How The Boy and the Heron pays tribute to Studio Ghibli’s founders

There’s more than one way to tell the story of your own life. Hayao Miyazaki's highly anticipated new film The Boy and the Heron has been described by Studio Ghibli and its American distributor GKIDS as “semi-autobiographical.” Toshio Suzuki, one of the original founders of Studio Ghibli and a longtime collaborator with Miyazaki, reveals which parts of the surreal new film are actually based in reality.

First things first, there’s the protagonist, a young boy named Mahito Maki, who falls in with a strange and mystical heron who leads him to a magical land that straddles life and death. Like Miyazaki himself, Mahito (voiced by Soma Santoki in Japanese and Luca Padovan in English) is a young Japanese boy growing up in the final years of World War II. They also have other similarities. 

“The boy is not your typical nice and meek boy, is he? He has a darker side in him,” Suzuki tells EW, via a translator. “He’s growing, and he’s very confused. That mirrors how Miyazaki is. It’s very autobiographical in that sense. He says that when he was a boy, he was a super introvert.” 

Another character in The Boy and the Heron also echoes the real Miyazaki, but it may not be who you think. Mahito’s Granduncle (Shohei Hino in Japanese, Mark Hamill in English) is the master of the magical realm that Mahito discovers in an old tower. Given how wise and powerful he appears, it’s a fair guess that the Granduncle is supposed to represent Miyazaki as he is now, in contrast to his younger self. 

Not so, however! Suzuki says that Granduncle is actually modeled on someone else, a person whom Miyazaki himself looked up to. 

“In Miyazaki's mind, the old wizard character is Isao Takahata, Miyazaki’s senior animator who actually discovered his talent,” Suzuki says. 

Though Miyazaki is the most famous filmmaker associated with Studio Ghibli (especially outside of Japan), he founded it alongside Suzuki and Takahata in 1985. Takahata directed several movies for Ghibli over the years, and his 1988 feature Grave of the Fireflies was originally released as a double feature with Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro (which must have created some tonal whiplash among viewers). The opening scenes of The Boy and the Heron evoke Grave of the Fireflies’ horrific depiction of the American firebombing of Japan during World War II. 

By watching how the Granduncle interacts with another character, The Boy and the Heron viewers can get a sense of how Miyazaki used to work with Takahata, who died of lung cancer in 2018. 

“I’ll tell you a secret: Miyazaki's favorite character from the film is actually the Parakeet King,” Suzuki says. “The model of that character is himself: his personality, expressions, and his bearing, as well as what he does and what he says. The relationship between the Granduncle and the Parakeet King is Takahata and Miyazaki.”

This is why, Suzuki continues, The Boy and the Heron doesn’t focus as much on Miyazaki’s recurring themes, such as the conflict between humans and nature, as his previous films. 

“Because this is semi-autobiographical, the protagonist is himself and there are all these other characters that appear in the film who are based on people he has worked with over the years,” Suzuki says. “He wanted to pay tribute to them and express his gratitude for their support throughout his career. So that was the big aim for him in making this film.” 

Already playing in select theaters in New York and L.A., The Boy and the Heron will get a wide release in U.S. theaters this Friday.

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