#miyazaki youve done it again

[sammythelibrarian]

Just some spoilery and messy thoughts on the boy and the heron

One thing I love about The Boy and the Heron is that Mahito is never mean or rude to Natsuko? He's cold, yes. A bit standoffish, sure. Visibly trying to cope with horrific circumstances, absolutely.

But he never calls her out on her "new mother" comment, he never makes faces behind her back, he's not trying to drive a wedge between her and his father.

And it wouldn't have been awful if he had. A lot of his actions are driven by the norms of the time period (his father and Natsuko are smart for marrying, for keeping everything within the family, for not introducing Mahito to a stranger) and the expected showings of respect to ones own family and yadaydaya, but a grieving kid acting out still would have been fine to a modern audience. But he didn't take his feelings out on her. He didn't particularly care for his aunt/step-mom but he didn't (visibly) blame her even when he struggled.

And when she (seemed like) she needed help, he went to help her anyway. And I think that's just nice to see for once.

I'm not a big fan of BuT FaMiLY as a concept (in fact, I heavily recommend pruning the family tree whenever you feel like it!) but I am a big fan of trying your hardest not to take out your valid but complicated feelings on those around you.

Also a big fan of having a look at a situation and decide you will help this person out, even if you don't like them. Not being liked by me is not a crime, so time to go adventuring.

And to me, while the scene in the birthing chamber has some layers I haven't quite figured out yet, Mahito's acceptance of her there comes from the fact that he's had time to breathe. It's not as sudden as it seems.

Away from Tokyo, from his new home, from his father, from his new mother, from everything, his focus is forced to shift. Suddenly he's attacked by birds! On a boat! Gutting fish? His mini-mom's there now, surely this won't affect the way he grieves at all.

Anyway, I think that after all of that it's easier for him to out Natsuko into perspective. All she (has shown she) wants to do is care for her sister's son, her own future kid, her husband and her home. She's been nothing but nice to him and shouldn't that merit something in return?

Not in the "forced by society" way, but in the self-reflection sort of way. Mahito owes it to her and himself to give her a chance to take on this new role in his life. His mother's not coming back either way, but here is her sister willing to love him like her anyway. (and hate him but like I said, layers I'm still struggling to make semi-coherent to myself. I have some ideas)

Here's a story of a boy who's gone through some unimaginable trauma leaving relative safety behind to go rescue his new step-mother that he doesn't even like, only to eventually realize that they'd both be better off emotionally if she's given a chance to be there for him.

She's the first to protect him from the Heron, too, I just realized. He gets the idea of using a bow from her. She's already passing things on to him even before they become mother and son.

Anyway this got way longer than I thought it'd be (I was just going to note down some random ideas) and I'm not sure how much sense it makes but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've seen a lot of people talking about the themes of this movie, but not many seem to be touching on the relationship between these two (except for talk of the birthing room scene).

One final thought: obviously he has some Issues with fire after the opening of the movie, but by the end it's become Himi's visual (the fire is his mom). Just like how he struggles with Natsuko, but in the end she's become his mom too. Cheesy phrasing? Maybe