Howl's Moving Castle (film)

Howl’s moving castle is such a classic that I think someone has to watch it once in a lifetime. This is also one of the most intriguing works from Studio Ghibli that its theme is quite apparent. While this is an animation, the idea that war is bad and it only creates misery for those who are not indirectly involved is there. It’s almost difficult to find faults in this animation, at least personally it was moving, intriguing and definitely piqued my interest about Hayao Miyazaki even more.

The story starts with introducing the character Sophie, a young hatter who works at a hat shop. On the way to visit her sister, she met Howl, a 20 something wizard who was on the run from the witch of waste. Howl’s was also flirting with Shopie and eventually Sophie was a target for the witch of waste and was turned into an old lady. Once youthful and beautiful, Sophie now is an old lady because of the curse of the witch of waste. She then traveled to the countryside to find Howl’s and met with another cursed scarecrow who showed her the way to meet Howl’s. Eventually, Sophie meets with the fire demon and a young looking boy Markl. While eventually working for Howl’s, she traveled around with them and Howl’s story was slowly revealed and it was later on revealed the cause of the war and that though the war stopped, there would be more reason for more wars to wage.

In my opinion, this animation was one of the hardest for me to express.I don’t think anything I write would make a lot more sense as there are plenty of layers of this animation. There’s friendship, love, war, politics all into one animation. It’s one of those animations where its message is quite hidden and it’s up to you how to interpret it. But most importantly, It’s the animation that is quite striking to me.The details that were put into it, the music and the overall aesthetic that makes this animation distinct from the other and also makes you aware that it’s Hayao Miyazaki’s work. It’s also one of my top animations and earned 8 out of 10 in my rating.