what the internet says

48〰️ uneven

read from 113 public comments

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The Boy and the Heron

Name: The Boy and the Heron
Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Drama
Released: 2023-07-14
Duration: 124 min

Where death comes to an end, life finds a new beginning.

20232h 4mcritics 7.4/10

Animation Fantasy Drama

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."

starring Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Ko Shibasaki, Aimyon

FLICKFEEL

from 113 comments

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YOURS

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what the internet says

FUN

how good a time it was

MEANINGFUL

how much it moved you

Two separate readings, not parts of the score — the score says how much of it held you, these say what kind of watch it was.

Nobody has rated this on FlickFeel yet. This is public discussion of this title, read into a curve. It is not a rating and it never becomes one.

Read from 113 comments (81 from Reddit, 28 from Metacritic, 4 from TMDB reviews) — 22 of them described how it moves.

〰️ uneven — Peaks and dips, no clear shape. Hard going most of the way through.

Hover the curveDrag across the curve to see what people said at any point.

height: how intense it got, 0–100
gold above: how tender it felt. violet below — what it cost. Thick on both at once means it was doing both.
grey haze: how sure we are — wider means fewer people described it

what critics said

Published reviews, not felt experience — a different question from the one above, and never mixed into the FlickFeel score.

Metascore

Tomatometer

96%

FlickFeel

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

“While this dream-like warble of a swan song may be too pitchy and scattered to hit with the gale-force power that made “The Wind Rises” feel like such a definitive farewell, The Boy and the Heron finds Miyazaki so nakedly bidding adieu — to us, and to the crumbling kingdom of dreams and madness that he’ll soon leave behind — that it somehow resolves into an even more fitting goodbye, one graced with the divine awe and heart-stopping wistfulness of watching a true immortal make peace with their own death.”
David Ehrlich, IndieWire · 100
“The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki’s strong-willed encouragement for us to persevere. If this is, in fact, a swan song, then it’s a ravishing one because no one has the ability to distill elemental truths into vividly rendered moving paintings like Miyazaki.”
Carlos Aguilar, The Playlist · 100
“The Boy and the Heron is irresistible in its dream logic, straddling the adorable (white blob creatures called Warawara that inflate like balloons) and the dark (parakeet soldiers that are on the search for fresh meat). But what makes it most compelling are the ways in which the real and the magical are equal presences.”
Alison Willmore, New York Magazine (Vulture) · 100
“This may be Miyazaki's most expansive and magisterial film. If it is not the most instantly stunning, that might be because he takes the time to deliver worlds within worlds, layers under layers, to create an overwhelming experience by the end.”
Caryn James, BBC · 100
“No one needed further proof that he’s a master. This meditation on grief and growing up does solidify the position, however, that Miyazaki remains the greatest living animator today, period.”
David Fear, Rolling Stone · 100

Scores from Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, read 24 Aug 2026. Quotes belong to their publications and link to the full reviews.

what people actually wrote

Grouped by where it was written, because a considered review and a reaction typed an hour after the credits are different things. Every quote links to its source.

Reddit49 read

“the ending was rather disappointing”
Admirable-Cat7434▲ 442about 75–100% inread it ↗
“Every few scenes seemed to be deliberately designed to gross me out.”
Mysterious_Remote584▲ 269about 0–15% inread it ↗
“it gets grating after a while that there's _so much_ goop, slime, flesh, blood, shit, etc.”
Mysterious_Remote584▲ 269about 0–100% inread it ↗
“it felt especially slow”
m2thek▲ 179about 0–100% inread it ↗

Metacritic2 read

“Teens: Terrible (slow and boring)”
43in2014about 0–100% inread it ↗
“I grew up on anime, at least the anime that was slowly making its way into the US in the early 90s. Multiply copied VHS, those fever dream dubs early morning Saturday on SciFi. Then I found manga, learning the language, finding a rich media tradition and enjoying it more than most anything Western media has provided. Ghibli films are a big part of what I love about Japan. Castle Of Cagliostro remains a personal favorite (I know, but it is really a Ghibli film), and all the fan favorites, but I ”
ronrironinread it ↗

TMDB4 read

“Maybe it's sacrilegious to say, but I didn't love this latest from the marvellously imaginative mind of Hayao Miyazaki. It follows the adventures of "Mahito" who arrives at the home of his factory-owning father amidst WWII. We appreciate quickly that his mother has died and that he is to have a new, expectant, mother in "Natsuko". When she mysteriously disappears and "Mahito" finds his presence "requested" by an enigmatic and beautiful grey heron, he strays into an old abandoned tower on his fam”
CinemaSerfread it ↗
“MORE SPOILER-FREE MINI-REVIEWS @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/mini-reviews-2023-edition THE BOY AND THE HERON is a visually captivating film that struggles to balance all of its storylines and themes. Technically, no faults. The visuals are nothing short of breathtaking, with each shot meticulously detailed and rich in storytelling. The animation is a true work of art, drawing viewers into a world of wonder and magic. The sound design and score complement the visuals beautifully, ”
Manuel São Bentoread it ↗
“Good little adventure for this young man who... has a bit of a strange situation with his dad. What a crazy bugger his dad is and what kind of family dynamic is going on? Is the younger sister pregnant with the dad's kid? Maybe it's cultural and I'm not sure why the old man changes intention so quickly or what the bird motivations are. Perhaps will read a book about it one day. It's fun. There's cool animation. I like to watch these in Japanese with subs but I went back to listen to the Engli”
Chandler Danierread it ↗

The Boy and the Heron

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