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."
The 2022–2024 Japan Window
219 Japan films released in this three-year window, ranked here by audience rating. The Boy and the Heron sits at position #33.
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.
3 sharedA Silent Voice: The Movie
★ 8.4 · Japan
3 sharedIn the Heat of the Sun
★ 7.7 · China
3 sharedanohana: The Flower We Saw That Day – The Movie
★ 7.5 · Japan
3 sharedAura: Koga Maryuin's Last War
★ 5.8 · Japan
3 sharedPsychic School Wars
★ 6.4 · Japan
3 sharedPenguin Highway
★ 7.1 · Japan
Other Titles From Studio Ghibli
The 2020s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year in the 2020s. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Boy and the Heron premiered. 539 total titles in this decade from Japan.
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%).