Magic girls, wizards, mysterious towers; funny old ladies, creepy and cute creatures, WW2 and drool-worthy food shots. Despite these and MANY more such common tropes of Japanese, classical fantasy AND Ghibli storytelling itself being present here in spades, Miyazaki somehow comes back out of retirement for the N-th time and against all odds, finds something profoundly heartbreaking to say about grief, legacy and leaving memories in the times they belong in our lives. This is the most elusive and at the same time the most honest attempt I’ve seen from an artist, at the twilight of their career, reaching out to the countless successors they have a hand in creating and letting them know how they envision their life and their art being interpreted, remembered and carried forward long after their little blip of occupied time in this universe is over.

PS: whoever is responsible for changing the title to “The Boy and the Heron” from the original “How Do You Live?” fuck you and you clearly didn’t watch this OR The Wind Rises before dumbing stuff down ten notches for crayon-eaters with this irrelevant change.