Howl’s Moving Castle: A Steam Punk Fantasy

Hello everybody! Sorry I have been inconsistent the last two weeks, I just haven’t had time to hash out some reviews. Anyway, welcome to MIRAC (Media In Review Anime Club) this week I watched Howl’s Moving Castle.

HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE

GENRE: Fantasy

DIRECTOR: Hayao Miyazaki

WRITER: Hayao Miyazaki

YEAR:  2004

COUNTRY: Japan

Alright, so I was talking to my new roommates about suggestions to watch for MIRAC. While going over the initial popular series, I mentioned that I had never seen Howl’s Moving Castle. After initial criticism, they sat me down and made me watch it. I was honestly kind of disappointed. Better not start tearing me apart just yet, let me explain.

For those who have never seen Howl’s Moving Castle, it is a steampunk/fantasy film about a young girl and her getting mixed up in a magical war between warring kingdoms. This girl works as a simple hatter for her mother, but on a trip to see her sister she meets Howl, a wizard who saves her from thugs. After she meets Howl she is cursed by the Witch of the Wastes to become and old woman. She visits the Wastes to find the witch to reverse the spell, but is hired on by Howl’s fire demon as a cleaning lady unbeknownst to Howl. She then proceeds to fall in love with Howl, resulting in a little bit of romantic shit.

There were many things I liked about Howl’s Moving Castle. I really liked the main characters, particularly Sophie, Howl, and Calcifer. Sophie’s “confrontation” with the “Witch of the Wastes” is absolutely hilarious. Elderly vs Obesity, who can climb stairs faster? It made me laugh a lot. Calcifer and Howl have a great relationship between each other, especially since they can’t necessarily live without each other.

While I really enjoyed the characters of Howl’s Moving Castle, I was overall quite disappointed. Sulliman (The main mage for the kingdom) is made to be one of the antagonists of the film and I don’t think she was much of a threat. She was powerful, don’t get me wrong, I just felt that Howl could take her. Another aspect that I didn’t enjoy was that Howl was powerful enough to guard them long enough for the war to end by itself. Howl had no obligation towards either side of the war.

Overall, I was quite disappointed in Howl’s Moving Castle.

PROS:

• Enjoyable Characters
• Analysis of Relationships
• Beautiful Animation

CONS:

• Disappointing plot.
• Steampunk/Fantasy

SCORE: 6.5 / 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UibodUGoL4M

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