Natsuko (夏子) is a character in the film The Boy and the Heron. She's the second wife of Shoichi Maki and the younger sister of his late first wife, Hisako, not only making her Mahito's stepmother but also his aunt. Natsuko's also pregnant with Shoichi's child for most of her appearance in The Boy and the Heron.
Personality[]
A kind and patient person, Natsuko clearly cares a lot for her new husband as well her nephew (now her stepson), especially since the latter is one of the few things she has to remember her older sister by. Mahito, while polite and respectful, initially has a hard time accepting Natsuko as his "new mom" and, for most of the movie, keeps his distance from her (emotionally-speaking).
While not shown as much as it is with Mahito, Natsuko clearly seems to miss her older sister (Mahito's biological mother) and seems to have really looked up to her. For example, when Mahito comes to check on her after she's become bedridden with morning sickness (due to her pregnancy), Natsuko looks at the scar from Mahito's (self-inflicted) injury he got while at his new school and seems to feel she's failing her sister by failing to look out for Mahito. And when Natsuko and Mahito are reunited during the escape from the world by Granduncle, Natsuko and Hisako (in her form as Lady Himi) seem happy to see each for the first time in a long time.
Physical Appearance[]
When Shoichi and Mahito meet up with Natsuko at the train station after they've left Tokyo to move to the rural countryside estate that she and Hisako had grown up at, Mahito's quick to notice how Natsuko looks exactly like his late mother. And when we see the Grey Heron's illusion of Mahito's mother in her adult form, we see that Hisako does in fact look pretty much identical to Natsuko, with the only real difference between them their being their hair colors (Hisako had black hair while Natsuko has brown hair).
By extension, this also means that Natsuko looks a lot like Mahito -- as noted by the maids at the estate that Hisako and Natsuko grew up at, when they meet Mahito after he finally moves in once he and his father have left Tokyo, they express amazement at just how much Mahito looks like Hisako.
Biography[]
We first see Natsuko meeting up with her husband and nephew (now her stepson), being driven in a rikshaw to the train station that Shoichi and Mahito have just come out of. Natsuko and Mahito take the rikshaw to the estate together while Shoichi has to go to his factory because of his work obligation but promises to be home in time for dinner.
Despite initially keeping his new stepmother at arm's length (emotionally speaking), Mahito does grow to care for Natsuko a lot over the course of the movie, even going into the world created by his Great-Granduncle after he sees Natsuko head off into the forest to rescue her and bring her back to their original world -- it's while they're in the world created by Hisako and Natsuko's Granduncle that Mahito finally accepts Natsuko as his "new mom," to the point of actually calling her "mother" (instead of calling her by her first name or "Aunt Natsuko").
Trivia[]
- At the very end of the movie, when the family's packing things up to move back to Tokyo, it's revealed that her baby with Shoichi ended up being a boy.