Japan Synopsis
君たちはどう生きるか
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."
Audience Engagement
13 audience reviews — more than 20% of Japan films in our index.
Popularity (93th percentile) outruns review volume (20th) — a trending, discussed title among Japan films.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Boy and the Heron. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Studio Ghibli
Animation + Fantasy in Japan
1095 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Animation and Fantasy genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Boy and the Heron itself).
The 2022–2024 Japan Window
Among 219 Japan films we catalog from this window, The Boy and the Heron places #33 — near the top of its class.
The 2020s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 2020s in Japan, 539 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Boy and the Heron premiered alongside 86 others.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 86 other Japan films in 2023.
The 4571st Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Boy and the Heron, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- spirituality · 2
- troubled childhood · 2
- moving to a city · 2
- hand drawn animation · 2
- magic world · 1
- courage · 1
- bullying · 27
- poverty · 24
- teenage boy · 8
- education · 6
- anime · 711
- based on novel or book · 288
- coming of age · 78
- world war ii · 55
- loss of loved one · 32
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #512 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (89th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is +1.2 points above the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Animation productions specifically: #433 of 2,532 (top 17%).