Howl's Moving Castle - an Underrated Masterpiece

Agree with you this is the ghiblis best movie

"underrated" it is quite literally the most popular miyazaki movie other than spirited away and MAYBE totoro

Well done

Howl's Moving Castle i think its his best film 🥰 and one of top 3 for me is Porco Rosso too it's so underrated.

I absolutely loved Howl's moving castle. There's just something about its ambience and the amazing visuals.

Howls moving castle isn’t about the iraq war. It’s anti war for sure but nothing about it is specifically referencing the iraq war. It’s about two countries going to war because a prince went missing

Howl's Moving Castle has been my favorite movie before, and I'm sure it will be again. Even now, I want to watch it again. And for all the video essays I watch, this is one of very few I come back to watch again. So thank you for this masterpiece on a masterpiece. <3

Thank you, I’m crying

Once in a while I come to see this video, it makes me really happy I don't know why

My favorite movie is the Lego movie because it is funny and I like it thank you

I think my many and complicated feelings about this movie will always boil down to one thing: It's beautiful. But it's not at all what I wanted.

I had trouble with this movie, and honestly, with this video, because I love the book by Diana Wynne Jones so fiercely. I grew up with it. I've reread and listened through it more than maybe any other book. And I know the book could never have been turned into a movie and remain exactly the same-- that's just not how adaptations work, and besides, it's a wildly convoluted story. Even trying to summarize it well is difficult since it usually has at least three relevant plotlines going at any given time, and I think people really only begin to understand all the pieces after the second or third time through it. It's a wild ride.

So I really do understand the need to simplify the plot and thereby lose some of the subtle characterization the subplots provide. That's what I wanted, I think-- the characters closely pulled from the page, going through the most vital plot of the book, illustrated in Ghibli's incredible style. That was never going to happen, because that's not how Miyazaki makes movies, but it's still what I wanted.

In the end, what the movie ends up as, for this hardcore fan of the book, is a lovely but utterly dissimilar uncanny valley. People have the same names, but they're not the people I love. Some of the same plot points happen, but their context is so wildly different that they mean entirely different things. It feels like coming home to find strangers in your living room, strangers who somehow know the house better than you do. Utter bewilderment. And if other people know about Howl's Moving Castle, they almost always mean the movie-- it's indescribably bittersweet, to know that we love something of the same name with entirely different hearts and souls.

I'm absolutely not saying the film is bad, that the characters are bad, that anyone's love of the movie is unjustified. It's a fascinating thing all of its own, just something that I resent sometimes for overshadowing something else that I love. I feel the movie loses so much by excluding Sophie's sisters as rounded characters, and the rich, quirky cast of more minor secondary characters who populate the world and lend it such color. But some of the changes are really fun and interesting, particularly the Witch of the Waste's arc, and how much it shows us about Sophie's capacity for forgiveness. And I adore the visuals of the scene where Calcifer is moved and the Castle rearranges itself into another building entirely, even if it doesn't deliver as strongly on the surrealness of that building being Sophie's childhood home. And so this rant concludes where it began:

This movie is beautiful. But it's not what I wanted.


A huge thank you to another who has made it all the way through that! Have a cookie! 🍪

If you wouldn't mind sharing, why do you love the movie? Why do you love the book? And I'd particularly like to hear from anyone who's managed to do the near impossible and separate them fully enough to wholeheartedly love them both as different things. I wanted to be able to do that, and I'm just really not there yet. Maybe someday :)

Here, so close to 2024, this is still so relevant. Howl's Moving Castle was the first Studio Ghibli film I ever watched, and I first watched it back in 2020 during the 3 months I lived with my best friend, his now spouse (as oflast month), and one of my queerplatonic partners in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment after not being able to handle my home situation anymore and needing to get out. Everyone told me it was a decision I would regret, but I still think it was probably the best decision I have made in my entire life, and I dearly miss my time there. For the firsttime ever, I lived in a healthy household with healthy, supportive, and accepting relationships, and I was able to freely explore my newfound queer identity as well as my identity and spirituality as a whole. It really was a major turning point for me in my growth as a person. I remember this movie came because my best friend was telling us how my dynamic with my girlfriend reminded him of the dynamic between Howl and Sophie, with me being Sophie and her being Howl. When we both said we'd never seen a Studio Ghibli film before, he insisted we needed to watch it after dinner. So, we pulled a matrice out into the tiny living room after dinner, and all 4 of us settled down together to watch the movie, my best friend and his now spouce clearly very excited to share it with us. The movie was amazing, and we all excitedly shared our thoughts and goofed off together after the movie. That night, we all decided to sleep on the mattress in the livingroom together. It was like a sleepover even though we had been living together for a bit by then. When I eventually did have to move back in with my parents, I often went back to that film for comfort.

