"The boy and the heron" is quite removed from the original title, 君たちはどう生きるか, which would be "How do you live?" (plural you)
or
How do we live?
One certainty is that it references a Japanese book also entitled "How Do You Live?" that would likely be unknown outside of Japan.
However, I was wondering if it was also an issue of connotation. The question, "How do you live?" can have a rather negative connotation in US English. It carries an accusatory connotation, as if the asker has a negative view of the subject's life or conduct and wants to know how the subject can bear to live or act in such a way.
But I suspect that in Japanese, it may be a more literal and connotation-free question?
I just saw the film last Sunday. The title "How do you live" has hardly any strong connection to the contents of the film. The film doesn't pose that question to the audience. The film doesn't much seem to explore the theme. (A little? Maybe, but not to the extent one would expect from the title.) The titular book by Yoshino Genzaburo (whose plot has no overt resemblance to the movie's plot) appears on the screen briefly, and one could guess that it'll prove a "Chekhov's gun" kind of an item, but this trope is entirely averted.
I think that it is only through a "meta" lense that sees the film as an autobiographical work, with a Miyazaki self-insert as two different characters (Mahito and the great uncle), that the title starts to make sense. It is Miyazaki's attempt to _answer_ the question – in the scope and perspective of his own life and work.
I doubt that this perspective would be readily available for an American viewer. They are unlikely to know the book and they are unlikely to be aware what kind of a person Miyazaki is, what is his connection to Ghibli, his movies and to his son Goro, something a Japanese viewer is much more likely to be aware through various interviews, documentaries and news coverage. Miyazaki has called this movie his "testament" to his grandson, and this certainly makes you consider these things.
If anything, the title "How do you live" would be misleading and disappointing to an American viewer. It makes the film sound more philosophical than what they are going to walk away with.
She also gave me a little insight into the word 神隠し which, apparently comes from a saying. When children used to go missing, people used to say that "God snatched them away", which is why the first kanji 神 is 'god'.
Her translation of the title was "God snatched sen & chihiro away" which of course isn't a literal translation, but I thought it was interesting
Americans in particular are likely to be put off by something that sounds like it's questioning their life decisions.
I think this 'good vibes only' aspect of US society is a side-effect of the country being only a few hundred years old and never having dealt with any real existential catastrophe. 9/11 is probably the closest thing to one the US has undergone, and I don't think the country has handled it that well.
Edit: I considered the Civil War, but internal strife is simply not the same as an external/natural disaster that overtakes the whole country.
Im also curious what existential threat in say the UK shapes peoples world views today? And more specifically How it crushes optimism?
I didn't say anything about 'crushing optimism.' Good vibes only is a contemporary American idiom that essentially says 'don't bother me with any negative opinions.' This can be a mild desire to socialize with chilled out people, or breezy way of indicating you don't give a shit about other people.
I think you're right. In English there's already the phrase "How can you live with yourself?!".
The name for the Western release is from the original book the movie is based on, so it's not inappropriate.