# Where to Watch The Boy and the Heron

**The Boy and the Heron streams on Max and Netflix, and it's Hayao Miyazaki's late-career masterwork: a grieving boy led by a talking grey heron into a strange, layered world between life and death. Dense, personal, and Oscar-winning.**

## Where to Watch

- [Max](https://play.max.com/movie/a654e7de-e954-411e-8304-73b5060e6dcc)
- [Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/title/81725555)

Max and Netflix both stream The Boy and the Heron in pristine HD with subs and a star-studded English dub. It's a demanding, richly layered film, so give it your full attention rather than half a screen.

## Synopsis

Mahito, a boy reeling from the loss of his mother in wartime, moves to the countryside with his father and struggles to accept a new life. A peculiar grey heron begins taunting him, luring him toward an abandoned tower and, through it, into a surreal parallel world that runs on its own dreamlike rules. There he searches for what he's lost and confronts questions of grief, creation, and how to live, in Miyazaki's most enigmatic and autobiographical film.

## Fast Facts

- **Format:** MOVIE
- **Episodes:** 1
- **Premiered:** 2023
- **Studio:** studio ghibli inc.
- **Score:** 7.7

## If You Liked This

- **[Spirited Away](https://hozuna.com/anime/spirited-away)** — Spirited Away is the closest companion: another child pulled into a strange spirit world to find their way home.
- **[Princess Mononoke](https://hozuna.com/anime/princess-mononoke)** — Princess Mononoke shares the film's weight, ambition, and moral complexity.
- **[Howl's Moving Castle](https://hozuna.com/anime/howl-s-moving-castle)** — Howl's Moving Castle offers more of Miyazaki's dreamlike architecture and wartime backdrop.
- **[Frieren: Beyond Journey's End](https://hozuna.com/anime/frieren-beyond-journey-s-end)** — 
- **[Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood](https://hozuna.com/anime/fullmetal-alchemist-brotherhood)** — 
- **[Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc](https://hozuna.com/anime/chainsaw-man-reze-arc)** — 
- **[Re:Zero Season 4](https://hozuna.com/anime/re-zero-season-4)** — 
- **[Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2](https://hozuna.com/anime/attack-on-titan-season-3-part-2)** — 

## FAQ

### Where can I watch The Boy and the Heron?

It streams on Max and Netflix, subbed and with an English dub.

### Did The Boy and the Heron win an Oscar?

Yes. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Miyazaki's second win in that category.

### Do I need to watch other Ghibli films first?

No, though longtime Miyazaki fans will catch echoes of his earlier work throughout.