In the time since then, a lot has changed, and I've been able to mend my relationship with my mother. My father is the cook in the house, and I've been trying to learn how to cook, so, when he went out of town, I would cook dinner those nights with my mother. Afterwards, we would eat dinner together. One night, I convinced her to watch Howl's Moving Castle with me while we ate. As I suspected she would, she loved the movie, and said it was like falling in love for the first time again. Oddly, I had previously considered the romantic themes of the movie an afterthought and focused more on the other themes of the movie, likely because I'm aromantic. Irregardless, this pattern of cooking dinner together then watching a Studio Ghibli film together as we ate on nights my father was out of town persisted, and I think it really played a significant role in helping us to mend our relationship.

So, even outside of this movie just being amazing, I hold very fond memories around it. And, honestly, with all the anti-trans bs going around, I wish those in charge would just suddenly grow morals out of the blue and give us back our rights and junk. I just want to transition in peace so maybe I can stop being miserable. I swear.

This video is incredibly relevent due to recent events, and it's one of the most beautifully written transcripts I've ever listened to.

Thank you so much for putting my thoughts into words i could reflect and brood on.

This is truly a masterpiece just as howl's moving castle was a masterpiece

I like your funny words, magic man.

Studio Ghibli, that's it.

So high the masterpiece editing made me force my friend watch this whole thing. He doesn’t even smoke weed

Beautiful and ever prescient, have watched 3 times over the years and this work always gets me in my feels. Thankyou!

just here to say how amazing this video is...loved it

I rarely do this but I always comeback to this video for no specific reason. I watch a lot of video essays, but this one is just different. Idk what about it is but I like it… it helps me sleep Lol anyways sleep now lalala

My answer right now is When Marnie was There. I've seen almost every Ghibli movie and right now, it's my favorite. Please watch it if you see this.

This was amazing, thank you

The end of this review has only gotten more real the past few years… Thank you for saying exactly what I needed to hear…

I love it :)

I find it poetic that this video is about the realization of love, more or less, and this video (other than the one prior to it,) is a realization of Breadsword's love for the creation of these videos. It took me 3 years to realize this, but it's something that warms my heart so much more.

Underrated? Literally one of Studio Ghiblis most known anime.

discovering your channel today, this one is something else, love it

I’m here today..

Wow, this was awesome to watch! Keep up the good work! 🔥

I watched this movie yesterday, for about the millionth time I've watched it since I was about 7, and I still found things I hadn't noticed before.

He worked on the 1969 moomin series, not the 90's series.

I know this is one of your older videos but when I’m sad, I like to binge your content and cry because, you have a way reflecting the pain I feel, so my favorite movie is your channel, thanks breadsword

huh I am gonna be honest
choosing my favorite movie is hard, but I THINK my favorite one isn't even a movie, but a series.
I'd say Arcane. It's absolutely one of the best pieces of art I've ever seen.

Proof that no matter how well you write something, you can't make diamonds from coal. This film persists as a failure in storytelling.

This is my favorite video right now

Amazing video, a bit cringe with your soft sad delivery, but hey, thanks.

Underrated?? by who exactly?

wow this is one of the best videos i have ever watched

this dude sounds like the worst dub ever

I would appreciate it if you would stop making me cry every time I watch your videos.

You almost bring me to tears. Thank you so much ❤

How is it underrated? I thought everyone agrees that this is a masterpiece?…

I’m not about to cry…❤️‍🔥

The beginning is the first time I've heard someone else mention Milo and Otis! We used to have it on DVD and it was my sister's favorite movie; we watched it over and over, I haven't seen it in years now.

Blown away by your video. I'm relatively new to anime and manga. Cannot wait to watch this movie!