- Director: Hayao Miyazaki
- Year: 2023
Overview
Mahito Maki is a young boy living in wartime Japan who moves to the countryside after his mother dies in a hospital fire. He doesn't adjust well to his new life, struggling with grief and conflict at school. A talking grey heron begins to torment Mahito, claiming his mother is still alive. Mahito follows the heron into a mysterious tower built by his granduncle. He enters a magical fantasy world where he meets strange creatures and spirits. Mahito must navigate this world to rescue his stepmother, Natsuko, and decide whether he will accept the granduncle's offer to inherit the realm.
Takeaways
The magical world in the tower is a delicate place held together by Mahito's Granduncle, who spends all his time stacking stone blocks to keep it from falling apart. The Granduncle wants Mahito to take over because the realm is slowly dying, but Mahito sees that this fantasy world is actually full of its own problems and conflicts. He realizes that hiding from his grief in a made-up paradise doesn't fix his pain in the real world. By refusing to take over the tower, he lets the magical world crumble so he can return to reality, face his loss, and build a real relationship with his new stepmother.