Review of The Boy and the Heron
I (Ariel) watched The Boy and the Heron, the new Studio Ghibli film, with friends a week ago. When asked about solarpunk stories or aesthetics, people often cite Studio Ghibli films as proto-solarpunk, or solarpunk-adjacent, or inspirational to current solarpunk values. So when I had the chance to see The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki's (purportedly) last film, I was watching it with a small part of my brain taking notes from that angle.
And while the film is a fantasy, I don't think it's solarpunk. Or, not in the traditionally overt way that we've come to expect from Studio Ghibli films But I do think that, at its base, it holds values that are very solarpunk-adjacent. Let me explain.
The review is free to read over on our Patreon; I’d really like you to go take a look!