The Boy and the Heron Explained - How do You Live? Explanation

Studio Ghibli is a legend in the anime world. Ghibli movies often contain interesting thoughts and superb artistic aesthetics. Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka AKA How do You Live? AKA The Boy and the Heron definitely belongs to the deepest anime films by the legendary director Hayao Miyazaki. This title belongs to the films where the viewers have a lot of space for their own explanations and ideas. A lot of unexplained metaphors make people think a lot about their meaning, and honestly, there is probably no correct explanation. It's up to everyone to pick up something valuable from this film and carry it to their lives. What is the meaning of the Boy and The Heron? What is the message behind it?

The Japanese title of the movie is inspired by a book of the same name that also appears in the movie as a gift to the main character from his mom. However, the plot does not follow the book. Maybe the name and the main topic of the book inspired Mr. Miyazaki to create this masterpiece. Honestly, the plot reminded me of the Neon Genesis Evangelion and the main protagonist Shinji who was finding his way into adulthood. I'd never expect to see something like Ghibli Evangelion, but here we go! To me, the main theme of the film was the critical time of our life where we slowly turn from kids to adults. Adolescence is one of the most important periods that affects the kind of person we become, and many psychologists regard this period as crucial for future mental development.

The main character Mahito loses his mother during WWII and moves with his father to his new wife. Mahito does not seem to fit in the new school, gets beaten by the local kids, and even turns to self-harming to avoid visiting school again. His stepmother is pregnant, and his father, director of an warfare factory, does not seem to be a person Mahito can really talk to about his inner suffering. One day Mahito escapes from the house, escapes this cruel life, and goes to explore the mysterious old tower.

One of the main characters, also mentioned in the English title, the talking Heron first starts to scare Mahito. Flies around, talks, tries to devour him. To me, this heron kind of resembled our fears. First Mahito seems to be scared. Then tried to fight it but the Heron seems to be too powerful. Mahito almost gets devoured by hundreds of frogs led by the Heron. His stepmother saves him even though this seems to have been a dream. Then Mahito uses a feather which fell off the Heron to create an arrow which seems to be and efficient weapon against the Heron. Sometimes we need to find that one weakness, that one illogical element, that can be used agains the fear itself. The Heron slowly turns into a funny Heron/man who eventually helps Mahito and becomes his friend. Sometimes, our fears, when we fight them, with the support of kind people around us (Mahito's stepmother), make us stronger. Often things that are worth in life are guarded by our fear!

Mr. Miyazaki returned from retirement to create this movie. Obviously, this is something important to him, and it seems that this movie contains a lot of autobiographical elements. For example, according to Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki's good friend and colleague, a heron often flew into Mr. Miyazaki's garden like in the movie, the Heron character seems to be based on Mr. Suzuki himself, Mahito's childhood has a lot in common with Mr. Miyazaki's one, etc. One of the topics of this film is the value, benefits, and dangers of art. Mr. Miyazaki is known for his inspiration in nature and everyday life. He mentioned that many anime creators are too isolated from others and inspired by other fictional worlds when creating their own ones. In this way, some anime become more and more separated from reality. The old uncle in the film, the Master of the Tower, seems to represent this a little. His world is beautiful and yet imperfect. The sea with only a little of fish is a nice example. Mahito and Kiriko catch a big fish that is distributed to the black soul-like beings and the warawara cute beings that are the souls of unborn humans. The dead and the unborn? Warawara then fly to the upper world to be born while pelicans hunt them. An injured pelican then says that they have no choice, they are living in a world with almost no fish. Maybe this is the metaphor of fantasy worlds too separated from reality where essential elements are missing and such worlds only devour the soul instead of enriching it.

The uncle is said to be a man obsessed with the tower that fell from the sky. His huge library became his refugee, and eventually he lost his mind and disappeared. Reminds me of Don Quixote who lost touch with reality as well, being lost in fiction. The uncle created his own fantasy world that lasts only one day. Then he has to fix the unstable tower made of bricks. He wants Mahito to become his successor, but Mahito refuses. Mahito refuses to escape the cruel world into the world of fantasy. Mahito wishes to find his stepmother lost in the fantasy world and return. The audience can see a parakeet king following Mahito and eventually destroying the fantasy world after an unsuccessful attempt to hastily create his own tower of bricks. The blind desire to create a new ideal world is a nice example of the fanatism. When someone tries to force their fantasy world into reality, it always ends up being a catastrophe. The parakeets seem to symbolize fanatic militarism, presumably fascism, as a projection of the WWII reality into a young boy's mind. They carry propagandist symbols, and they prey on human beings. But in the end, when they leave the fantasy world, they are just small parakeets with no power.

To me, this film was a lot about how young people need to deal with, often cruel, reality. The peak moment of the film seemed to be the moment where Mahito finds his stepmother in the birthing room and decides to accept her as his new mother and calls her that. She also seems to accept him despite her inner hatred towards him. Both seeing each other as an intruder in their life, but they eventually accept each other. An interesting detail is that Mahito is actually led to this place by his own mother who came to the world from a different timeline. The old ladies mentioned that she once disappeared into the tower for a year as a young girl and returned, not remembering a thing. But the way there is hard, the stone walls produce strange electricity that hurts both of them. Maybe this is the uncomfort and nervosity that follow about important decisions in life? The parakeet king then demands punishment for Mahito for entering the birthing room. Isn't that also familiar? Often when we decide to make a huge change in our life, we often receive punishment from other people in many forms. Some are envious, some shocked, some wanted us to stay in a certain way...

An interesting symbol near the end of the film is the one brick that Mahito brought from the fantasy world. The Heron was surprised and said that this cane be problematic but it doesn't matter as the brick is not a powerful one. Maybe this is what we shall take from fantasy worlds and from art. A little piece that helps us to relax and gain strength and motivation to face the problems of real life.

I think that the best way to fully understand The Boy and The Heron is to take a look behind the scenes. There is a documentary called Hayao Miyazaki And The Heron that describes the process of making of this movie and also focuses a lot on the way Mr. Miyazaki and his colleagues percieved the whole journey. It is a very deep film and definitely worth watching! The documentary uses real scenes recorded with the director and his crew and mixes them with the scenes form all the Ghibli anime movies to show how Miyazaki's work is deeply connected to the reality. Mr. Miyazaki confirms that the Heron is based on Mr. Suzuki's personality as being a con man or a trickster. Similarly, Kiriko character is based on Michiyo Yasuda, a Ghibli long-time animator. It seems that Mr. Miyazaki is inspired even more by the reality than one would expect. For example, Pom Poko movie about raccoons is supposed to resemble his young years with his friend and a Ghibli colleague Isao Takahata. Mr. Miyazaki remembers his discussion with Mr. Takahata at a bus station. Mr. Suzuki, however, claims that this might not even be a real memory and points out to its similarity to the famous bus scene in Totoro. After Mr. Takahata passed away, the director still felt his presence in his work and talked about his spirit probably haunting him. Supposedly, the spirited of his deceased friend somehow forced the director to again come back from his retirement and produce another film. The director said that the grand uncle in the movie is based on Takahata who wants to live forever but Mahito (Miyazaki himself according to Suzuki) will not help him. It seems like the clash of reality and fiction is indeed the main theme of this movie after all! The director also acknowledges certain connection to Evangelion, especially because of the artistic style of Takeshi Honda who participated in both the projects.

Keywords: anime, manga, Japanese, Japan, meaning
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