At times a whimsical adventure, The Boy and the Heron is fundamentally about dealing with grief, trauma, and human agency. While retaining some of the same tropes we've come to love and expect from a Ghibli film, stylistically and thematically this beautifully crafted Hayao Miyazaki swan song therefore feels distinctly more melancholic than any of his previous work (elevated further by Joe Hisaishi's haunting soundtrack)