost unbearably sad. This isn't entertainment in the usual sense. The helplessness of the protagonists can feel cruel, and the film offers no cathartic release.

Night Is Short, Walk On Girl2017

A wildly imaginative Japanese animated film about a night in Kyoto, visually inventive and intoxicated with possibility. If you loved the otherworldly sequences in Heron, this lives entirely in that register.

But The tone is deliberately chaotic and surreal. There's no plot to speak of, just mood and sensation, which can feel exhausting if you want narrative structure.

Wolf Children2012

A tender, quietly radical film about motherhood and raising children between worlds. Like Heron, it's concerned with how families are built and broken, and with sacrifice made visible through gorgeous animation.

But It's a domestic drama, not a fantasy adventure. The rewards are subtle and emotional rather than spectacular. Some find the second half slower than the first.

The Garden of Words2013

A gorgeously animated 46-minute film about two strangers meeting in a garden during the rainy season. Minimal plot, maximum atmosphere—a mood piece about solitude and connection that shares Heron's attention to beauty and sorrow.

But Almost nothing happens. If you need narrative momentum or dramatic stakes, this will feel slight. Some find the pacing meditative; others find it glacial.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya2013

Both are Japanese animated films where a figure from another world—supernatural or adopted—is haunted by belonging nowhere. Both use classical Japanese aesthetics and mythology. Both treat their protagonists' alienation as the central tragedy.

Isao Takahata's last film, adapted from a 10th-century Japanese folk tale. Hand-drawn watercolor animation that moves like ink bleeding through paper. A profound meditation on the cost of beauty and the tragedy of being otherworldly in a human world.

But The pacing is deliberate to the point of languor. The story is essentially tragedy from the start. If you want narrative surprise or emotional uplift, you won't find it.