The protagonist in the 2023 film The Boy and the Heron is Mahito Maki. He is a boy living through wartime loss whose journey into a fantastical world forms the film’s central story.
Mahito loses his mother, Hisako, in a hospital fire during the Pacific War. His father then moves the family to the countryside, where Mahito struggles with grief, his new stepmother Natsuko, and the unfamiliar environment. A talking grey heron eventually draws him toward an abandoned tower associated with his great-granduncle.
Inside the tower, Mahito enters a strange world populated by figures such as Kiriko, Himi, the Warawara, pelicans, and intelligent parakeets. His adventure is both a fantasy quest and a coming-of-age story about mourning, selfishness, responsibility, and choosing how to live. The Japanese title, Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, translates roughly as “How Do You Live?” and references a 1937 novel, although the film is not a direct adaptation. Mahito is voiced in Japanese by Soma Santoki.