It's as contemplative and bizarre as everything else he's put out over his long career.

But there's one thing that sets The Boy and the Heron apart.

It perfectly illustrates Ghibli's biggest problem.

Once Miyazaki retires, the future of the studio is in peril.

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Born in Tokyo, Japan in 1941, Hayao Miyazaki and his family moved out to the safety of the Japanese countryside only a few years after his birth.

Growing up during the manga and animation boom of the late 1940s and '50s, Miyazaki had always been enamored with drawing.

These fantastical worlds provided an escape from the brutal realities of life in a post-war Japan and the plight of those around him,

including his tuberculosis-stricken mother, whom he revered for the progressive mindset she maintained until her death decades later when Miyazaki was 42.

Despite attending university for political science and economics, Miyazaki always knew he wanted to pursue a more artistic career.

By 1963, he found himself doing just that.

Employed as an animator at Toei Animation, Miyazaki contributed to many of the studio's films.

The most important of those contributions was his work on The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun.

The 1968 movie was the directorial debut of Isao Takahata, and while it didn't exactly set the world on fire, it catalyzed a lifelong partnership between Takahata and Miyazaki.

The pair left Toei in 1971 in search of other, less creatively restrictive endeavors.

But it wasn't until 1984 that they saw real success when Takahata produced Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Based on a manga also created by Miyazaki, the animated film was a triumph in both its critical reception and box office returns.

It was so successful that it led to the creation of their own animation studio.

Along with producer and manga editor Toshio Suzuki, Takahata and Miyazaki founded Studio Ghibli on June 15, 1985.

While Valley of the Wind doesn't technically count as a Ghibli film, its theme and animation style would go on to inform everything the studio produced.

From My Neighbor Totoro, to Princess Mononoke, to Ponyo, to The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki has had a hand in 13 Ghibli productions over the years, and each one is a treasure.

As a writer, director, animator, or all three, he has carried the weight of the studio on his shoulders since its inception.

Borrowing heavily from his own life, Miyazaki created timeless stories that somehow feel deeply personal and widely relatable.

His creative vision was instrumental to the success of the studio and to the trajectory of the Japanese animation industry, so it shouldn't be too surprising that by the mid-2010s, he was exhausted.

After many years of temporary leaves and false starts, he officially announced his retirement in 2013.

The expectation was that Takahata would be taking over the studio, but since we're living in the future, we know that plan didn't pan out.

Takahata died of lung cancer in 2018, and Miyazaki has remained the face and creative force behind Studio Ghibli.

But that hasn't stopped him from looking for other mentees, and he didn't have to look far.

Miyazaki's son, Goro, has been working at the studio since the early 2000s.

Originally a landscape architect, Goro was put into the family business after Toshio Suzuki asked him to help draft up storyboards on the then-upcoming Earthsea project.

Thanks to his impressive ideas, Goro was offered the director's seat.

Unfortunately, his ideas didn't translate well to the final product.

2006's Tales from Earthsea was poorly received.

He has since gone on to direct two other films for Ghibli, that being From Up on Poppy Hill and Earwig and the Witch.

None of his projects have been on equal footing with the movies his father has created, and Goro knows this.

The crushing weight of his father's legacy is the reason he got into architecture in the first place.

In a 2013 LA Times interview, he confessed to the following,

"When I was in high school, I was thinking if I were to choose the same path as my father, I would never be able to reach the level he has attained. I thought it would be better to choose my own path."

The relationship between Goro and his father has always been strained.

Hayao Miyazaki wasn't a particularly involved parent.

Once Goro was brought into Ghibli, his father became his biggest critic, creating friction behind the scenes and making Goro's foray into animation much more difficult.

An intense level of expectation almost certainly contributed to the poor quality of Tales from Earthsea.

Hayao, for his part, has tried to make amends over the years.

More recently, he has praised Goro's projects, even though he has strong feelings against computer-generated animation.

But as far back as 2008, he has been aware of their issues.

Ponyo, the story of a little boy with an absent father who has to save the world, was intended as an apology to Goro for abandoning him.

Still, the father-son duo tends to butt heads.

Due to this tumultuous relationship and Goro's affinity for CGI, it's safe to say that he won't be the next head of Studio Ghibli.

Which means the elder Miyazaki is still working, and his most recent film might be the most personal thing he's ever created.

The Boy and the Heron is essentially Hayao Miyazaki's autobiography.

In some cases, this idea is literal, and in others, it's metaphorical.

Now, if you haven't seen The Boy and the Heron yet, you should pause this video here because we're about to spoil most of it.

Our main character, Mahito, is born into war and uprooted to go live in the Japanese countryside, just like Miyazaki.

Mahito has also just recently lost his mother, and must watch his aunt languish in bed for much of the movie, not unlike the way Miyazaki watched his own mother's health deteriorate.

Mahito's father, though protective of his son, is rarely around, just like Miyazaki and Goro.

Later on, as things take a turn for the surreal, we see representations of other important figures and moments in Miyazaki's life.

The hard-headed heron may very well be a caricature of Iseo Takahata, and the young spirit of Mahito's mother is likely another homage to Miyazaki's mother and her optimistic worldview.

Most interestingly, Grand-Uncle, an architect, is tasked with stacking 13 blocks that represent the 13 movies Miyazaki has written and directed over his lifetime.

As he grows old, he can no longer maintain the block tower, and the world he built is crumbling around him much like Miyazaki's legacy as he primes himself for retirement.

Or perhaps, much like Goro, if he chooses to take up his father's mantle and try to build upon his work.

The movie tells us these blocks are infused with malice, and that Mahito may be able to make his own tower with fresh blocks, free of burden.

So The Boy and the Heron gives us insight into Miyazaki's personal life and his feelings toward his family, but most importantly, for the sake of this video, tells us how he views his legacy.

For decades, Studio Ghibli's biggest issue has been the fact that there is no one capable of continuing Miyazaki's work.

There is no one to stack the blocks as expertly as he has, and nobody seems to know what to do about it.

The Boy and the Heron very clearly reckons with this, but it also offers up a bittersweet solution.

The movie ends with Mahito refusing to take up the job of stacking the blocks.

The tower falls, and the world Grand-Uncle created is destroyed.

Everyone gets a happy ending, aside from Grand-Uncle, who was swallowed up in the destruction.

If we're following through with an extended allegory, we have to assume that Miyazaki is telling us that his legacy should end the same way.

The world Miyazaki created was magical and inarguably flawed.

Instead of struggling to find someone to fill his shoes, it might be best to let this era of Studio Ghibli fall, and hope those involved find their happy endings.

Well, that's all we have for you today.

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