It's the Second World War, and Mahito's mother has died in a fire bombing. Now his father has announced they are moving to the country where he has set up a factory for fighter planes, and Natsuko is going to be his new mother and she's expecting a child. And, oh yeah, it gradually becomes clear she's Mahito's mother's sister. The maternal estate is large and beautifully landscaped, and there's a strange tower that has been allowed to fall to pieces, along with a family legend about a great-uncle who built the tower where a meteorite struck, and who later vanished.
Mahito is upset about all this, and so he injures himself so he won't have to go to school. But he keeps having strange dreams about the grey heron and the tower, and his stepmother driving it off with a bow and arrow..... which he later spots in her room.
And all the elderly female servants look like the characters from SPIRITED AWAY. This is all right, because Hayao Miyazaki has come out of retirement again to offer us a parable about how you can have a family, if you're willing to be accepting. Once again, it's filled with giant, evil parakeets, toy balloon animals that float to the moon, and a sense that there are rules in operation here, even if you don't understand them. In the meantime, enjoy the weirdness, and, as always, the magnificent background art.
Mahito is upset about all this, and so he injures himself so he won't have to go to school. But he keeps having strange dreams about the grey heron and the tower, and his stepmother driving it off with a bow and arrow..... which he later spots in her room.
And all the elderly female servants look like the characters from SPIRITED AWAY. This is all right, because Hayao Miyazaki has come out of retirement again to offer us a parable about how you can have a family, if you're willing to be accepting. Once again, it's filled with giant, evil parakeets, toy balloon animals that float to the moon, and a sense that there are rules in operation here, even if you don't understand them. In the meantime, enjoy the weirdness, and, as always, the magnificent background art.