The Boy and the Heron (2023):The Studio Ghibli Fantasy That Asks Students How Grief and a New Family Can Coexist

Students are introduced to grief, resilience, and what it means to build a life again after profound loss, all through the eyes of a boy who cannot yet accept the family forming around him. The story asks what it takes to move forward when the world you knew has fallen apart and the people who are trying to care for you are not the people you lost.

Mahito Maki loses his mother in a hospital fire during the war, and three years later moves to the countryside with his father and his new stepmother Natsuko, his late mother's sister, who is expecting a baby. Distant and unhappy, Mahito injures himself and is drawn by a mysterious talking heron into a hidden world reached through a tower on the family estate. There he meets a younger version of Kiriko, a fisherwoman who helps him survive, and Himi, a fire wielding girl who turns out to be his own mother as a child. Mahito is eventually asked to take over the fantastical realm from its aging architect, but chooses instead to return to his real family and accept them as they are.

The story gives students a way into thinking about grief and how people carry loss forward without being consumed by it, and about what it means to accept a family that looks different from the one you had before. It also offers a way into discussing how a filmmaker can turn deeply personal history into fiction, since the movie draws directly on Hayao Miyazaki's own childhood experience of evacuation and loss during the war, giving students a real world anchor for a story that otherwise moves through fantasy and myth.

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🕊️ Grief that shapes the whole story. Mahito's mother dies in a hospital fire early in the movie, and his difficulty accepting his stepmother in her place drives nearly everything that follows. Students see grief portrayed not as a single moment but as something that colors a person's actions and relationships for years afterward.

🐦 A guide who is not what he seems. The talking heron who lures Mahito into the fantastical world turns out to conceal a strange, flightless creature called the Birdman living inside its body. Students can examine how the movie uses this reveal to question whether the people and creatures guiding Mahito can actually be trusted.

🌊 A world where the living and the dead meet. Once inside the tower, Mahito enters a realm where spirits called Warawara are born and rise to the world above, and where he eventually encounters his own mother as a young girl named Himi. The blurred boundary between life and death gives students a striking way into discussing how the movie represents loss and continuity.

👨‍👩‍👦 A family reshaped by loss. Mahito's father remarries his late wife's sister, and the family is expecting a new baby by the time the story ends. Students can trace how Mahito moves from resisting this new family to accepting it, offering a concrete example of what it looks like to rebuild connection after loss.

🏛️ A choice between an inherited legacy and a messy real life. Mahito is offered the chance to take over the magical realm from its aging architect and build it into something free of malice, but he refuses, choosing instead to return to his imperfect but real family. The decision gives students a clear moment to discuss what a person gains by choosing connection over control.

🎬 A filmmaker drawing on his own childhood. Hayao Miyazaki based Mahito's experience of wartime evacuation and loss directly on his own childhood, including his father's work manufacturing aircraft parts and his family's move to the countryside during the war. Students can explore how a filmmaker transforms personal history into a fantastical story rather than a straightforward memoir.

⚠️ Things to be aware of:

• A boy deliberately injures his own head with a rock, and the wound bleeds heavily.
• Includes images of blood and violence, including a scene where a large fish is cut open with visible detail.
• A parent dies off screen in a hospital fire near the start of the movie.
• Adult characters are shown smoking cigarettes.
• Mild language is used, including a small number of uses of 'damn' and 'hell'.
• There is no sexual content beyond a brief, non-explicit kiss.

📚 English Language Arts Teachers. The Boy and the Heron is a strong ELA text for classes working on symbolism and narrative structure. Its recurring motifs of fire, birds, and a fractured sense of time give students a concrete way to trace how a story builds meaning beyond plot. The guide covers differentiated comprehension questions alongside creative writing and narrative tasks.

🗣️ ESL and ELL Teachers. The movie's visual storytelling carries much of its meaning, from Mahito's ordinary wartime life to the strange, symbol heavy world inside the tower, giving ESL and ELL students strong visual context to support their comprehension. The guide's multiple choice question set offers a lower pressure way for these students to demonstrate understanding without relying entirely on written recall.

🎬 Substitute Teachers and Cover Lessons. Everything a substitute needs is laid out and ready to go, with three tiers of comprehension questions and answer keys included for the question sets. A substitute can run the full session, from questions through the storyboard, synopsis, and creative writing tasks, without having seen the movie beforehand.

🏠 Homeschool Parents. The Boy and the Heron is the kind of movie that opens up real conversation between a parent and a student about grief, family, and what it means to move forward after loss. Its themes are rich enough to anchor a discussion that goes well beyond the movie itself, and the guide's storyboard, synopsis, and creative writing tasks give a homeschool student a structured way to process the story on their own.

💙 SEL Teachers. Mahito's grief over his mother's death and his resistance to his new stepmother run through the entire movie, and his eventual acceptance of his rebuilt family gives students a full emotional arc to follow. An SEL teacher can use this to open up honest conversation about how loss changes a person and what it takes to let a new kind of family in. The guide does not include a dedicated SEL activity, but the comprehension questions keep students engaged with these moments as they watch.

🌟 Supporting All Learners Movie guides can be a wonderfully calm fit for students with autism, learning difficulties, and mild to severe disabilities. The structured format gives every student a clear purpose during viewing, easing uncertainty and allowing them to engage at their own pace. If you teach in a special education or learning support setting, you may find this guide a gentle and practical resource. Find out more about why movies work for diverse learners.

Part 1: Comprehension Questions
Three sets of differentiated comprehension questions in chronological order, for use with different ability levels. The first set has 55 questions requiring full sentence answers, the second has 35 questions requiring full sentence answers (20 removed from the 55-question set), and the third has 35 multiple choice questions with 3 possible answers each. Answer keys are included for all three sets.

Part 2: Storyboard, Synopsis, and Creative Writing
Students draw a nine scene storyboard of what they believe are the most important parts of the movie, including a brief description for each scene, with the movie questions available to help with sequencing. Using their storyboards as a guide, students then write a synopsis of the movie. Finally, students imagine they are Mahito's friend asked to help document his strange journey, including two drawings and writing about any part of Mahito's experience witnessed in the movie.