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The Boy and the Heron
Movie

The Boy and the Heron

2023 • Animation, Adventure, Drama

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

In the wake of his mother's death and his father's remarriage, a headstrong boy ventures into a dreamlike world shared by the living and the dead in search of his missing stepmother.

Overall Series Review

The film is a personal and abstract exploration of grief, family, and acceptance, framed as a fantastical journey. A boy, Mahito, struggles to reconcile with his mother's death and his father's quick remarriage to his mother's sister, Natsuko, who is now pregnant. This inner conflict drives him to a mysterious tower and into an alternate world where the living and dead coexist. The narrative is heavily focused on Mahito's emotional and moral growth. He encounters figures that represent his past, present, and future, forcing him to make a difficult choice about the nature of the world he wants to inherit. The story is deeply steeped in Japanese folklore and mythology, using symbolism like the Heron, Pelicans, and Parakeets to explore themes of trauma, loss, and the cycle of life. The core message centers on choosing to live a flawed, real life with others rather than escaping into a perfect but solitary fantasy.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The story takes place in Japan during the war and features an entirely Japanese cast, driven by a universal story of grieving a lost mother and accepting a new family. Characters are defined by their personal moral choices, emotional struggles, and role in the protagonist's growth, not by immutable characteristics or racial identity. The plot does not rely on a framework of privilege or systemic oppression.

Oikophobia3/10

The setting is Japan during the trauma of World War II, with the initial tragedy linked to a bombing raid. The magical world is a creation of an ancestor, and the protagonist ultimately rejects the offer to inherit this perfect world, choosing instead to return to the flawed, real world to build a stronger bond with his family. The narrative explores national trauma and the imperfections of reality but resolves with the central character embracing his home and future.

Feminism2/10

The narrative's major emotional arc revolves around the roles of women as mothers and nurturers, both the deceased mother and the pregnant stepmother. The stepmother, Natsuko, struggles with her new role and grief, but her journey is one of acceptance and being saved, not of emasculating men or seeking a career as the only fulfillment. The core family unit expands, and motherhood is central and respected, which promotes a complementarian and vitalist view of gender roles.

LGBTQ+1/10

The core relational focus is the heterosexual family unit: a father, a son, and a pregnant stepmother/aunt. The story is a quest to save the pregnant stepmother and reconcile the family structure. The narrative presents the traditional nuclear family and male-female pairing as the standard and does not center or feature alternative sexualities, gender ideology, or messages deconstructing the family unit.

Anti-Theism2/10

The movie explores deep spiritual and philosophical questions about existence, morality, and creation through a fantastical, non-religious lens. The antagonist figure (the Great-Granduncle) attempts to create a new, pure world, which is rejected by the protagonist for one that acknowledges malice, connecting morality to personal choice. There is no depiction of or hostility toward organized religion, specifically Christianity, in the narrative's themes or characters.