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● Movie Guide · Last updated May 18, 2026

The Boy and the Heron: Plot, Cast, Ending & Where to Watch

2023 · Japan · Animation, Fantasy, Drama · 2h 04m · Japanese

The Boy and the Heron is a 2023 Japan animation film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. This guide covers the plot, full cast, an overview of the ending, where to watch, and similar films you might want next.

Read Ending Explained → Movies Like The Boy and the Heron Where to Watch
AnimationFantasyNotable
Original Title
The Boy and the Heron
Director
Hayao Miyazaki
Writers
Hayao Miyazaki
Country
Japan
Runtime
2h 04m
Release
Jul 14, 2023
§ 01 Plot · 6 min read

The Boy and the Heron Plot Summary

The Boy and the Heron is a 2023 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Produced by Studio Ghibli, the film's Japanese title references Genzaburō Yoshino's 1937 novel How Do You Live? but is not an adaptation of it. The film stars the voices of Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Kaoru Kobayashi, and Shinobu Otake. It follows a boy named Mahito Maki who moves to the countryside after his mother's death, discovers an abandoned tower near his new home, and enters a fantastical world with a talking grey heron.

● Quick takeaway

The Boy and the Heron (2023) is a Japan animation film, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, running 124 minutes. While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the "long-awaited one.". Stars Soma Santoki and Masaki Suda. Critical reception: IMDb 7.3/10, Rotten Tomatoes 96%, Metacritic 91/100. Tagline: "Where death comes to an end, life finds a new beginning.." This guide covers the plot, full cast, ending, and where to watch.

§ 02 Cast · 6 roles

Cast and Characters

Soma Santoki headshot
Soma Santoki
as Mahito Maki (voice)
Santoki, a young actor with limited prior screen work, voices Mahito at a register Miyazaki has been building toward for years — quiet, withdrawn, often inarticulate, with the kind of grief that does not metabolise into easy expression. The performance carries an unusual amount of silence for a Ghibli lead, and Santoki's restraint is what lets the late scenes between Mahito and Himi land as recognition rather than as plot device.
Masaki Suda headshot
Masaki Suda
as Gray Heron (voice)
Suda, one of the most popular leading men in contemporary Japanese cinema, takes on the film's strangest and most prosthetic vocal performance — the heron whose beak opens to reveal a leering human face and whose voice has to be both bird and middle-aged conman in the same sentence. The performance shifts register multiple times across the film and is the central reason the heron reads as a real character rather than a mascot.
Ko Shibasaki headshot
Ko Shibasaki
as Kiriko (voice)
Shibasaki, who Miyazaki cast in the lead of Tales from Earthsea in 2006, returns to Ghibli as Kiriko — the formidable elderly cook from the estate who turns out, inside the tower world, to be a young sailor who has fished the same waters for far longer than the estate has been standing. The performance carries the film's most pragmatic register and grounds the fantasy in something resembling rural-Japanese labour.
Aimyon headshot
Aimyon
as Lady Himi (voice)
Aimyon, one of Japan's biggest contemporary pop-rock songwriters, takes her first major voice-acting role as Lady Himi, the younger version of Mahito's mother who lives inside the tower world and can throw fire from her hands. The casting is the film's most poignant: a present-day artist voicing the youthful past of a character whose present-day adult self is dead. The performance is warm, fierce, and unsentimental about its own pathos.
Yoshino Kimura headshot
Yoshino Kimura
as Natsuko (voice)
Yoshino Kimura voices Natsuko — Mahito's stepmother, the sister of his dead mother, and the pregnant woman whose disappearance into the tower world drives the film's central quest. The performance has to carry an extraordinary tonal load: she is the rival, the substitute, the missing mother-to-be, and eventually the person Mahito has to claim. Kimura plays the role at a low, controlled register that gives her late scenes their force.
Takuya Kimura headshot
Takuya Kimura
as Shoichi Maki (voice)
Takuya Kimura, the former SMAP frontman who voiced the lead in Howl's Moving Castle, returns to Ghibli as Mahito's father — a wartime munitions executive whose factory is doing well precisely because the country is burning. The casting is Miyazaki's bluntest political move: the most popular male voice in Japan voicing the father whose prosperity is the war's prosperity, and whose blunt physical love for his son the film does not allow the audience to simply admire.
§ 03 · Spoiler Zone · Read with care

Ending Overview

How does The Boy and the Heron end? Our spoiler-aware breakdown walks through the final act beat by beat — including the choices, motivations, and ambiguous final shot that viewers most often debate.

Read full Ending Explained →
§ 04 Watch · Updated May 18

Where to Watch The Boy and the Heron

Availability may vary by region and change over time.

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§ 06

Frequently Asked

What is The Boy and the Heron about?

While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother.

Where can I watch The Boy and the Heron?

See the Where to Watch section below for the current streaming, rental, and purchase options in your region.